The largest egg recall in U.S. history comes at a point of great consolidation in the egg industry, when a shrinking number of companies produce most of the eggs found on grocery shelves and a defect in one operation can jeopardize a significant segment of the marketplace.
Just 192 large egg companies own about 95 percent of laying hens in this country, down from 2,500 in 1987, according to United Egg Producers, an industry group. Most of those producers are concentrated in five states: Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and California.
"I don't think people have any idea when they see all these brand names in the stores that so many are coming from the same place," said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch, a food safety organization. "It raises the stakes -- if one company is doing something wrong, it affects a lot of food."
That magnified effect is illustrated by the current recall: Just two Iowa producers, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, have been implicated in a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis, with the companies recalling 500 million eggs sold under 24 brands. "The size of this thing is kind of amazing," Lovera said.
The complexity of the distribution chain means additional recalls are likely as investigators wade through invoices and try to piece together where the affected eggs have ended up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/23/AR2010082305118_pf.html
No, it's not good to have just a handful of Big Agribusiness companies feeding the entire nation. This is why local is important and 3,000 mile eggs and caesar salads are bad. Not that government will listen of course.. egg suppliers will continue to consolidate because that means bigger profits.
