Comment by dleary | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dleary | Hacker News Reader

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It's simple supply and demand. You can't lose 100M out of the total 310M chickens in the USA and not have economic shocks.

Were you unaware of the bird flu outbreak killing 1/3 of the chickens in the US? This information is easily available to anyone who types "why are the prices of eggs so high?" into your search engine of choice.

"Normal people" can be forgiven for not investigating and fact-checking every statement that they run across. That is exhausting. But people who call themselves "journalists" really cannot be forgiven for spreading lies and disinformation about something that is so easily verifiable.

If you are intentionally muddying the waters or spreading disinformation, well then, shame on you.

But it's much more likely that you have been deceived by the systems that you trust to deliver you information.

Ask yourself, what motives exist for them to deceive you?

Why would they talk so much about how the price of eggs has skyrocketed, without even addressing this obvious explanation?

Even if they don't agree with this reporting, isn't it strange that they don't bring it up, even if it's just to talk about why this widely-reported explanation is itself misinformation?

How much contempt must they hold for you, that they think they can treat you this way?

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"Nearly 1 million chickens infected with bird flu in Minnesota to be killed, per USDA"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/08/chicke...

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"The largest fresh egg producer in the U.S. has found bird flu in chickens at a Texas plant. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said that approximately 1.6 million laying hens were destroyed after the infection was found at a facility in Parmer County, Texas."

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/largest-fresh-e...

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"Overall, 92.34 million birds have been killed since the outbreak began in 2022, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department."

"Crews are in the process of killing 4.2 million chickens after the disease was found at a farm in Sioux County, Iowa"

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/farmers-must-kill-42m-c...

Egg producers weren't impacted by the avian flu. They just saw speculation and increased prices. Supply and demand Bros miss the most important thing: justifiable profit seeking.

Can we vax chickens?

Have you ever had to deal with an autistic chicken?

> If you are intentionally muddying the waters or spreading disinformation, well then, shame on you.

Shame on you then.

From Nov 2023

"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/08/chicke..."

From April 2024

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/largest-fresh-e...

From May 2024

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/farmers-must-kill-42m-c...

I'm well aware of the prices increases over the summer. But in october, I noticed the price drop to the $2 range. And then all of a sudden, the price increased to $4 the past week. Which would have NOTHING to do with your links.

I may be mistaken, but your wall of text describes you. Are you a journalist, or a laid off journalist, by any chance?

> I'm well aware of the prices increases over the summer. But in october, I noticed the price drop to the $2 range. And then all of a sudden, the price increased to $4 the past week. Which would have NOTHING to do with your links.

It's hard to guess what your argument is when you haven't plainly stated it.

With the statements you have made, it sounds like you're accepting the links that I posted as truthful, but that they don't matter because they are "old".

On that basis, it sounds like your position is:

========

These links show that this bird flu epidemic, unprecedented in history, continued to grow from 50M in late 2023, to 100M in mid 2024. At which point the epidemic had been steadily growing for 18 months. That's why prices increased over the summer.

And then we instantly fixed the problem. And now there is no way that the death of 30% of the US flock could have price ramifications 5 months later.

========

Now, this sounds ridiculous to me, and so I apologize if I have set up a strawman. I can't imagine anyone actually believing this, but I also can't see a different interpretation of what you have said.

By the way, here's another link, this one from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/data-map-comm...

The May 2024 link I posted above had the total poultry deaths at 92M. It is unclear whether that 92M figure included the 4.2M chickens that needed to be killed in Iowa. I rounded the figure up to 100M. I apologize if you viewed this as deceitful.

The CDC link states that as of 11/8/2024, the poultry death count had now reached 105M. So, another 13M deaths (another 14.1% increase in total death count) since that May 2024 figure.

You didn't need to restrict yourself to only the links I posted. I chose links that were easily digestible, with the info up front in the headlines. The CDC page requires a bit of reading to get to the figures.

You could have done the web search I recommended and found these other links...

You also say:

> It's third world shenanigans.

But "third world shenanigans" covers a lot of territory, so I'm not sure what you mean. Usually "third world shenanigans" means that the administration of whatever country is being talked about is corruptly benefitting from those shenanigans in some fashion.

But I don't see how that applies here as well. What shenanigans are occurring, and who is benefitting from them?

It would really help if you would plainly state your positions.

> I may be mistaken, but your wall of text describes you. Are you a journalist, or a laid off journalist, by any chance?

Yes, you are very mistaken. But who I am doesn't matter, unless you are making an ad-hominem argument.

Can you elaborate on your positions without ad-hominem or name calling?

> It's hard to guess what your argument is when you haven't plainly stated it.

No. It's not. Unless you are not acting in good faith.

> but that they don't matter because they are "old".

It's not that it is "old". But as I said, egg prices have come down recently in the past month. Before spiking again. Your articles can be possibly account for the egg prices rising in the spring or the summer, but it doesn't explain why prices came down in the fall... and then spiking up again.

> So, another 13M deaths (another 14.1% increase in total death count) since that May 2024 figure.

And yet the prices came down in the fall. Go figure.

> You could have done the web search I recommended and found these other links...

It's not my job to do your work.

> Yes, you are very mistaken.

Well you are obviously invested in it for some reason. So you are obviously "something".

> It would really help if you would plainly state your positions.

Are you for real? You write like a political activist.

> unless you are making an ad-hominem argument.

Once again, projecting. "If you are intentionally muddying the waters or spreading disinformation, well then, shame on you."

Wall of text after wall of text. Incredible. Have a nice day.

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