Activity 1: Weighing in on Egg Labels

1. Project the Egg Labels and Marketing PowerPoint.
2. Ask students to picture the egg department at the grocery store (slide 2) and imagine that they are determining the value of various cartons of eggs. Perform a survey with your class using slides 3-11. Students will guess which carton of eggs will likely cost more and then determine which eggs they would choose in the role of a consumer. Accept any answers and note trends in your students' choices. (i.e., If the majority of the class always chooses the cheapest option, if students seem to prefer brown eggs over white eggs, etc.) Intermittently, allow students to share reasoning behind their choice.
3. After the survey, ask students, "How can marketing, such as a label on an egg carton, impact buying choices?" (to some consumers, the labels could persuade them to purchase one carton of eggs over another and/or be willing to pay more for an egg labeled in a specific way.)
4. Give each student one copy of the Cracking the Egg Code Fact Sheet.
5. Allow students time to read through the infographic learning the definition of each egg label in preparation for the next activity.
6. Using PowerPoint slide 12, review some basic economic principles of egg production:
   • Brown shelled eggs typically cost more than white shelled eggs because the breeds of chicken that lay brown eggs are typically bigger and eat more feed, but do not lay more eggs.
   • White eggs produced in conventional style housing are typically the cheapest because that is the most cost effective way to produce eggs.
   • Eggs produced in cage-free or free range housing systems cost more because these housing systems have higher production costs to the farmer.

All eggs, regardless of the color of the shell or the type of farm they were produced on, provide the same level of nutrients to our diet.5

Activity 2: History and Introduction to the Egg Industry

1. Ask students if they believe that egg farming has changed in the last 100 years. Explain that 100 years ago many families produced their own eggs. Progressively, egg-laying hens moved out of backyards and onto farms. These farms have increased in size and technological advancements through the years.
2. Watch the Eggs 101- Barns video clip. This 3-minute video clip gives an overview for how hen housing systems have evolved and the types of hen housing systems that exist today. 
3. As the students watch the video, have them list the goals egg farmers have as egg farming evolved:
   • Provide high quality, nutritious, and economical eggs for consumers.
   • Protect hens from weather and predators.
   • Decrease diseases and parasites in the flock.
   • Access to fresh feed, water, light, and sanitary conditions.
4. Watch the Eggs 101 - Hen Health video clip. As students watch the video clip, they should take note of things that are important to consumers in the market to buy eggs. (Humane animal care standards, healthy eggs free from salmonella, etc.) 
5. Refer back to the video quotes from step one of the Interest Approach. Discuss how farmers have followed these principles as egg farming practices have evolved. Examples include:
   • Consumers would like eggs that are safe (free of foodborne illness like salmonella) and consistent in nutrition. Egg markets encouraged farmers to find ways to provide this for consumers by improving hen health and nutrition.
   • Due to voluntary exchange, farmers would go out of business if they produced eggs that did not benefit the consumer by providing a safe and nutritious food item. As farmers produce quality and nutritious eggs, consumers benefit, and both are better off.
   • As consumers choose which eggs they buy (white, brown, free range, etc.) it signals to farmers what kind of eggs to produce. If 90% of consumers choose the most economical egg (white shelled eggs from a conventional egg farm), then the majority of farmers will continue to produce these eggs. If there is a market for brown or cage-free eggs, farmers will produce these eggs.

Activity 3: Marketing Eggs

1. Ask students, "How are market prices for eggs (or any product) determined?" (Market prices are where supply and demand meet. Remind students of the video clip they watched at the beginning of the lesson)
2. Open the Egg Labels and Marketing PowerPoint and project slide 13 onto your whiteboard. Inform your students that you are going to graph a demand curve for your class. Ask your students to raise their hand if they would pay $3.00 for 1 dozen conventional, white-shelled eggs. Count how many students raise their hand and place a dot on the graph. Next, ask how many students would pay $2.75 for 1 dozen conventional white-shelled eggs. Graph that number and continue down the left side of the graph until you have asked about each price of egg. Connect the dots to create a demand curve for your class.
3. Without erasing your whiteboard, proceed to slide 14 and discuss what a supply curve represents. (The number of producers willing to sell eggs for a given price.) Be sure students understand that farmers make economical decisions. To stay in business, they must sell their product for more than it cost them to produce it. A conventional egg farmer must consider the cost of buying and raising hens, buying feed, purchasing and maintaining their hen housing and egg processing equipment, etc. Compared to other methods of raising hens for egg production, conventional eggs are the most economical.
4. Add a demand curve to the graph. Have students identify the current cost at a local grocery store for one dozen white-shelled, conventional eggs. For this discussion, make this price the market equilibrium. Complete the demand curve with hypothetical numbers to show that most (or all) farmers will produce and sell their eggs at a high cost and few farmers will produce and sell eggs at a very low cost.
5. Using slides 15 and 16 repeat the same process (steps 2-4) with the brown-shelled, free range eggs. Most likely, fewer students will be willing to pay the higher premium for free-range eggs. Currently this marketing pattern is also evident in the general consumer population. As a result, more eggs are produced on conventional egg farms than free-range farms. Farmers will continue to produce eggs (and other products) according to demand. 

Remind students that shell color is determined by the breed of hen. Hens who lay brown eggs are larger and require more feed than hens who lay white eggs. This increases the production cost of brown eggs. The nutritional value of each egg, regardless of the shell color or retail price, is equivalent.