With the price of a dozen eggs climbing to never before seen heights, one agriculture watchdog group and at least one U.S. senator are crying “fowl” about price gouging, but an agricultural expert says the reasons are much less nefarious.
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson has been in the egg business for most of his life.
Simpson, a former state senator who also served as Florida Senate president, owns a large-scale egg-laying operation in Pasco County, Florida, and the eggs are distributed by Cal-Maine Foods, based in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
As Simpson explained, there are essentially three things that affect the price of eggs: the stock market, the avian flu, and the factor of supply and demand….