Eggs, Lies, And Eggy BS

The makings of a classical "supply shortage" are here in this article.

If you read it and think "oh those poor supermarkets, those poor egg farmers" then you're the exact customer that they want. Here's a quick recap of the article:

Oh dear, we don't know how it happened but the demand for eggs is outstripping supply, it'd be a pity if we started people hoarding eggs the way they did with pasta and toilet paper! And it's all due to eggs being one of the cheaper sources of protein available now that all prices are rising and so we'd better justify raising prices on eggs, too. Oh why oh why do our customers want so much protein anyway? 

UPDATE: I noticed that commercials exhorting customers to use eggs and more eggs and more eggs,  which leads me to wonder if they're serious about any "consistent customer experience" other than the distinct sensation of being conned, bent over, and shafted soundly...

Well, that's a paraphrase but anyway - have a read and then my incisive take on the situation... 😺😹

The Panic Button

Here's a section from the article, interspersed with observations:

Australian Eggs managing director . . . said there was “clearly a gap between egg supply and demand at present, but this seems to be mainly demand driven”.

If the same number or more are being produced and people aren't buying more then this demand MUST be manufactured. (Cue warehouse with eggs. Like they do with meat and fruit and vegetables.)

“Australia’s population is growing, and . . .  people are looking to more affordable proteins to get food on the table,” he said.

So - the MD is complicit. He wants you to believe that the entire egg production industry suddenly forgot to take population growth into account, after decades of it being a common factor they've always considered. They want to make the "more affordable proteins," less affordable. - For you and me, not them. 

“This is contributing to stronger demand for eggs than anticipated and the industry will have to play catch up to fill the gap.”

"Catch up?" As I just said, if population increase demand had been properly taken care of (and I believe - despite voicing a suspicion in my last paragraph - that in all likelihood it + WAS) then either supermarkets have figured out a way to drive customers into and egg-hoarding toilet-paper-storing frenzy - or - the more simple answer - they've been stockpiling eggs to create demand. (Cue warehouse with eggs. Like they do with meat and fruit and vegetables.)

According to Australian Eggs, a member-owned non-profit that provides marketing and research and development for Australian egg farmers, supply hasn’t faltered, with an average of 18.5 million eggs produced each day and 6.5 billion a year.

And while I hate to cast aspersions on these Stewards of Scrambled, Soft-boiled, Scotched, Sandwich, and Sunny-side-up spheroids, it's also been known for these Stalwarts to Sometimes Sneakily Stash in order to drive up prices. (Cue warehouse with eggs. Like they do with meat and fruit and vegetables.)

“There might be a bit of competition for eggs, but we are a long way from the COVID scenario,” Mr McMonnies said.

“Even patchy shelves have eggs on them, and consumers that need eggs will be able to get them.”

Okay that sounds like a cue to start stampedes. Ignore them, just buy what you need when you need. And if you so desperately need that protein - cook with dried chickpeas and beans occasionally, they're not bad, and add a lot of other nutrients to your diet as well. Meanwhile back to The BS Castle: 

Supermarkets point to increased costs in production and poor weather as a reason for recent egg shortages, despite an increase in supply in recent months after a difficult 18 months for the industry.

"Despite an increase in supply" ???????? How many question marks do I have to put after that to make it stand out like dog doings in an egg carton? If there's "increased supply" then what? - they're blaming greedy shoppers? ("Oh not you, Sir or Madam. YOU are our valued customer. But you know those other ones, the ones in poverty and hunger. Their cheapness and greed know no bounds.")

A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket was continuing to monitor supply and was working hard with suppliers to improve availability for customers.

No. No they're not. The previous paragraph from the article makes it clear that it's time to "Cue warehouse with eggs. Like they do with meat and fruit and vegetables." Not ALL the shrinkage of egg stocks is down to those greedy hungry slimebags that are just trying to cheap out on their protein supplies. (In fact, the supermarkets' shameless price gouging has put those people into the bracket where they can't afford meat protein any more.) Nope - but expect to be buying shitty eggs that have been carefully managed from room temperature to the PRECISE temperature at which eggs can be stored for years, and then stored for years to be sold when a new price shift happens. 

