Hey Ship, So I've Just Found Out That My Aunt, In A Huge Streak Of Protectiveness, Has Apparently Been...

So, reports of an unprecedented egg “shortage” are exaggerated. Nonetheless, egg prices — and egg company profits — have gone through the roof. Cal-Maine Foods — the largest egg producer and the only one that publishes its financial data as a publicly traded company — has been making more money than ever. It’s annual gross profits in the past three years have floated between 3 and 6 times what it used to earn before the avian flu epidemic started — breaking $1 billion for the first time in the company’s history. All of this extra profit is coming from higher selling prices, which have been earning Cal-Maine unprecedented 50-170 percent margins over farm production costs per dozen. Taking Cal-Maine as the “bellwether” for the industry’s largest firms — as people in the egg business do — we can be pretty confident that the other large egg producers are also raking in profits off the relatively small dip in egg production.

High persistent profits are an anomaly for the industry. Historically, egg producers have responded to avian flu epidemics—and the temporary rise in egg prices that often accompanies them—by quickly rebuilding and expanding their flocks of egg-laying hens. “Fowl plagues”—as these epidemics used to be called—have been with us since at least the 19th century. Most recently, large-scale avian flu epidemics hit egg farms in 2015 and 1983-1984. The egg industry responded to both of these destructive events by sprinting to rebuild and expand the egg-laying hen flock — something which checked price increases and ultimately made sure prices went back to pre-epidemic levels within a reasonable time.

As Cal-Maine Foods explained in its 2007 Annual Report: “In the past, during periods of high profitability, shell egg producers have tended to increase the number of layers in production with a resulting increase in the supply of shell eggs, which generally has caused a drop in shell egg prices until supply and demand return to balance.”

This time around, however, that’s not happening. Despite high profits, the egg industry has somehow maintained a stubborn deficit in egg production capacity. Hatcheries — the firms that supply hens to egg producers — have throttled the pipeline of hens instead of expanding it. According to the Egg Industry Center, the size of the flock of “parent” hens — the hens used by hatcheries to produce layer chicks for egg producers — plummeted from 3.1 million hens in 2021, to 2.9 million in 2022, to 2.5 million hens in 2023 and 2024.

Meanwhile, hatcheries have been hatching significantly fewer parent chicks to replace aging ones — nearly 380,000 (or 12 percent) fewer in 2022 compared to the year before, and even fewer parent chicks in 2023 and 2024 — leaving the parent flock older and more likely to produce eggs that fail to hatch. That could explain why, although hatcheries reported producing 125-200 million more fertilized eggs to the USDA in each of the last three years compared to 2021, the number of eggs they’ve placed in incubators and the number of chicks they’ve hatched from those eggs has either declined or stayed basically steady with 2021 levels in every year since.

As for egg producers themselves, you may be surprised to learn that they have added between 5 and 20 million fewer pullets to their farms in every one of the last three years than they did in 2021. As the USDA observed with some astonishment at the end of 2022, “producers—despite the record-high wholesale price [of eggs]—are taking a cautious approach to expanding production[.]” The following month, it pared down its table-egg production forecast for the entirety of 2023 on account of “the industry’s [persisting] cautious approach to expanding production.”

In other words, the only thing that the egg industry seems to have expanded in response to the avian flu epidemic is windfall profits — which have likely amounted to more than $15 billion since the epidemic began (judging by the increase in the value of annual egg production since 2022), and appear to have been spent primarily on stock buybacks, dividends, and acquisitions of rivals instead of rebuilding and expanding flocks. When an industry starts profiting more from *not* producing than from producing, it’s a sign that something isn’t right. It could be an innocent bottleneck. But when it lasts for three years on end with no relief in sight, it's usually a sign of something else that’s pervasive in America — monopolization.

As the coming installments in this series will detail, the fundamental problem in the egg supply chain today is the simple fact that every industry involved in turning an egg into a chicken and turning a chicken into an egg—from the breeders and hatcheries that create the hens to the producers who use the hens to make eggs—has been hijacked by one or two financier-backed corporations, with the incentives flipped from competing entities seeking to produce more eggs to an oligopoly trying to restrain the production of eggs.

