Not sure that planning on turning to eggs and dairy in the event of a meat shortage is a very viable "plan B."

At least in my part of the country, eggs have been as scarce as hen's teeth ever since mid-March. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun )Plenty of meat still available at prices still close to pre-Covid19 regular prices. But eggs? They've not been readily available for the last 6 weeks.

My local grocery is now offering eggs for online shoppers only as: "Best available eggs, 12 count, up to $6.34" As I understand it, if you want eggs...regardless of source...and IF you're willing to pay up to that much, you click to put this in your shopping cart. And then, IF there are any eggs available when your order is filled, your personal shopper picks out whatever he/she considers the "best available" and you pay whatever those eggs actually cost. If there are eggs from multiple sources available, your personal shopper decides what "best available" means. You don't get a chance to say " I ONLY want free-range high Omega-3 eggs, am willing to pay whatever those cost but unwilling to eat factory-farmed eggs no matter how cheap they are." or "I ONLY want eggs if they cost less than $2 per dozen." So, very likely, people who are deeply opposed to factory farming are getting cheap white factory-farmed eggs while other people, who can't really afford is are winding up paying up to $6.35 per dozen when they were buying eggs for $1.80/dozen six weeks ago.

Its not a system I have any desire to participate in. The last time I got any eggs was over a month ago when I swapped a nearby neighbor a couple of rolls of toilet paper for a dozen eggs from her back-yard chickens. Since then she's been consistently selling out while charging as much as $7 to $8 per dozen! And, honestly, her eggs weren't that great. The chickens obviously needed more calcium in their diets because the shells were super thin. One cracked open as I was lifting it out of the box!

Those prices make eggs about 6 to 8 times as expensive per ounce than chicken legs and thighs. So, we've been doing without. I certainly can't plan on turning to eggs as a protein source if meat becomes scarce.

Dairy? Maybe? But only if producers who used to market to restaurants and schools are allowed to market directly to consumers. Not sure where most of us would store a restaurant-sized wheel of cheese.