What reasons could they have to do all that? 

I'm talking about things like this: The supermarket giants' spokespersons have said in the past that they have enough frozen meat in their warehouses to allow them to supply demand for up to thirty years. Yep, you heard that right, meat can be safely stored for decades if your food scientists have done their research and know the PRECISE temperature at which meat will store forever, know the PRECISE length of time to spend in gradually reducing the temperature of that meat until it hits optimum temperature, and if you can keep the variations of temperature to less than a degree or two, then Farmer Brown's old Bessie can become practically immortal.

The same goes for a LOT MORE produce than you may think. And now you might remember a story that came up around a decade ago about a few tons of mystery meat in China that had been moved between coolrooms and freezers - for over thirty years!!! - and that was still being added to many food products before the authorities finally destroyed it when they discovered it. And you might think "Why the hell does my supermarket want to do something so seemingly shonky?"

And so I can tell you why they do it. For instance, in 1900, prime rump steak was around sixpence a pound. I can't recall where I spotted that little factoid but it seems about right, and would mean that a kilo at the time would have cost you around about a shilling. A shilling from 1900 would be the equivalent of $4.50 - $5.00 today. But a kilo of of prime rump is now about $22/kg. 

In 1901 terms, it's as if that kilo of meat had gone up by a factor of almost five times. And I'm being a bit conservative with estimating inflation, which has accelerated much faster in the latter half of the last hundred years. So now it can be explained:

Supermarket buys 100 tons of rump steak in 1990 at $350 a ton, and can sell it at about $700 a ton at 1990 prices. But if they "permafreeze" half of it back then and were to sell it now, they'll get $1,200 a ton for it. And if they can also create an artificial stampede for it, $2,000 a ton. Those are attractive margins. 

How do I know they'd actually do this?

Because we're talking about supermarkets that will sell you an apple that's been meticulously coolroom warehoused for several years without mentioning how long it's been in storage. That buy just the milk solids of ten kilolitres of milk from the dairy farmer, then store five kilolitres and water the rest down to ten kilolitres of "fresh milk." 

Nope - No eggs anywhere!

And yes - they make no secret of this, saying they do things like that to provide a "consistent quality of product for the consumer" - without mentioning that they're also magically doubling their income along the way AND keeping stocks of freeze-dried milk solids as a backup so that when the dairy farmers get too uppity on price they can just drop their contracts for a year or two and keep supplying milk but now with an apparently justified price increment "due to those greedy farmers" as well... 

Do you understand this? Things like computer chips age out - not because they degrade but because progress overtakes them and so they date pretty quickly. New chips and components come along that are smaller and faster and draw less power and provide more functions, and the warehouse full of last year's top mobile phone processor chips? Well, best luck trying to move them this year with the new teraflop gigacore processors selling for the same price or cheaper.

Meat, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and flour. sugar, and salt on the other hand are pretty much immortal when preserved in cool rooms and microcontrolled freezers. And so, supermarkets must be finding that building freezing facilities and storage facilities pays for itself otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. And their profits are our costs...

Your Takeaway:

Don't believe the hype. Don't stockpile eggs. There's only so far that the supermarkets can push a shorting of eggs, and if people don't pay their inflated prices, they'll be stuck with egg. In stores, in warehouses, and on their faces (one hopes) - so share this post, share it share it share it and the more people see it the fewer gullible victims there'll be to be ripped off.

Share This Article Share This Article Share This Article !!!

BTW: 

Here's a little list of ways you can have eggs: 

• Scrambled eggs
• Sunny-side up
• Soufflé
• Shakshuka
• Scotch eggs
• Spanish omelette
• Strata
• Shirred eggs
• Soft-boiled eggs
• Spaghetti carbonara
• Scotch egg roll
• Sausage and egg casserole
• Scotch egg pie
• Sambal telur (Indonesian dish)
• Scrambled egg sandwich
• Scrambled egg burrito
• Scrambled egg wrap
• Scrambled egg muffin
• Smoked salmon eggs Benedict
• Spinach and feta omelette
• Spinach and mushroom frittata
• Spanish tortilla
• Scrambled egg tacos
• Scotch egg curry
• Scotch egg salad
• Shrimp and egg fried rice
• Smoked salmon scramble
• Spinach and cheese strata
• Spanish-style baked eggs
• Spinach and goat cheese omelette

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I'm Not A Fascist, But

 

... would we even recognise it for what it is, these days? 