On one end of the egg supply chain, you have two companies who control chicken genetics, the billionaire-owned Erich Wesjohann Group and the private-equity-backed Hendrix Genetics. Headquartered a short car trip apart in Cuxhaven, Germany, and Boxmeer, Netherlands, these private firms have systematically gained control over the supply of egg-laying hens to American producers over the past two decades by buying out or suppressing rivals and challengers. Today, no egg producer in this country can expand the number of hens in its flock — or even replace the hens it already has when they age out or die — without the cooperation of this duopoly. And, since the value of hens rises with the price of the eggs, when the price of eggs is high these two barons have a clear interest in keeping the supply of pullets to producers on a tight leash — so the high prices stick.

On the other end of the egg supply chain, you have the largest egg producer in the country and the world, Cal-Maine Foods.

Matt Stoller from his monopolisation/cartel report; something that has clicked recently is the way that business seeks to maximise profit margin over volume, which often leads to reducing production, brittle supply chains, high prices, and ultimately shortages.

in principle this isn't supposed to happen under capitalism, because someone earning high profit margins should be outcompeted by new entrants willing to earn slightly lower profit margins, until (in the perfect frictionless market) the rate of profit should be whittled down to the rate of risk free return (government interest rates?) plus epsilon (a little bit).

obviously this does happen in reality for a number of reasons, and the Problem of Profits is a fun question to dig into, but the problem of persistently high profits is a more concerning issue and appears to be growing across multiple industries.

antitrust law is supposed to prevent market concentration that leads to this outcome but has been toothless since the '90s, allowing dramatic consolidation across dozens of old industries (groceries, agriculture, pharmacies, television, newspapers) and of course new industries (tech giants).

government regulation often ends up favouring incumbents, but it seems that contractual arrangements between suppliers and industry bodies and buying agents to form tight cartels are a bigger problem: if egg prices are high you might think to start an egg farm, but you need to find someone who will sell you chickens and someone who will buy your eggs, when the industry is using every means at their disposal to cut off market access to new entrants.

and of course if you have access to the gargantuan amount of capital required to attempt a serious challenge to an established cartel, why exactly would you want to start a price war with them when you can instead find some other unprotected industry to buy up and establish a cartel of your own?

capitalism seems to have entered a phase of its development equivalent to WWI, where defensive operations by incumbents are more successful than offense by new ventures, keeping the battle lines frozen in place (presumably the soldiers dying in their millions would be workers and consumers in this analogy).

but imagine if we had tiny little dragons

the size of puppies

and they would go wherever we went sitting on our shoulders and hissing at everyone who tried to touch you because you’re their most special thing in the universe and they are so tiny it’s ridiculously cute

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief resource list masterpost

So I just found https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/resources/ And it is AMAZING.

I could share it as a link but many of you won’t click it and realize the abundance of things behind it that might be relevant to you right now. So Instead I’m gonna copy-paste the lot so you can all share in its glory. No part of this list was my work, I take no credit, I’m just the copy-paster.

The hotlines and specific services are US centric. If people wanna add less US-centric sources, please do.

Disaster Response

A Window Propped Open A Window Propped Open Issue 2: Lessons Learned Organizing After Hurricane Harvey A Love Letter to the Future Mutual Fire Brigade Basic Rescue Skills Trauma and Therapeutic Art: Information for Children, Families and Volunteers Transition is Inevitable; Justice is Not: A Critical Framework for Just Recovery Staying Above Water: Global Migration in the Face of the Climate Crisis Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Navigating Trauma Citizen’s Guide for Readiness for Climate Extremes in the Desert Southwest Inhabit: Instructions for Autonomy Solidarity for Survival: A Graphic Illustration The Resilience We Want – A Guide to Making Your Community Space into a Hub for Resilience and Mutual Aid When We Got Handed Gatorade We Danced in the Street: A Survivor’s Survival Guide Prisoners in Disaster: The Legacy of Abuse, Exploitation and Endangerment of Prisoners in Disaster A People’s Framework for Disaster Response: Rewriting the Rules of Recovery after Climate Disasters

Disaster Disability Hotline

The Partnership For Inclusive Disaster Strategy’s Disaster Disability Hotline provides information, referrals, guidance, technical assistance and resources to people with disabilities, their families, allies, organizations assisting disaster impacted individuals with disabilities and others seeking assistance with immediate and urgent disaster-related needs.

