Too Many Eggs

A huge surplus of unsaleable eggs has recently been causing much concern to producers in Australia and Britain. A few years ago in Great Britain it was recommended that 2 million laying hens be slaughtered in an effort to curtail egg production and to push prices up so as to stabilise profitability of egg production. Research has also been conducted into ascertaining whether eggs could be used in producing cosmetics. Now it is reported from Uruguay (Time magazine, 27 March 1972), that a huge surplus of eggs is causing a headache to the American government. This has led to the Senate Agriculture Committee passing an Act which would require each producer to slaughter a percentage of his hens, subject to the eggs selling below their cost of production for three consecutive months and only upon approval by two-thirds of the egg producers in a referendum. This is a good example how governments are forced by economic circumstances to repudiate a policy of non-intervention, or less intervention, which is what President Nixon promised. As did Heath when his Minister, John Davies declared that industrial lame ducks would be allowed to go to slaughter. The American Act amounts to a concerted and deliberate attempt to force up the price of eggs to avoid too many bankruptcies which might disrupt their egg industry too severely.

It might be thought that in a world where so many are undernourished, being able to produce so much of this particular kind of food is a benefit rather than a problem, especially in view of the dire warnings of certain ecologists that the world is facing a problem of over-population. But it is a problem simply because food is produced for sale, not because people need it. No sale means no profit and no profit means no production, no matter how desperate people are for food. Once this simple fact of life of capitalism is understood, it should be obvious that food surpluses which cannot be sold at a profitable price are a problem and that this can only be cured by cutting back on production. Even today there are a lot of neo-Malthusians who attribute many of the ills of the world to overpopulation, but who conveniently overlook the persistent overproduction of a large variety of foodstuffs which are very often wantonly destroyed simply because the capitalist system is not geared to handling surpluses. Again it must be repeated that only Socialism can realise the potential that is there for solving world problems, especially the problem of providing sufficient food for every man, woman and child on the Earth.
SPECTATOR