I like Eco's thinking, and have followed it through the Rose, the Pendulum, and Numero and have sort of nibbled at the other four books and I'm aware he has some 20-30 nonfiction works at least, (Actually, here's a biblio of Eco.) I remember reading The Name Of The Rose after whetting my appetite with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (And here are his books) had my interest all piqued, and my father suggested I might like to read a "better class of fiction" as he called it. It was, I found and read Foucault's Pendulum and then started opportunistically picking up Eco books in libraries whenever I lived near one.

Now there's a piece on OpenCulture about Eco's experiences with fascism and I've extracted the fourteen features of fascism according to Eco:

1. The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
2. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
3. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
4. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
5. Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
6. Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
7. The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
8. The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
10. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
12. Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
13. Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

This abridged list (available in full at The New York Review of Books) comes to us from Kottke, by way of blogger Paul Bausch, who writes “we have a strong history of opposing authoritarianism. I’d like to believe that opposition is like an immune system response that kicks in.” -- 

https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html 

And the article is right - we've satirised Fascism so much in the last decades that it's no longer clear what Fascism is - so how can we even guard against it? It's a hot button topic for me, not because I have a history of bad experiences with Fascism but because I (and you and a large chunk of the world) are dealing with Fascist governments and treatment right now. Pick any of the 14 points above and then compare it with your government and politicians - and then get ready for that cold shiver . . .

Because no one of those points comes into our lives alone, but seeing just one of them should be enough to get your Spidey senses tingling. VERY tingly. Not a single one of those listed signs is good for society, for wellbeing, or for peaceful living. 

Tradition.
I can't even count how often right wing politicians bring out tradition as a reason for a particular action, a certain Law they want passed, or as a defence against some imagined evil about to pounce and destroy society. Their idea of a society, at any rate. Ironically enough, our RW party is opposing the indigenous population's having a voice in Parliament to allow their traditions to continue. "It's a disaster! We'll all be back to living in caves and throwing boomerangs if they have their way!" seems to be about as good as it gets.

BTW I've made and thrown boomerangs after listening to and practising with my indigenous schoolmates way back last century, I know how to fend for myself if I have to - and I then spent a good life getting into technology, electronics, communications, IT, newspaper publishing, community radio, and everything I'm doing nowadays. And I can still make a spear or boomerang and probably use it... 

But of course OUR tradition is far more traditional than any tradition THEY could have. Mum, beer, and meat pies, mate - 'Straya was founded on those!

Rejection of Modernism
Oh wow have I ever landed on the wrong side of the Fascists there, hey? I live for tech and tech solutions. I think science on the whole makes life much much better, I think people are coping better with the technology to manage their lives and environments, and - eventually - figure out how to manage their lives with it.

"If only we could go back to the good old days!" is their plaint, but take away: the guns and the medicine - oh and the safe water and food, the housing that wasn't freezing and damp in winter and hot and filled with wildlife in summer - and you'll have a riot on your hands.

Interestingly enough this is also A Thing with some non-Fascist people now too - I'm working on an article about AI, GPT, AGI, the Arts, and the future of work in general. Because this new advance is the work of the devil. Or Fascists. No not those Fascists, these fascists. No, not like that. Nazis. Or something.

But let's have mining and factories and land clearing because we want to have money to buy the latest technology. But then let's not get that latest technology - because who knows where that'll end? Look at how destructive disastrous and polluting mining and power generation are - this new tech stuff may end up being wayyyyy woooorrrrse! Augh!

