Eggs US – Price – Chart

Yes. Vital Farm eggs. Been $8 a dozen for a long time. No change in price.

What we're seeing are the consequences of factory farming and not treating animals like the living beings they are.

I've been paying almost $11 for them.

Big city "tax"? Whole Foods and the local co-op out in WNY are both $8 a dozen.

Wow! That's crazy. Here in the UK, the most expensive eggs in my local supermarket - which are Clarence Court Burdord Brown eggs - are only the equivalent of $5.08 per dozen. Those are the posh, expensive, eggs that only those with a bit of extra cash in their pocket, and a desire to eat more healthily, would buy.

My city has 30k people, although we are part of a larger metro. Store brand eggs are $9.50/dozen. Alternatively Costco is still selling 60 packs for $20, although they have had per customer limits recently and don't alway have stock. Works out to $4 per dozen. But thats a lot of eggs.

I love how British eggs have deep, amber yolks. Are they force-feeding the hens Earl Grey?

I'm in a major metro area and Vital Farms eggs are still $7.99 from Kroger.

So hens don't usually have to be force-fed. Some of that color can come from having a diverse source of proteins--like the bugs and insects that pasture-raised hens get access to--but farmers "in the know" will also add paprika and marigold to the usual soy-and-grain supplemental feed, to try to encourage it to come out a bit more.

A few years back I briefly thought that a rich yolk color was a quality signal, until I found that additives could produce that color cheaply. The color comes from dietary carotenoids [1]. Companies like BASF sell carotenoid feed additives that producers can employ to get a yolk color as rich as desired:

https://nutrition.basf.com/global/en/animal-nutrition/our-pr...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenoid

yep. been a long time coming. it's unfortunate that when it favors them this is a talking point for the maga folks... but when it hurts them they are nowhere to be found.

a lot of farmers feed them marigold and other color enhancers to try and boost the color - because it is also a sign of the hen having a good diet

Food additive manufacturers sell farmers aditives to produce yolks with specific hues[1]. There are regional/cultural variations in color preferences, so regional farmers will target different sades.

[1] https://www.dsm-firmenich.com/anh/products-and-services/prod...

Good you can still buy them. All vita farms are oos even $13/dozen ones in my local whole foods.

Here is Australia I like the most expensive eggs you can buy, 150 birds per hectare, 800g, $15 a dozen. https://www.hilltopsfreerange.com/

something about metrics becomes a target it fails to be a good metric springs to mind.

I wouldn't be surprised if you were correct in your belief and that this became a case of Goodhart's Law when implemented in the egg industry.

Once we fed goose with carrot waste - the fat and skin was more orange than yellow!

It's slightly disingenuous to call carotenoids "additives". Although it might technically be true, carotenoids are naturally present in tons of vegetables (hence carrots) and are a good antioxidant with other known health benefits.