[danem]

So you're suggesting there's some other viable model of egg production that would deliver eggs at 2021 prices? People want cheap eggs. Saying, "well if we just adopted a decentralized, more resource intensive model we wouldn't have problems with bird flu" doesn't address that concern.

[acdha]

People want lots of things to be cheap but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable. Here in the mid-Atlantic we’ve seen the same thing others mention: the local, non-factory farms prices haven’t changed in years but the supermarket stuff went from being cheaper to more expensive.

The theory that optimizing for the lowest price might other negative effects isn’t exactly novel: we’ve seen that in many other areas, and if you’ve ever been anywhere near a factory farm it’s enough to put you off of eating eggs.

[sethammons]

I think it was Food, Inc, a documentary from a number of years ago. Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms talks about factory farming and Salatin often argues that industrial farming is not necessarily more cost-effective and that his method is both profitable and environmentally sustainable.