The Disaster Hotline is always available for intake calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at (800) 626-4959 and info@disasterstrategies.org. They will have their knowledgeable team respond to your call as soon as possible, often immediately, and intend to respond to all callers within 24 hours.

Safety and DIY Cleanup

Repairing Your Flooded Home  EPA Flood Cleanup Booklet DIY Field Guide For Clean-up Of Flooded Homes Safety Notice For Unskilled Or Nontrade Volunteers House Gutting Manual  Muckout Safety Guidelines Toxic Chemicals and Staying Safe Mold Cleaning and Prevention Mold Cleaning and Prevention (Spanish) Black Mold Flyer

Wellness/Community Care

An Activists Guide to Basic First Aid Peer Counseling and Active Listening Alternatives to EMS Home Remedies for Common Maladies Traveling Companions  Information on Heat and Related Illnesses  Hypothermia Responding to Critical Incident Stress Class Struggle and Mental Health Zine Madness and Oppression Guide A Call for Prefigurative Mental Health Support and Communal Care for Radical Orgs

Emergency Prescription Assistance Program

The Emergency Prescription Assistance Program, or EPAP, was created to help people in a disaster who don’t have health insurance so they have access to: prescription medicine, medical equipment, medical supplies, and vaccinations. Hotline: 1-855-793-7470.

Trauma and Burnout

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Navigating Trauma Trauma_Overview Preventing Burnout Understanding and Coping with Traumatic Stress Understanding and Addressing Vicarious Trauma Grounding and Centering for Activists Rising Up Without Burning Out Sustainable Activism and Avoiding Burnout Psychological First Aid Activist Trauma and Recovery Trauma and Therapeutic Art: Information for Children, Families and Volunteers Community Trauma Toolkit Coping With_Climate_Change_Distress

Disaster Distress Helpline

The Disaster Distress Helpline, 1-800-985-5990, is a 24/7, 365-day-a–year, national hotline dedicated to providing immediate crisis counseling for people who are experiencing emotional distress related to any natural or human-caused disaster. This toll-free, multilingual, and confidential crisis support service is available to all residents in the United States and its territories. Stress, anxiety, and other depression-like symptoms are common reactions after a disaster.

Call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.

Legal/Security

Security Culture – A Handbook For Activists  Ruckus Security Culture For Activists Know Your Rights: Immigration and Disaster Relief Council on American Islamic Relations Know Your Rights Guide National Lawyers Guild Know Your Rights Guide Why Misogynists Make Great Informants

Disaster Legal Hotlines

Legal Aid of North Carolina: 1 866 219 5262 Florida Legal Services’ Disaster Recovery: 888 780 0443 State Bar of Texas Disaster Hotline: 800 504 7030 California Disaster Legal Services For More Legal Aid Disaster Hotlines go to: American Bar Association

Anti Oppression

Accomplices Not Allies Why Misogynists Make Great Informants Who Is Oakland: Anti Oppression Activism, The Politics of Safety, and State Co-optation Anti-Oppression Reader With Allies Like These  Challenging Capitalism And Patriarchy  Confronting Classism  Contextualizing Katrina and Confronting Racism  Guidelines For Being A Strong White Ally  Overcoming Discrimination  Patterns of Patriarchy Commonly Observed within Social Justice Movements  Readings on Racism and Resistance for Solidarity Activists  Ten Things To Remember – AntiRacist Strategies For White Student Radicals  The Revolution Starts At Home – Confronting Partner Abuse In Radical Communities Towards A Perspective On Unlearning Racism

