LOWERING EGG COSTS: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Shares Plan to Lower Egg Prices in Op-Ed

By Brooke L. Rollins

Egg prices are skyrocketing, and it isn’t simply a matter of inflation. Grocery prices rose by more than 20% on President Biden’s watch, but the average price of a dozen eggs went up 237%, from $1.47 in January 2021 to $4.95 last month. This matters for American families because eggs are a healthy, accessible and generally affordable source of protein.

In many cases, families are seeing prices of $6, $7, $10 or more. This is due in part to continuing outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has devastated American poultry farmers and slashed the egg supply over the past two years.

The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed. By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously. To that end, today I am announcing a comprehensive strategy to combat avian influenza. The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again. We are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending. We will repurpose some of those dollars by investing in long-term solutions to avian flu, which has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022.

There’s no silver bullet to eradicating avian flu. That’s why we have developed a five-pronged strategy. First, we will dedicate up to $500 million to helping U.S. poultry producers implement gold-standard biosecurity measures. This week, I visited an egg-production farm in Texas, where I saw stringent measures to prevent any contamination. Vehicles are hosed down before entering the property; workers must wear protective gear and shower before entering and on leaving. Yet avian flu can still penetrate such a facility; it is transmitted through wild birds that often enter through perimeter gaps that need to be fixed.

USDA has developed a successful pilot program, called Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments, to identify and implement more safety measures. Between January 2023 and January 2025, about 150 sites have undergone assessments, and producers have addressed the risks that USDA inspectors identified. Only one of these sites has subsequently been affected by avian flu. USDA will now provide this consulting service at no cost to all commercial egg-laying chicken farms. We will also pay up to 75% of the cost to repair biosecurity vulnerabilities.

Second, we will make up to $400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu, and we will assist them in receiving faster approval to begin safe operations again after an outbreak.

Read the full op-ed over at The Wall Street Journal:

Rollins also shared her plan on Fox News on Wednesday morning.

Watch that clip below:

{Matzav.com}