Action, Not Thinking
This is pretty self-evident. And stupid. If we'd thought more about (for the sake of being current, let's use the example of) AI, and GPT in particular before acting to make money off it hand over fist but before we've even thought about how that was going to affect us, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation where no-one really knows anything, no-one knows what's next, and no-one thought about consequences.

But the same applied to DNA, GM, encryption, surveillance, and a host of other technologies where the most Left-wing of inventors and scientists started getting dollar signs in their eyes and said "you know what? Fuck it, we'll make a few bucks and then a few more cleaning up the mess!" and with that they slipped silently across the Divide... 

It's the Geeks/Jocks situation, just with more grown-up names . 

The next two are related -
Disagreement is treason, especially when it's
Us and Them and They're different. 
This is what every cult, every religion, and every ruling class has relied on, it's us and our way or them and treason, where do you stand? Boomerangs or submarines? Come on, you have to decide if we keep you or kill you!

And that's the other aspect of Fascism - there's really no "us" or "them." Everyone else is a "them." In the end I'll kill everyone in town, then in my church group, then my family - before they get me. Because that's another aspect of Fascismo - it's very insecure and afraid. 

Social Frustration
Why do some of the girls prefer smart geeks to me? I'm a great physical specimen, I can (or already have) father lots of kids and not sick around for any of them - hey! - I'm a gift to the planet's gene pool! Whaddya mean what's the square root of nine? Are you having a shot at me, other person? One a these days, mate. I promise ya a knuckle sammich. 

Also, I am a goddamn bonafide HERO. That's what it means to be a Fascists RW guy. So that includes the Everybody is educated to become a hero part of the signs, too.

And it also explains the obsession with a plot part.
Life's tough, it's way tougher if you're stupid. Therefore, it's hard to work out if someone's on your side or not - better to assume that everyone including your family might just be against you. Including you, other person... I got my eye on you...

The enemy is both strong and weak.
And you never know just how good the other person is. You ridicule them for being weak but at the same time if you're bullying them then they're a "worthy and skillful opponent" so that you can't be seen as a bully. 

Don't ever give an inch, stay strong!
The next plank. You can't make peace, you just have to keep on punchin' on. That's the next thing. Don't stop being against that other, because if you stop, you might have to talk, and if you talk, there's a chance that this clever and powerful enemy will gain the upper hand over you or at least point out to you how stupid and pitiful you actually are. And yeah - they'd totally do that, totally. They're other, ya know?

Of course, at the same time as drumming up protection against that enemy that's both to be pitied and yet is stronger than you are and might bully you if you let them, don't ever cut any slack for the weaker people in your camp. Contempt for the weak. But not us - no, we're not weak, just that the other might be stronger than us and they'd surely show us no mercy so we need to weed out the weeds. Hehehe - geddit? Geddit? 

Machismo and weaponry.
Yes, Fascism seems also to be ideally suited to males. Funny thing that, seeing as how males have since almost forever been the ones that take charge and denigrate and depersonalise all others. Yes there've been matriarchal societies but we're not living in a time like that. Also - weapons are the only real way to generate money and progress in other technologies, and money is important in the current time because we haven't yet managed to get back to intrinsic values yet. 

Selective populism. 
Vox pops are a fairly recent thing (TV as a concept has only been around for a century and a half, and has only had wide reach for maybe the last sixty or seventy years) and purport to represent the Vox Populi but through exerting control over the media you can control just which vox pops hit the airwaves. As has been demonstrated over and over, how you present a scene affects how the audience perceives it, so you have in effect an always-on propaganda publishing facility. 

Ur-Fascist Newspeak. 
And with this, that explains commercials and news and most sitcoms and soaps perfectly does it not? "This is how WE live, this is what we consider NORMAL, and this is how we expect YOU to behave too. Or become the other."

That's a wrap?

I don't know. There's such a lot tied up in this - it's how our governments keep acting even as they condemn Fascists in other countries - and that right there should already be a warning sign flashing on the page. (Oh how I miss the blink attribute...😹)

The thing with AI, AGI, GPT, Art, Work.