Kitchen and Food Handling

Food Safety First Manual

Popular Education and Direct Action

You Have Skills: Evaluating What Skills You Can Bring to Radical Organizing From Banks and Tanks to Cooperation and Caring Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns  Handbook For Direct Action Affinity Groups  Affinity Groups 2 On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict  Participating In Direct Actions -A Guide For Transgender People  Planning An Action Rising Tide Climate Change Popular Education Ruckus Action Planning Manual  Ruckus Action Strategy Guide Ruckus Scouting Manual For Activists Social Change Vision Questions Core Curriculum – A Guide To Effective Nonviolent Struggle What Do We Mean by Mutual Aid? Metodo de Trabajo y Organizacion Popular Manual de Planificación Para Organizaciones Sociales

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

No More Deaths – Compost Toilet User Guide Sanitizing Water (Spanish) – Saneamiento del agua (español)

Also for even more resources, check out this Mutual Aid Toolbox from Big Door Brigade and these How To guides from Shareable.

The Resurgence of Waffle Gardens Is Helping Indigenous Farmers Grow Food with Less Water

In the face of climate change and persistent droughts, a growing number of people from Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and elsewhere are adopting the traditional farming practice.

For the past 64 years, Jim Enote has planted a waffle garden, sunken garden beds enclosed by clay-heavy walls that he learned to build from his grandmother. This year, he planted onions and chiles, which he waters from a nearby stream. It’s an Indigenous farming tradition suited for the semi-arid, high-altitude desert of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, where waffle gardens have long flourished and Enote has farmed since childhood.

“They are the inverse of raised beds, and for an area where it is more arid, they’re actually very efficient at conserving water,” said Enote, who leads the Colorado Plateau Foundation to protect Indigenous land, traditions, and water. Each interior cell of the waffle covers about a square foot of land, just below ground-level, and the raised, mounded earthen walls are designed to help keep moisture in the soil.

Similar sunken beds for growing food with less water have been used globally in arid regions, arising independently by Indigenous farmers, including across distinct Pueblo tribes in the Southwest. “When you have ecological equivalents you often have cultural equivalents,” said Enote. As climate change deepens, he sees this tradition as one of many ways to adapt while building food security and sovereignty.

if you, like me, get so angry when discussing or debating current issues with ignorant/bigoted people that you can’t articulate your thoughts, here is a list of arguments i’ve seen so far defending darren wilson or going against the ferguson protests, with suggestions as to how to counter and links to helpful posts to support your argument:

1. “It’s not a race issue!”

Actual KKK waving a Confederate flag as they walk the streets of Ferguson, celebrating.

Darren Wilson might even be affiliated with the KKK

White Man waves a gun at children in a park, is taken into custody alive

More examples of double standards in favor of white people: James Eagan Holmes, various other (unnamed but fairly well-known) cases

2. “The officer feared for his life. It was self defense.”

Pictures of Darren Wilson’s oh-so-life-threatening injuries + full-body shot

Darren Wilson says he would do it again

Darren Wilson is 6’4” and 215lbs (needs source), in a vehicle with a loaded weapon. Mike Brown was an unarmed teenager walking down the street.

(Speculative) He got married while on leave, possibly so his wife wouldn’t have to testify if she knew something.

Wilson did not complete an incident report, which is a violation of protocol

Article about why Darren Wilson shooting Mike Brown was illegal no matter how you look at it

3. “Michael Brown stole from a convenience store. He was a thug and a thief.”

Statement from the store owner saying that no one called the police and nothing was taken

This is disputable and the time stamps on the video don’t sync up with the story.

The cigarettes he allegedly stole were paid for and there’s proof

Remind them that even if Mike Brown had done some petty shoplifting, that’s no reason for him to be shot six times in the middle of a street.

4. “The jury saw all the evidence, they know better.”/Something about insufficient/unreliable evidence.

