Five Acre Farms

Egg Matters - Part 3 At this point, most Americans have noticed that there is something going on with #eggs. Prices have soared and shelves are bare. Many are still blaming Bidenomics, others blame Bill Gates. Some blame questionable chicken feed. The anti-misinformation website Snopes.com even took the time to refute a story that anti-theft locks have been put on egg cartons. Things feel topsy-turvy with eggs, but what’s actually going on? The real story is that it’s been another challenging stretch for birds in the United States. The #AvianFlu continues to spread throughout the country. It has now raced out of California and is heading east. Most notably, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio have confirmed cases and euthanized laying hens. Counties throughout Pennsylvania are reporting flu in the wild populations and #farmers are doubling down on biosecurity measures. Some basics: The typical laying hen population in the United States is usually between 300 and 340 million birds. 340 is pretty high and 300 is pretty low. Before this wave of flu hit the chicken populations, there were 305 million birds, so the bird populations were very low before this started. Since October, 30 million birds have been euthanized, putting today’s egg-laying population at about 275 million: super low. Within the US, eggs can then be divided into two: conventional and specialty (considered higher quality). Conventional eggs are from birds kept in small cages and specialty are chickens raised by organic standards, cage-free, and free range. Conventional eggs are almost always less expensive and are usually white. A further divide is between the East Coast and West Coast. The coasts normally have a small price differential of .50 cents to a dollar, with the West Coast almost always higher by that amount. As supplies have dropped and demand has stayed consistent – people still want eggs – prices have spiked. Fear of further spread of the flu, and thus more farms culling sick birds, has sent prices even higher. This part is Economics 101: as supply goes down, price usually goes up. However, the market has turned upside down: because of the culling from bird flu (particularly hitting the conventional market), the egg market has inverted. Regular white eggs have soared in price and become more expensive than specialty eggs. What happened? Continue Reading: https://lnkd.in/gvP6bnWq

Milk Matters | Part 2 of a Series: Milk and Avian Flu Raw milk is in the news these days for a few reasons. - RFK Jr. - Avian Flu - Romanticization of raw milk by legacy media, holistic medicine influencers, and French food lovers (Okay, this is snarky, but kind of true). First and foremost, is raw milk safe? This question is at the center of the debate. In my mind, it raises a basic question about public health policy. This asks, should the government have laws that protect the overwhelming majority of the population against potential problems with milk? If you say yes, the case for greatly reducing access to raw milk is overwhelming. Some claim that raw milk, when continually tested, is safe, and because it hasn’t been cooked (pasteurized), it has additional health qualities. Addressing the first point that raw milk is safe sounds good in a classroom but much like an old table saw with no safety features, one would never let the inexperienced near it. Some would let no one near it. Raw milk proponents extol its healthful virtues, yet as of today, there is no peer-reviewed evidence that raw milk carries greater health benefits than pasteurized milk. This is frustrating to the nontraditional medical community, but it is true. There is a growing voice in American society that doesn’t want rules dictated to them, and raw milk has fit neatly into this movement. Sadly, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and general distrust of the intentions of the research community underplays the perils in raw milk. The recent findings that avian flu survives and thrives in raw milk only make this point clearer. I have nothing against raw milk, per se. I do take issue with any attempts to minimize its potential problems. Access to raw milk is regulated on a state-by-state basis and anyone who buys it should do research to gain absolute certainty about where it’s from, how it has been handled, and the temperatures at which it has been stored. RFK Jr. may personally like raw milk, which is his choice, but his ideas have no place in public policy, and show an astounding disregard for public safety. Government food safety laws should continue to protect the majority of the population against potentially dangerous bacterial infections in milk. Avian flu survives and thrives in raw milk. It dies in pasteurization. TB, Listeria, EColi all thrive in raw milk. They die in pasteurization. No matter how much holistic “wellness” influencers, possible incoming Administration members, or the media ignore this with romanticized ideas of pre-industrial farming practices, pasteurization maintains milk’s nutrition and makes milk safer. We need to move past this subject in public policy discussions. #rawmilk #pasteurization #AvianFlu

https://lnkd.in/gvp3jabS The public health story here should be that the heavily regulated milk industry and all its attending milk processing laws are working incredibly effectively. There are no known cases of a person getting sick from the avian flu from drinking pasteurized milk. Testing began six months ago and since then, no pasteurized milk has been found to have the flu variant. Recently, the avian flu H5N1 has been found in cows in California, and the governor has declared a state of emergency. The avian flu has also been found in birds and some mammals in many parts of the country. The variant’s destruction of the bird population has been immense, but not widely reported, in my view. The variant’s appearance in milk is a valid concern to NIH researchers and food safety groups because when milk is left raw – unpasteurized – H5N1 remains alive. Dairy is one of the essential foods of the US and in fact the world....

Being featured as a #daairy #distruptor at FoodNavigator is great!

What an incredible time at Bozzuto's 2024 Merchandising Marketplace Trade Show at Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino! 🎉 Congratulations to the Bozzuto’s team and fellow food suppliers for making this an excellent event. 🧀🌱 Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth to learn about high-quality buttermilk and kefir and made the event a success! Special note to our partner RDD for their assistance.🙌 #FiveAcreFarms #LocalDairy #Bozzutos2024 #TradeShow #FoodCommunity #SustainableFarming #Dairy #MoheganSun #FoodIndustry #LocalSourcing