Egg Producers Sued for Price Inflation

By Robin Wheeler Thu., Jan. 13 2011 at 7:00 AM

Categories: The Morning Brew

Egg producers are in trouble again. Not because of salmonella, but because of egg price inflation. The Kansas City Star reports that the Associated Wholesale Grocers in Kansas City, Kansas, filed suit against a "cartel" of egg producers that it alleges has conspired since 1999 to raise egg prices. Egg prices more than doubled between 2002 and 2008 due to fewer eggs on the market. The suit also claims that egg producers blamed animal welfare - fewer hens per cage - as a reason for declining supply. Similar lawsuits have consolidated into a class action suit, but Associated Wholesale Grocers opted out.

Also in trouble at the breakfast table? Lettieri's Foods is destroying 101,000 pounds of "Breakfast Stackers Sausage, Egg & Cheese" because the company didn't include MSG on the list, according to Tricities.com in Kingsport, Tennessee.

After adding fresh foods to ten Walgreens stores in Chicago food deserts, Reuters reports that Walgreens plans to offer fresh foods at 400 more food desert locations.

Hopefully one of those stores will be in Benton, Missouri, where a man brandished a shotgun at a McDonald's drive-thru and demanded food from the closed restaurant, according to the Southeast Missourian. "'He told the employee he wanted food and pointed the shotgun at that time,' [Scott County Sheriff Rick] Walter said. 'He said, 'If I don't bring some food home for my wife, she's going to kill me.' At that point, the employees didn't want to stick around to listen to any more demands.'" The man, Chris Brooks Heuring, was arrested without incident, and charged with unlawful use of a weapon and driving while - you guessed it - intoxicated.

Also intoxicated? Some of the recent birds that have fallen from the sky. The BBC reassures us that the dead birds aren't a sign of the end times. It's a sign that birds can't handle their booze. Dozens of dead birds found in Constanta, Romania, died of alcohol poisoning from eating leftover wine-making grapes.