“It’s Incredibly Rare For A Grand Jury To Do What Ferguson’s Just Did” + only .0004% of grand juries fail to indict

All 4 eyewitness accounts of the murder in chronological order

Every piece of evidence in the case against officer wilson

Prosecutor supported Wilson, and other problems with the case

Remind them that even “people get charged with manslaughter when someone dies in a car accident” and Darren Wilson wasn’t even charged that

The National Bar Association and its president know the jury’s decision was bullshit

5. “The riots and protests are out of hand and unnecessary. It’s just an excuse to be violent and steal things.”

Video of protesters getting shot with (I think) flare bombs and tear gas by police. (warning: flashing lights and loud sounds)

Video of protesters quietly sitting down

Video of protesters peacefully but firmly chanting outside the supreme court

Video of the National Guard arriving with automatic weapons

Crips and Blood gang members preventing looters at the riots (from the first riots back in august)

Community working together to clean up the aftermath of the riots

6. “You can’t fight violence with violence, what would Martin Luther King say?”

“It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots…..” -MLK

Remind them that as pro-peaceful protests as MLK was, he still got shot in the head.

If after all this, they’re still arguing in defense of Darren Wilson or the jury, just give up because there’s no way you can change the mind of such a complete fucking bigot.

Some masterposts I used that also have more information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

If there’s anything I should add or fix, please let me know

People who don’t want to read The Martian in case the science is too complicated should be informed that it contains the lines “The best way to store the ingredients of water is to make them be water”, “It is of course dangerous to set off an explosive device on a spacecraft”, and “If I cut a hole in the wall of the hab, the air won’t stay inside any more”.

Resources for Male Survivors

I posted last week asking people if they knew of some good resources for male victims of sexual assault. Here is the list people came up with:

www.malesurvivor.org

www.violenceunsilenced.com

www.rainn.org

www.pandys.org

www.1in6.org

www.soulspeakout.org

Thanks everyone!

(I saw this and thought that it would help with the heat wave since a lot of people don’t have AC)

Heat Wave Peppermint Spray (AC in a Bottle)

10g peppermint essential oil 10g menthol essential oil Equal volume of solubilizer

200mL aloe vera juice

Weigh the essential oils out into an empty spray bottle, and top off with an equal amount of solubilizer. Swirl to combine. Add a small amount of aloe vera juice and shake gently to combine. Add the rest of the aloe vera, shake gently to combine.

To use, spritz on bare skin. If you cover your torso and your limbs, you will likely end up with goosebumps! I find this keeps me quite cool/cold for upwards of 20 minutes.

If you don’t want to use the solubilizer you can leave it out and just shake thoroughly before each use. That means the mixture will not emulsify at all and you’ll likely have troubles getting it to spritz evenly.

well ain’t this some fuckshit

Just heard about the mess that YA author Maggie Tokuda-Hall has been dealing with. tl;dr, Her publisher offered her the chance to be part of an initiative that would’ve put her work in a lot more stores and libraries. It’s an initiative specifically aimed at amplifying Asian voices… but only if she removed the word “racism” from her author’s note. On a book about the Japanese internment.

I am very glad she rejected this offer, and I 100% agree with her that this is pure cowardice. I’m appalled at Scholastic – or any other publisher who’s doing this but whose authors can’t take the risk of speaking out. This is the kind of crap that marginalized writers have to deal with all the time – and it is also how fascism takes root:  “just business” decisions that perpetuate injustice, systematic erasure of targeted groups from their own damn stories, institutions choosing to do what’s easy over what’s right.

(I have been very fortunate to never have a publisher do this to me. Plenty of disrespectful bs from institutions and individuals within the industry, but never from the people who signed my checks. I’m also somewhat insulated from the book ban bullshit because my work is genre and isn’t aimed at kids – though that’s coming, of course. Fascists don’t stop until they are stopped.)

Anyway. Pop over to Maggie’s blog to read the full story – or better yet hop on a retail site and buy her books. It’s up to readers now to support marginalized authors, since it’s clear nobody else will.