Just went and got lunch out of the fridge. In there is a store bought pack of hard boiled eggs (non-organic, I looked). 6 for $3.99
For comparison, I bought a dozen eggs for 34 cents.
. The crazy part is that, if nobody buys the stupid priced eggs, you may not have the chance to buy eggs for a few cents each. We recently spoke with an employee of one of our regional mega egg factory farms. He is in charge of marketing things like Buffalo Wing flavored hard boiled eggs for a buck each, in a clear plastic refrigerator package. High profit items like this are literally keeping the lights on and the doors open when it comes to factory Ag. Eggs were a very, very low margin product, and now it's gotten to the point where there in no money to be made. Sadly, a delivery guy might roll a hand truck past you with six cases of $0.34 / dozen eggs and a few packs of prepared eggs. The handful of small packages and the few bucks in net profit they bring are the only think keeping that guy in a job. We have similar issues with small dairy farmers, many who have lost money in six of the last seven years
The economist in me thinks "These things have a tendency to work themselves out." If some farmers quit doing dairy and eggs because it's not profitable, the lower supply should raise prices and balance out the costs for the factory farms who remain.
Farmers, as a group, are the most stubborn individuals around. Before they go out of business they will fight right down to the wire and cut expenses wherever possible. Unfortunately in the interests of profit animal welfare is the first thing to suffer. Chickens in factory farms or even most of the "free range" or "cage free" farms are no longer kept in anything resembling humane conditions.
Unfortunately, most of the injustices you speak of have been part of the big AG. operating procedure in NA for a long time, and are now standard procedure. Local farmers here, that used to run 100 head of dairy cattle now have several 8-900 ft. long chicken barns and they don't own a single bird. The chicks are delivered to them as property of a huge, national chicken brand, the owner supplies the feed and the farmer does the raising. No competition, just take it or leave it, and very little profit in the deal for the farmer. Eggs are produced by the tens of thousands a week in similar conditions, with net profits of a few cents a dozen, if that. Once again, the farmer is the middle man, and has no control over anything, except stay in, or leaving, the farming life. It's easy to call somebody stubborn and ignorant, but it's tough to be a farmer, from a family that worked the same ground for a century or more, and have to decide if you can afford to have another year of losses that you have zero control over. Not to mention helping your children get out, so they don't have to suffer like you are. I understand the fact that small dairy farmers and others small operators will eventually fade away, but when you have essentially become a farmer owned, large scale manufacturer of food products, have millions invested in facilities, and are making little more that the assistant manager of the local McDonalds, in a good year, there is a problem that transcends the free market.
The one thing that few think of when they do nothing but worship the laissez-faire market, and survival of the fittest is, is anybody really looking at the big picture here? When we let China become the only producer of military grade specialty steels, and buy everything from powdered milk, to solar panels, and every chip and circuit board we use, from them. When we ignore, or even due to ignorant political interference, actually impede the growth of, everything from domestic solar and high tech. battery production to stem cell research, do we really think that there isn't going to be a huge price to pay in the future. As we flounder about with failing infrastructure and a failed legislative and executive branch of our federal government, China is merrily succeeding with the "belt and Roads" initiative. One day they will be a true super power, and have a firm grip on a dozens, and dozens of countries, controlling everything from millions of acres of "foreign" crop land to other countries distribution and transportation systems. Their goal is simple, extract what they need from those who have it, while becoming the supplier of choice to the countries that you are extracting resources from. Build everything from rail systems to ports, and roads in the nations you are "helping" and keep your new friends up to their eyeballs in debt, with a healthy trade imbalance. Unlike our model of continual war, and endless aggression, they will have bought their standing in most places they conquered without the need for even a threat. They are literally outsmarting us, on many fronts, and it's due to nothing more than ignorance and complacency here. Can you imagine a dispute in a decade or two, when china decides to impose trade sanctions that prohibit the exportation of smart phones, computers, EV batteries, and a whole list of things that we foolishly have become sickly dependent on? Interesting times ahead?