The Price of Eggs

My friends in upstate New York have been selling eggs to friends and neighbors for $2/dozen, and they were amazed to hear that organic eggs at Seattle farmers' markets usually sell for $5-$6/ dozen. Not only is the price nearly three times higher here, but demand exceeds supply, especially this time of year. Folks who are intent on buying eggs get to the markets early and line up to make sure they get some, and egg vendors often run out as soon as the market opens. Bob, from Stonybrook Farm, lives in the same part of upstate New York as my friends, and has been selling his eggs through a local farm for $4.50 a dozen, but he only sells 5 dozen a week at that price.

Why is there such a dramatic discrepancy between what people will pay in Seattle and what they'll pay in upstate New York? The obvious answer is that people here are more affluent and while there's certainly some truth to that, it's starting to feel too easy to me to reduce people's purchasing choices to a simple equation involving prices and available cash.

Our purchasing behavior is far from logical, especially when it comes to food. There have been countless well-intentioned articles lately about how to eat cheaply on a budget, but it's problematic to tell anyone how to eat because our food choices are so individual and so emotional. Leslie, from the Green Fork Blog, was chastised by a reader last week for suggesting that folks could save money by cooking for themselves rather than eating out or using convenience foods. The angry reader pointed out that you're more likely to burn your food if you cook for yourself, which will cause you to waste food, which doesn't save you any money.

Good food naturally costs more, while many people can't even afford the unsustainably low price of industrial food. At the same time, not everyone spends their food dollars wisely, and advertisers working for large food conglomerates are all too savvy at pushing those buttons that encourage us to reach for all the wrong impulse items. Basic food also tends to cost more in neighborhoods where folks are least able to afford it, the so-called urban food deserts.

My family buys farmers' market eggs when we can get them. There are 3 of us, and it takes us two to three weeks to go through a dozen eggs. We eat them for breakfast on weekend mornings, and we hardly ever bake. I'd rather eat fewer expensive eggs than more cheap, industrial eggs. It's not my place to tell anyone how or what to eat, but I do think that we have the knowledge and resources for more people to eat better food, if we individually and collectively made some better choices.