
USDA to investigate egg lobby as CEO resigns - coloneltcb
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/23/usda-investigate-american-egg-board-hampton-creek-just-mayo
======
hbosch
> They also joked about killing Tetrick himself: “Can we pool our money and
> put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB member
> organization Hidden Villa Ranch. Mitch Kanter, executive vice president of
> the AEB, jokingly offered “to contact some of my old buddies in Brooklyn to
> pay Mr Tetrick a visit”. (AEB apologized for those statements when contacted
> by the Guardian.)

Goodness. Good thing these guys are multi-millionaires appointed by the
government, otherwise they might get in trouble for threatening to have
someone murdered.

~~~
corin_
To be fair... I've made jokes like that, if you're saying it to somebody who
knows you're joking then there's nothing threatening about it at all. They
neither threatened the person with murder (I presume he was unaware) nor, as
far as we know, made any plans to do it. Let's hate them for better reasons,
that clearly exist, than making jokes about murder.

(Also, IANAL but pretty sure under those circumstances there wouldn't be
anything to successfully prosecute, nothing to do with them being government-
appointed millionaires.)

~~~
moron4hire
To be fair, I don't think making jokes about killing someone is ever
appropriate.

~~~
fshaun
But inappropriate != illegal. The union of what each person considers socially
inappropriate is a rather large set... both undesirable and impossible to
legally enforce. As other comments say, there are better things to be upset at
here.

~~~
moron4hire
I'm upset at the defense "I joke about killing people, too".

~~~
notjoedimaggio
You may want to grow thicker skin. People joke about all kinds of
inappropriate things in private. It's often a bonding experience. If I were to
tell you something that I don't necessarily mean, but would harm my reputation
if it were to get out, it's a form of a secret. If you reciprocate, often we
would feel closer.

There are a lot of reasons to get upset in this world, and a lot of things to
get upset at. If this is something sensitive to you for personal reasons, I
get it. Otherwise, you should probably just accept that people aren't going to
always conform to your view of perfection.

I joke all the time with my family and friends that I'll kill them if they
ever repeat something I say in confidence. It's tongue in cheek, an obvious
over-exaggeration, and often used for humor.

~~~
mentat
That's what bullies always say "grow a thicker skin". How about trying to be
kind to others, or is that just not interesting?

~~~
notjoedimaggio
IME, bullies actually say "stop hitting yourself". School administrators and
parents of bullies (authority figures who could step in to stop bullying) are
the ones who say to grow a thicker skin.

There's certainly nothing wrong with trying to be kind. however, this is an
interesting issue because I see the desire to force other people to conform to
your beliefs a form of bullying.

I suppose it depends on where you place the responsibility of offense. Should
everyone be (socially) required to consider the feelings of everyone around
them before they say anything? Or should people learn to accept that others
won't have their same experiences and values, and in that sense, "grow a
thicker skin"?

Put more succinctly, is offense given, or is it taken?

------
senorprogrammer
Wow, does that article ever bury the lead by not describing what Hampton
Creek's product is until the very last paragraph.

For those who didn't make it all the way down, Hampton Creek makes a
vegetarian mayo alternative called 'Just Mayo' that is a threat to egg-based
mayonnaise, and is evidently gaining popularity. As such, the American Egg
Board has been attempting to destroy them.

~~~
tveita
I'd be pretty surprised if I bought a product named "Just Mayo" that didn't
contain actual mayonnaise, but I guess it fits into the same pattern as
American "cheese".

~~~
dghughes
I'd be upset too as a consumer and an egg producer that a product was using
the name of a popular product with eggs but no eggs are in it.

Margarine with yellow dye trying to look like butter (also dyed yellow).

"Milk" products such as almond milk and soy milk when both are just juice
since neither almonds or soybeans have nipples.

There must be some law to prevent such desception.

~~~
plonh
Magnesia also lacks nipples.

~~~
dghughes
I'm not convinced since it sounds like a stripper that makes you forget.

------
nostromo
I'm amazed that these "checkoff" organizations are still allowed to exist in
the US.

Do we really need to pay more for food to subsidize adverts for milk, eggs,
pork, and beef? How is it fair to force producers to pay for marketing that
they might not even support?

~~~
mason55
The idea is to prevent free riders in a commodified market and allow for
collective action.

It's actually very similar to a union in that each individual member (or farm)
is small and can't have much effect on their own. By organizing collectively
you can become more powerful but there's no incentive for any individual
member to join.

Think about the "Pork, the other white meat" or all the milk mustache ads. A
single farm could never put that together but by working together they can
benefit the industry as a whole.

So that's how you end up with these "checkoff" organizations and arguments
against right-to-work laws.

~~~
bigtunacan
Or one of favorites. "Beef. It's what's for dinner."

------
binarycrusader
I have no doubt that the AEB is responsible for a variety of unethical things.
But Hampton Creek's no "angel" either; consider this article as well:

[http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-
complaints-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-
complaints-2015-7)

You could argue that it's a hit piece, but there's some pretty interesting
observations that seem factually correct.

------
ksherlock
Is this really a threat to egg usage? If you make mayonnaise at home, you need
1 egg yolk per half cup of oil. With industrial equipment and science, you can
use 1 yolk to emulsify 1 or 2 dozen cups of oil. (By law, mayonnaise is 65%
oil and must contain egg yolk, but not a specific amount of egg yolk). Egg is
the third ingredient in Hellman's, after oil and water.

~~~
shalmanese
Mayo is only the first product from HCF. The next planned product is cookie
dough with further products planned where the egg is more and more obvious.

------
contingencies
More informative background at
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo)

