As the average national price for a dozen large eggs nears $5, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins outlined Wednesday her plan to bring down their cost.
In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that was reissued by the White House, she said the U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest up to $1 billion to “make eggs affordable again.”
Rollins said the agency is working with the U.S. DOGE Service to cut wasteful spending. The USDA plans to repurpose some of the expected savings into addressing a bird flu outbreak that has led to the culling of 166 million laying hens over the past two years and dramatically increased egg prices.
Eggs have become the poster child for an inflation rate that skyrocketed during the COVID pandemic and has since stalled at about 3%. Egg prices have increased 237% since January 2021, when the average price for a dozen was $1.47, largely because of bird flu.
Acknowledging “there is no silver bullet to eradicating avian flu,” Rollins said her agency has developed a five-point strategy.
“To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you and help is on the way,” she wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
USDA plans to invest up to $500 million to help U.S. poultry producers implement biosecurity measures that protect farms and livestock from infectious diseases. She cited an egg farm in Texas where workers wear protective gear and shower before entering their work area and after they leave.
She said USDA will provide free consulting to all commercial egg-laying chicken farms to identify and implement improved safety, such as closing perimeter gaps that allow wild birds to enter and potentially infect egg-laying hens. It will also pay as much as 75% of the cost of repairing such biosecurity vulnerabilities.
The USDA will also provide up to $400 million in financial aid to farmers whose flocks are affected by bird flu.
In addition, the agency will explore the use of vaccines and other treatments for egg-laying chickens to “reduce the need to ‘depopulate’ flocks, which means killing chickens on a farm where there’s an outbreak,” she wrote in the Journal.
Rollins said the agency has not yet authorized the use of a vaccine and will consult with state leaders, farmers and public-health professionals before doing so.
“We've lost about 73,000 birds in Wisconsin to the avian influenza,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin told Spectrum News, referring to data from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. “I have never seen eggs at a higher price in my life, because it is at the highest price of my entire life. I've also been seeing the shelves bare when I've gone into stores to do my grocery shopping, so it's having a widespread impact.”
The virus has already spread to humans – killing one – and cows, creating worry the virus could devastate the dairy industry and other connected businesses.
Kathy Hessler, assistant dean of animal law at George Washington University Law School, told Spectrum News that part of the conversation needs to be about how farm animals are treated.
“We're raising them, putting them in these horrible conditions, and then they get sick, and then we just kill them, right?” Hessler said. “If we didn't have them in such problematic conditions in the first place, they wouldn't be as vulnerable to disease, and the disease wouldn't spread as rapidly.”
Hessler says the Trump administration has made some moves that will hamper the country’s response to the avian flu, such as leaving the World Health Organization.
“We are out of the WHO, so we're not communicating with them and sharing information about the spread in the U.S. that could affect us internationally,” Hessler said. “USAID was actually gathering some of this information internationally to help us in the U.S., and that's not happening anymore.”
In Washington, Rollins said the USDA plans to “remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible.” She cited a California law that established minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, which she blamed for egg prices nearing $10 a dozen in the state.
Without providing specifics, she said, “We also want to make it easier for families to raise backyard chickens.”
As President Donald Trump readies tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Rollins said the USDA is considering temporary import options to reduce eggs costs.
“This five-point strategy won’t erase the problem overnight, but we’re confident that it will restore stability to the egg market over the next three to six months,” Rollins wrote. “This approach will also ensure stability over the next four years and beyond.”
