For those seeking an entertaining alternative to the Drooler's SOTU this evening — all of us — I highly recommend this story of the chicken

“No joke” to quote a man we all know, it’s an American Heritage article from 1996, written by John Steele Gordon, and it’s fascinating.

The often-reliable Megan McArdle wrote a rather stupid article appearing in the Washington Post today, “Why Eggs are Cheaper than You Think” that tells us peasants that we shouldn’t complain about the high cost of eggs because our forebearers paid much, much more for them. I suppose we should also be accepting of the high cost of electricity because, gosh, what wouldn’t Medieval lords have paid for such luxury? Or for penicillin?

Her column pricked my curiosity, so I went looking for a relevant history on the subject and found the American Heritage article. But first, here’s some of what McArdle wrote:

If you look at old cookbooks, you will notice that the authors seem to view eggs and chicken as almost a luxury good. My 1950 “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook book” contains recipes for making mock chicken dishes — out of veal. Go back further and the 1896 Fannie Farmer cookbook sternly informs readers that, “eggs, even at twenty-five cents per dozen, should not be freely used by the strict economist.” An odd assertion to the modern ear, until you realize that in 1896 a pound of round steak was about 35 percent cheaper than a pound of eggs. (Today, by contrast, a pound of eggs — about 9 eggs — would cost you roughly $3.21 at my grocery store, while a pound of round steak is $8.69.)

…

Almost all food items have gotten much cheaper, relative to our incomes, than they were a century ago. But some food prices fell faster than others, and chicken and eggs were among those that saw the greatest improvements, thanks to a combination of agricultural innovations. Raising chickens indoors helped protect them from disease and predators. Providing them with warmer conditions and artificial light helped extend a laying season which otherwise stops in winter. Farmers developed the raised cage system which has helped increase egg production, as have breeding programs. Modern hens have gone from laying about 150 eggs per hen per year in the 1930s, to 296 today.

…

But the benefits of this revolution have also been enormous. In 1905, an average male factory worker older than 16 took home $11.16 a week, enough to buy about 41 cartons of eggs. Today, the median man earns $1,176 a week, enough to buy more than 275 cartons of eggs, even at today’s elevated prices. If you can’t help cringing when you see the cashier ring up eggs that cost twice as much as they did a year ago, it might help to remember that however poor you feel, your ancestors would have taken one look at your grocery cart and declared you rich beyond their dreams.

It’s not that McArdle got her facts wrong; she didn’t, but her point is irrelevant to a discussion of inflation and the affordability of food, today. Even so, I’m grateful to her for bringing up the subject, and leading me to discover such a treasure trove of useful knowledge; in fact, until just now, I wasn’t even aware that I was woefully ignorant of the history of the commercialization of the chicken and the egg businesses (surprisingly, they’re two separate industries, even though they both arrived just about simultaneously, neither coming before the other).

Here’s the story of why eggs and fowl are so much cheaper today:

The Chicken Story

A CENTURY AGO you’d eat steak and lobster when you couldn’t afford chicken. Today it can cost less than the potatoes you serve with. What happened in the years between was an extraordinary marriage of technology and the market.