Egg prices going up?

There may be a thread about this already, but I couldn't find it:

Are grocery-store egg prices going to raise dramatically in the next few years as new chicken housing regulations are phased in?

We went to the state fair yesterday and were bonding with a representative for a local hatchery. He told us he expected commercial eggs to start selling for $8/dozen as the new egg production housing regulations were phased in. Obviously we were speaking casually and I can't imagine people will spend that much for commercial eggs. Nevertheless, it got me to wondering if future egg prices had been discussed here at BYC. It also made me proud of myself that I've started to raise backyard chickens for myself and the people who work on our farm (though my eggs are costing me WAY more than $8/dozen at the moment!).

Anyway, I searched the Internet and came up with a report published by United Egg Producers in 2009. The title of the report is "Impacts of Banning Cage Egg Production in the United States." Here is a link to the PDF file:

http://www.unitedegg.org/information/pdf/Promar_Study.pdf

I also read one of those doomsday articles which claimed we'll all be vegans in 25 years because farming animals will be ecologically impossible.

Thoughts?

I just found this quote in a more recent publication: "One day soon, America could wake up to a dozen eggs costing $8 or more."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/animal_rights_legislation_would_make_eggs_a_luxury_food.html#ixzz253XvMj8t

I'm shocked everytime I see egg prices at a conventional grocery store. Food produced from animals is too cheap! If you are buying a dozen eggs for $3.29 (typical in my area), imagine what you're getting for that!

Approximately 40% of the retail value goes to the grocery store selling it, so the producer gets about $1.98/dozen. The producer is somehow getting chicks (from hatcheries or fertilized eggs), raising them to laying age (6 months before they are anything but a financial burden), feeding them, losing some to disease, then once they start laying the producer collects these eggs, washes, packages, distributes, and sells them for a price of $1.98/dozen. They also pay for shipping, packaging, product insurance, and maintaining UPC's for their product.

And somehow they make a profit. This makes me respect the work that food suppliers do immensely, and also makes me incredibly suspicious of food that can be made that cheaply. It's one of the reasons I try and produce as much of my own as I can.

Around here stores sell regular eggs for less than $2.00/dozen. Fancier eggs are more. Organic cage free eggs are closer to $5.00.

Good article at AmericanThinker....we have to wake up as a nation.....