If you think about it, $4/dozen isn't bad. It is sticker shock because we are so used to food in this country being cheap. Ask Europeans what they pay for food, it's crazy. DH and I got through phases where we eat TONS of eggs (not right now, we seem to be on a veggie kick)

The point about heading to Starbucks for a $4 coffee is very true. I used to work at an organic vegan restaurant, and a customer balked at the thought of paying $3 for a glass of fresh carrot juice - we pressed the carrots in the back to order. It takes a number of carrots to make that juice!

We get some of our eggs from a friend - his birds are not entirely free range nor organic, but the feed is balanced & they do get to eat bugs. The difference is night and day between his eggs and the $4 eggs in the store. Would love to have my own birds but our yard just isn't big enough.

This country's structure just isn't set up right. Food (mostly the stuff in the middle of the store) is cheap, and gas used to be cheap. Now it isn't, and prices are increasing. This hurts us mostly because... we still need to use gas to get everywhere, so what else can we cut?

The other point about paying more up front for your food rather than going cheap because your health will bite you in the end is also true.

I'm vegetarian, which means going to the store can practically rape my wallet. I supplant what we grow in our yard with the farmer's market and it's about half the cost (and closer to the earth) than going to the store. $15 got me 2 bunches of gorgeous shallots, 2 pounds of baby red potatoes, 1 bunch of leeks, 2 pints strawberries, 8 bananas, 3 avacado, 3 chiles, 2 pounds Roma tomatoes, 1 bunch cilantro, 4 FAT carrots, 5 plums, 2 asian pears, 8 baby squash and one fellow threw in a canteloupe for free. He always throws in something (his stuff isn't organic, it's the same as what you'd get in the store, just cheaper). I eat organic as much as possible, you can taste the difference.

I'm just saying - maybe there's another way to cut costs somewhere so you can have the $4 eggs?