New York
CNN
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It’s a second many patrons grapple with in some unspecified time in the future throughout a grocery run: Why does a carton of brown eggs value greater than a carton of white eggs?
It’s not what you may suppose. It’s not about one sort being more healthy, or extra pure or fancier than the opposite however actually in regards to the nitty-gritty of farm economics. It prices extra to maintain the brown egg-laying hen joyful and effectively fed.
“Mainly, there is no such thing as a distinction between a brown egg and a white egg nutritionally. It has to do with the breed of the hen,” defined Daniel Brey, proprietor of Brey’s Egg Farm, a fourth-generation household egg farm in Jeffersonville, New York. The farm produces greater than 200,000 white eggs a day.
Some breeds similar to White Leghorn chickens lay eggs with white shells whereas different breeds similar to Rhode Island Reds lay eggs with brown shells. In line with Brey, the fee and style of the egg you purchase – white or brown – is decided by what – and the way a lot – is fed to the hen.
“It has lots to do with the hen feed,” Brey mentioned. “It prices extra to make a dozen brown eggs as a result of the chickens that produce them are likely to eat extra.”
Edmund McNamara and his spouse, Rose, run Sova Farms in Norwich, NY, about 200 miles north of New York Metropolis’s Central Park. Sova Farms, he mentioned, is natural licensed by america Division of Agriculture for its brown eggs and its hen, pork and lamb.
The farm at present produces about 350 brown eggs every day however expects to bump that as much as over 1,000 brown eggs a day after receiving a supply of greater than 700 pullets (or younger hens) on this month.
“All our eggs are brown however each as soon as in an incredible whereas a hen will lay a really gentle brown,” he mentioned, including that the eggs are bought on to shoppers in New York’s Westchester County.
In shops, brown eggs have a tendency to hold a premium – even when it’s simply due to their shade anomaly.
“Eggs are available many colours, not simply white and brown. Relying upon the breed, some are even blue and inexperienced,” mentioned Joan Frank, assistant program director, dietetics, with the College of California, David Division of Vitamin. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a distinction in dietary worth of eggs primarily based on the colour of the shell, she mentioned.
“I believe shoppers for some cause have come to imagine that brown eggs are more healthy, which they don’t seem to be,” Frank mentioned.
Sova Farms is at present promoting a dozen massive brown eggs for $8. Retailer costs for natural pastured brown eggs could be as excessive as $10 for a dozen, whereas the worth of typical brown eggs is between $4.50 to $6 in most shops.
A dozen white eggs is about $2.50 in shops, in line with the most recent weekly authorities information, up from $1.50 a dozen from a yr in the past.
But McNamara, too, mentioned “there may be actually no dietary distinction between white and brown eggs.”
Phil Lempert, a grocery business analyst and editor of SuperMarketGuru.com estimated how way more customers usually pay for brown eggs versus their white counterpart. “If there’s brown eggs subsequent to white eggs, usually you’re going to pay anyplace between 10% to twenty% extra for brown eggs, no matter free vary or natural,” he mentioned.
David Anderson, professor of agricultural economics (with a specialty in livestock economics) at Texas A&M College, has studied egg pricing and elements that have an effect on it on farms and within the grocery store.
Egg costs, whatever the shade of the shell, usually reply to swings in demand, he mentioned. “You will have short-term seasonal occasions similar to Easter. We at all times see vacation demand for eggs. Within the fall, we additionally see demand improve for eggs for holiday-related actions similar to baking,” Anderson mentioned.
Thrown into the combination are different influences on egg costs similar to the price of hen feed. “Feed prices have been falling That is serving to egg producers. We had a file massive crop final yr within the US and we’ve a lot decrease corn and soybean meal costs proper now, he mentioned.
On the flip aspect, the most recent outbreak of Bird Flu may preserve egg costs elevated versus final yr. If egg producers aren’t in a position to meet demand as a result of they’ve needed to cull their hen inhabitants attributable to fowl flu, then that may elevate costs.
Wanting particularly on the economics of manufacturing brown eggs versus typical white eggs, Anderson confirmed it does certainly value extra to supply the brown selection. “If it prices extra to supply they’ll most likely be priced greater to the patron.”
However as to the “notion” that brown eggs are more healthy than white eggs?
“It’s nearly like, what comes first, the hen or the egg?” Anderson mentioned. “Did the businesses promote that first or did it come from shoppers who suppose that brown eggs simply should be more healthy?”