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Good morning from your Farmers,
Contents:
1. Interesting Egg Article
2. Your Farmer's Perspective on Hoseman's Recent Article
3. Product Availability Update
Interesting Egg Article– the price and availability of eggs is a hot topic as well as a solution.
Industry and regulators (maybe also include media) would have you believe it is because of bird flu. But, is it bird flu OR some other agenda?
Beth received a link to an article from Farm Action out of Mexico, MO who have sent a letter to the FTC and DOJ urging them to investigate and take action to restore competition and lower eggs prices. Key facts Farm Action quoted are:
Key Pricing Facts:
- The wholesale price of Grade-A, Large, White, Shell Eggs surged from around $0.50–$1.30 per dozen in 2021 to $6.00–$8.00 per dozen today.
- Cal-Maine Foods, which controls 20% of the egg market, increased its gross profits by 237% between FY21 and FY24. Between FY21 and FY23, their gross profits shot up by 646%.
- Cal-Maine has made more in a single quarter than they made in an entire year prior to the 2022 avian flu outbreak.
Key Production Facts:
- In a month-to-month comparison to 2021, the egg-laying flock was, on average, only 3.82% smaller in each month of 2022, 3.16% smaller in each month of 2023, and 5.18% smaller in each month of 2024.
- Cal-Maine egg production has remained stable at approximately 1.1 billion dozen eggs sold annually from 2021 to 2024.
- Production of eggs in the U.S. has not dipped below per capita consumption of eggs in any year between 2021 and the present.
You can read the full article at this link.
Your Farmer’s Perspective on Hoseman’s Recent Article-
Where there is no vision, the people perish – Proverbs 29:18
Mississippi URGENTLY needs a new paradigm…. The old one has failed!!!
February 9, 2025, Delbert Hoseman issued an Opinion column titled “Addressing Mississippi’s agriculture crisis: A call to action for our state” - that was included in many state newspapers. This link is from Yahoo News because you can actually read the opinion without subscribing.
Last year you may remember he issued an opinion stating that Mississippi is at a critical labor junction where only 52% of our citizens work to earn a paycheck. I agree; however, I fully disagree with his solutions – government regulations and policies are the real reason for this.
I totally agree that agriculture is important for our State. However, I Totally disagree with the solutions.
The first red flag is the folks they are listening to- “Last week, the Mississippi Senate Agriculture Committee came together to dig into the issues hearing from experts at Mississippi State University, Pinion Global, Delta Council and the Mississippi Farm Bureau.”
The second red flag- “I, and the Senate Agriculture Committee, led by Sens. Neil Whaley and Andy Berry, are committed to driving state government to assist farmers and allow them to keep feeding and clothing the world.”
So, a few thoughts from your farmer's perspective.
First, their only solution is increased subsidies to prop up bad farming practices – doing the same old ways and hoping the federal government will send enough money to keep them whole. We need to think differently for three reasons: Environmental- There is tons of evidence that chemicals used along the Mississippi River are responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Economic- Two big points here are: Mississippi does not raise enough food to feed our population so why are we focused on feeding the world. In 2016, MS imported $8.5 billion in food for our population. That is enough money to support 34,000 small farms with an annual income of $250,000… an average of 415 farms per county! $8.5 billion would go a long way to revitalizing our rural state economy and put those folks back to work North Carolina – A state with a robust small farm economy and whose number of square miles is very close to the same as MS has an annual agriculture value approximately 12 times that of Mississippi’s $7 billion. That is a difference of $77 billion more. That would be braggin rights… just saying Sustainable - all they talk about is the higher input cost of seeds, fertilizer, fuel, etc. and the lower cost of soybeans, corn, cotton, etc. Frankly, most of those crops are not grown for food to feed families!
I think of two examples of very large row crop farmers who exited the downward spiral of chemical inputs. The first is in Indiana where he farms 10,000 acres. The second is in Australia that farms thousands of hectares (I forget the exact number). Both farms focus on processes that improve soil health and fertility using compost. Neither farm sprays chemicals.
GET BIG OR GET OUT IS A FAILURE!!!
A few closing thoughts- Hoseman’s article was targeted to Delta farmers. It would be interesting to know how many of the farmers/landowners are actual Mississippi residents. Bill Gates owns more than 16,963 acres in MS. Those who live out of state ship in materials, equipment, etc., hire local labor, and ship the harvest back home (at least the money from the harvest). So, what does MS really gain? The money does not originate local or stay local. Maybe that is why the Delta is so depressed.
I saw Hoseman’s article about the same time a Machinery Pete YouTube came up on my pad regarding a recent auction in Hollandale, MS. Marvin Cochran was retiring and selling his equipment (maybe land too) which included at least five (5) John Deere 8R tractors (huge) 4-wheel drive with dual wheels front & back auctioned for $265,000 each.
Sometimes I feel like I should apologize to my customers for my farmer activism, but most of our customers know the issues and that current government does not offer solutions to feed their families. Many would say the need is URGENT!
What do YOU say?
** Product Availability Update **
NOTE: Restocks are made about 6 PM on the dates indicated below!
Chicken - Restocked February 26th. Next Restock will be March 12th
Turkey - It will be mid 2025 before the next restock.
Eggs - Restock each (NOW) TUESDAY PRIOR to YOUR
delivery date. PLEASE NOTE- Due to current market situation with eggs we have implemented a $4 surcharge per dozen for meat orders that are less than $100
Beef - Restocked February 21st. Next Restock will be March 21st.
Pork – Patty Sausage restocked Feb. 26th
Lamb - Restocked October 8th
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