I first started thinking about chickens when I stood in the aisle of a major grocery store in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, staring at rows of empty shelves that were usually filled with eggs. I tried another store, and then another – and similar empty shelves and old signs of "only two boxes per customer" greeted me. A friend texted me a picture of a store that had restocked their egg shelves with alcohol instead. "Out of eggs till tomorrow," the handwritten sign read – but customers could purchase sparkling wine at $3.99 (£3) a bottle instead.
There's an egg shortage in the US, and living in a city as large as Los Angeles, we felt it hard. Prices for eggs have risen dramatically, with a dozen eggs in California costing an average of $9.48 (£7.31). The USDA reported that egg prices are predicted to increase by 41.1% this year. Egg prices have risen in the UK too, though not as dramatically.
The shortage has been caused by an outbreak of bird flu, which has ravaged poultry farms across the country. Now the public is feeling the economic impacts – so much so that the US Justice Department has reportedly opened an investigation to find out whether egg producers have held back egg supplies to hike up prices, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Amidst all the egg chaos, I remembered an article I'd read years ago about a Belgian village that had given out free chickens to its residents. It was primarily an experiment to reduce food waste, but the bonus was a fresh supply of eggs, as well as bonding between the villagers as they swapped chicken raising stories and looked after each other's birds when families went on holiday. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment