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Egg business gets cracking

ORANGE GROWERS, PASTA MAKERS ALSO AFFECTED

By Lori Aratani

Mercury News


The potatoes have disappeared from Andrea Boyle's shopping cart. The Union City woman loves a good spud as much as anyone, but they're a no-no on her low-carb Atkins diet.

But eggs -- now those are a different story. One, hard-boiled, with half a grapefruit in the morning, is just what she needs to get her day started and hopefully drop the 10 pounds she wants to shed.

Careful eaters like Doyle are reversing the fortunes of egg farmers like Paul Bahan of Riverside, helping to boost a business roiled by changes in breakfast habits and concerns about cholesterol.

``We're all for it -- most definitely,'' Bahan said. ``Business for egg ranchers is very, very good.''

At the same time, the low-carb, high-protein push that promises rapid weight loss has put the nation's potato farmers -- as well as orange growers, bakers and pasta makers -- on the defensive.

Atkins proponents point to french fries and potato chips as examples of what's wrong with America's diet, said Frank Muir, president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, but that's not quite fair. ``This has put potatoes in a false light.''

Of course, other factors play into the jump in egg sales and the drop in potato prices. But a recent survey by the National Bread Leadership Council found that 21 percent of Americans are on a low-carb diet. The effect can be seen in everything from bunless burgers to ad campaigns for light beer to a 4.7 percent drop in potato consumption from 2002 to 2003.

In February -- coincidentally, Potato Lover's Month -- the U.S. Potato Board launched a $4 million campaign aimed at reminding consumers that potatoes are full of vitamins and minerals. The industry has joined forces with Weight Watchers to pitch the positive side of a balanced diet.

``We as potato producers have been remiss in not doing enough advertising to show the benefits,'' said California potato farmer John Cross, ticking off potato stats by heart: One medium potato has 45 percent of your daily vitamin C and 21 percent of your daily potassium. That's more potassium than in one banana.

Small growers like Cross, who grows russets near the Oregon border on the same farm where his father grew them, are feeling the pinch.

To break even, Cross must sell a 100-pound bag of potatoes for about $8. Right now the going rate is $4.50 to $5 a bag.

Cross has been in the spud business for almost a decade, so he's grown accustomed to the vagaries of the market -- the years with no water, the times when disease and pests wreak havoc. He remembers when there were as many as 25,000 acres in the Klamath Basin devoted to potatoes. Today potatoes are grown on less than half that acreage.

For him, it's difficult enough fighting for space with the Idahos of the world -- without having restaurants like TGI Friday's add to his headaches with their ``low-carb'' steak dinner that substitutes broccoli for the baked potato.

But some think -- hope -- the carb craze is just a phase.

``I think these things are somewhat faddish and short-lived,'' sniffed Pete Belluomini, president of the Kern County Farm Bureau, in the heart of California's potato country.

``It would be nice if someone came up with the potato diet -- if someone went on Oprah and talked about how they lived to be 110 on the potato diet,'' Belluomini said. ``That would be great.''

The Atkins Diet, introduced by Dr. Robert Atkins in 1972, is the best known of the low-carbohydrate diets. Atkins and others -- including the South Beach Diet, the Caveman Diet and the Zone Diet -- encourage folks to replace carbs with protein. The idea is that limiting carbs will force your body to burn stored fat and help you lose weight. Other health professionals argue that the key to successful long-term weight loss is reducing the number of calories and exercising regularly.

But you won't hear any complaints from California's egg ranchers, whose hens can't come close to producing enough eggs to cover the demand for omelets and over-easies -- hold the hash browns, of course.

Bahan, the egg farmer, has even noticed the deviled eggs he brings to parties are a bigger hit than ever before.

``The Atkins Diet has helped a lot,'' said Bahan, who has about 700,000 birds on his farm in Riverside, where he also grows oranges and Christmas trees.

According to the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association, per-capita egg consumption has increased from 251.7 per person in 2002 to 254.1 in 2003. And officials expect it to be even higher for 2004.

Atkins isn't the only reason, of course. Eggs got a huge boost in 2000 when the American Heart Association revised its dietary guidelines to recommend an egg a day, rather than three to four per week.

Don Bell, a University of California professor who analyzes the state's poultry market, said it would be difficult to pin down a single reason for the trend. But even he's taken aback by the influence of low-carb craze.

``I've never seen a fad that came along as quite as fast as low-carb diets have,'' Bell said. ``Eggs are going to benefit as this particular fad goes along. That is, until someone says it's not all it's cracked up to be.''


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Contact Lori Aratani at laratani~mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5531.