We don't learn. A few smart people realise there's an issue and try to raise awareness, but it gets swallowed up in opposing propaganda. Then when it's obvious there are gonna be some changes due to the new issue, everyone loses their minds, but by then the genie's out the bottle the cat's out the bag and the horse has bolted. 

So now the thing with AI, AGI, GPT, Art, and Work.

People who weren't in the know on the progress being made in AI (which includes almost everyone except the people doing AI and a few diehard geeks) can't have foreseen the schemozzle that it's causing. And some of the people involved probably had good intentions and high morals. But it only takes a firing, or a very aggressive boss pulling you aside and laying down the law, to make things spin out of control. 

Those of us watching it happen - I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally found it to be a Good Thing. But I'm an idealist, a peace-mongering hippie, and I tend to believe that people are smart enough to manage. 

Help Me Manage

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Two Government Wins

 Two By Two from RenewEconomy  today. RenewEconomy (all links will be in the blog article for the "PTEC3D On Air" podcast listeners) has a real focus on renewables and sustainable and I do recommend subscribing to their newsletter.

(No - I'm not affiliated/associated in any way with them, I'm giving an unsolicited testimonial.)

The first two articles of theirs are to do with the two sides of a coin: setting an emissions target, and then curbing the fossil fuel's dying snarling grabbing attempts to stay alive - by gouging their customers. 

Who'll Think Of The Poor Corporations ?

I'm glad to say that I predicted this a long time ago (I'll have a link if I can ever find any of those posts) that the fossil fuel industries would experience starvation just like any other animal, and snap and bite at everything they can reach - and in this case it's their customers - in an effort to prolong their life.

And it stands to reason, right? The Fossil Fue Cartel (FFC) as I call them, is a corporation. Check out definition 2. - a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person ... in other words, the "corp" refers to "a single body" but for the purposes of the law they treat the corporation as a human individual not just a body. Pity. They should have treated it as a predatory wild animal...

No-one (I think?) has analysed corporations as having biological behaviours. (Actually, I'm wrong. There's at least this handy dandy guide for corporations analysed this way. So we do have a precedent.) But we all know that a wild animal is most dangerous when it's dying, and the FFC is no exception.

And it's important, as your government is setting decarbonisation targets, emissions targets, etc; To email your politicians and make then aware of what the predictable reactions from the FFC are going to be. 

Notice that as EVs are gaining in popularity, the FFC has already raised fuel prices far above what could reasonably be expected. It's not going to get better because they are losing their bottom line, and if they can't sell as much fuel in the future, they need to fill their bellies now. 

Also note that we're all moving towards reducing the use of "virgin" plastic, that is, plastic produced from fossil fuel feedstock. Also please note that plastic is a FOREVER kind of material, like glass and aluminium - and note that we have highly efficient ways to recycle those and so save using virgin materials as much. Of course plastic is eminently recyclable, and of course that is not what the FFC wants because this is the second-most-lucrative market for their product. 

So these sorts of shenanigans are to be expected, and we need to prime our politicians to look out for US and not the FFC...

Now To Energy And Ducks

Western Australia is a thinly-spread but sizeable population, and to their credit, their power transmission system has always struck me as being quite well-maintained. In most States, the energy companies charge "service" fees that they then don't use to service their power grid, and they have power outages regularly. In WA, there seemed to always be crews out working on the system grid, and so outages were fewer than here in Victoria. 

But also the State lagged behind in renewable/sustainable energy, and relied on a lot of gas turbine plants to tame the "Duck Curve" as it's called. Check out Wikipedia's Duck Curve article. As I haven't been in WA for over a decade, I can't comment to their uptake of wind and solar energy generation but I imagine it'd be quite substantial as we have sun and wind aplenty there. 

Their first grid battery is slowly going online and for all I know may already be in full production by now. It's also worth noting that each time we buy a battery system, it breaks previous records both locally and often internationally as well. 

Australians also (I think?) broke records for speed of mobile phone adoption and distribution, quickly realising the advantages of this means of communication over the wired phone system, and we're also behind a lot of the technology we've been buying back in the products we import. We're so good at innovating and so bad at capitalising on our innovations...

Help Me With My Innovation

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