Recalled.

     Do you buy eggs? Do you buy them one at a time? Does half-a-billion eggs sound scary? It sounds like all the eggs in the world to me and then some. This morning on the Today Show, Matt Lauer said the current egg recall involved nearly half a billion eggs, "...that's 'Billion' with a 'B'," he stressed, implying that absolutely the eggs in your fridge must be poison. In my opinion, the news reports are accurate, but they are overstating the case.
     The odds of getting sick from eating eggs are small, but make no mistake - this is a serious health issue and it's a serious challenge for the egg industry. A few bad apples, from what I've read, have put not only their customers, but their industry in peril. Did I say bad apples? I should have said "dirty, rotten crooks." 
     I did some marketing work for an egg company a while back - a way while back, actually - at a time when the industry was struggling with S. enteriditis. I can tell you that the people I worked with had their hearts in the right place - it was food safety first and profits later. And I think they are the kind of people who dominate the egg industry. 
     Collectively, they and their colleagues produce about 215 million eggs a day, or more than a billion eggs every five days. That's "Billion" with a "B." Or to put it another way, a way that is more understandable to the people who buy eggs, 18 million dozen eggs a day. About 41.7 million dozen eggs have been recalled so far, which is less than three days of the total national production. Those eggs were linked to 1,300 cases of salmonellosis, a disease that can make you sick and miserable. Or it can kill you. 
     The FDA, the USDA and the CDC are working overtime to measure the danger and get it under control. The feds are looking for more staff, more money and more control to deal with and prevent future outbreaks of food-borne illness, and I hope they get it. 
     But I think the industry needs to crack down on its own bad actors. The locavore movement has gained momentum because consumers want to know where their food comes from and who's producing it. They would not want to deal with Jack DeCoster, who runs Wright County Eggs in Galt, Iowa, and is believed to be the man behind the salmonella outbreak. 
     He's the sixth-largest egg producer in the U.S., and has a history of paying fines for tainted product, pollution, and animal cruelty. His enterprise has also paid fines for sexual harassment of female employees. He's a bad egg, a black eye and a liability for the industry, yet restaurants, grocery chains and food manufacturers keep buying his product. 
     If locavore consumers can be educated, and/or self-educated enough to check out their food sources, it seems to me that businesses, large and small, who are paying thousands and millions of dollars a year for eggs can check out their suppliers. If you are one of those buyers and a guy like Jack DeCoster comes knocking on your door, just say "No." Get rid of his market and you get rid of him. 
     I believe government oversight is always going to be with us because there will always be bad actors in the marketplace. I also believe that a self-aware and self-regulated market can be much more than a mechanism for profit, and much more effective than all the government controls in the world. Honest people in a well-run industry can also be a tremendous force for good. 
     I've seen it happen.