ICYMI: Secretary Brooke Rollins Outlines Plan to Lower Egg Prices

TLDR

This press release/OpEd claims to commit $1 billion to address record-high egg prices caused by avian influenza outbreaks. The plan includes legitimate elements like biosecurity measures ($500M), farmer relief ($400M), and vaccine research ($100M), but makes misleading claims about previous administration policies. The “kill all chickens” criticism mischaracterizes standard disease control protocols endorsed by global health organizations, and alternative approaches face significant implementation challenges.

First, you can actually read the OpEd here — https://archive.ph/utcTs — since the White House neglected to provide a non-paywalled link. And, since this is a public spokesperson for the U.S. Government, you can also read it in the executive document tab.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced a $1 billion plan to address skyrocketing egg prices, which have reached record highs in recent months. While the plan contains legitimate elements that address the avian influenza crisis, there are several misleading claims and contextual omissions that require examination.

Egg prices have indeed reached unprecedented levels, with the national average hitting $4.95 per dozen in January 2025, a new all-time high that surpasses the previous record from January 2023. This represents a 53% increase from the previous year. The USDA recently updated its forecast, predicting egg prices will soar by 41.1% in 2025, a significant increase from their January prediction of 20%.

The primary driver of these price increases is the ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak, which has led to the culling of millions of egg-laying hens. In January alone, an estimated 18.8 million commercial egg layers were affected by bird flu.

Claim: “The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks”

This claim is misleading. The policy of culling infected flocks to control avian influenza outbreaks has been standard USDA practice across multiple administrations, including Trump’s first term. The depopulation strategy is considered a “critical strategy” by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). The current administration is not implementing a radically different approach but rather exploring modifications to an established protocol.

Claim: “Egg prices went up 237%, from $1.47 in January 2021 to $4.95 last month”

While egg prices have significantly increased, this statistic cherry-picks the starting point to maximize the perceived increase. According to BLS data, egg prices have fluctuated considerably over the past few years, with the previous peak occurring in January 2023 at $4.82 per dozen. The current crisis represents a continuation of a problem that began during the previous administration and has persisted due to the ongoing nature of the avian influenza outbreak.

The proposed plan contains legitimate elements that could, in fact, help address the crisis:

1. Biosecurity Measures ($500 million): Expanding the Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments program has shown promise, with only one assessed site subsequently affected by avian flu.
2. Financial Relief ($400 million): Providing assistance to affected farmers is a standard response to agricultural crises.
3. Vaccine Research ($100 million): Exploring vaccination as an alternative to culling represents a shift from current policy, though the effectiveness remains unproven.
4. Regulatory Changes: The plan to examine state regulations like California’s Proposition 12 reflects a deregulatory approach consistent with the administration’s philosophy, but may have unintended consequences as will be noted, below.
5. Temporary Imports: Secretary Rollins has confirmed the administration is working to import eggs from other countries as a short-term solution.

The Trump administration’s criticism of the “kill all chickens” policy contradicts expert guidance. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, characterized the previous administration’s approach as “randomly killing chickens”, but this mischaracterizes standard disease control protocols. The WOAH emphasizes that depopulation is a “critical strategy” for controlling HPAI outbreaks.

The administration’s pilot programs to test alternatives to culling face significant challenges. As Rollins herself acknowledged, “The avian flu is an extremely fast-spreading virus, and within a couple of days it spreads so quickly that most of the chickens have died anyway”.

Additionally, the poultry industry has historically opposed vaccinating birds against avian flu due to potential impacts on export markets, as many U.S. trading partners refuse to accept imports from countries that permit vaccinations.

The proposed fourth pillar — reducing regulatory burdens on egg producers and easing restrictions on backyard poultry — aims to lower production costs and increase supply, carries significant risks that could undermine animal welfare, public health, and market stability. California’s Proposition 12, enacted in 2018, mandates cage-free housing for egg-laying hens, requiring at least 1 square foot of space per bird. While proponents argue the law improves animal welfare, critics highlight its contribution to higher egg prices—$9.68 per dozen in California compared to the national average of $4.95. Secretary Rollins’ plan to “protect farmers from overly prescriptive state laws” implies federal preemption of such regulations, which risks several unintended outcomes.

Rolling back cage-free requirements could revive conventional battery-cage systems, which confine hens to spaces as small as 67 square inches. Research shows caged hens experience higher rates of bone fractures, feather loss, and stress compared to cage-free counterparts. Reintroducing these systems would contradict growing consumer demand for ethically produced eggs, with 80% of surveyed Americans opposing cage confinement.

Preempting state laws like Proposition 12 could trigger legal battles over states’ rights to enact stricter animal welfare standards. A pending Supreme Court case (National Pork Producers Council v. Ross) challenges California’s authority to regulate out-of-state pork production, and a ruling favoring federal preemption could embolden similar challenges to egg regulations. Additionally, U.S. exporters risk noncompliance with international trade partners (e.g., the European Union), which prohibit cage eggs, potentially costing farmers access to lucrative markets.

Farmers who invested in cage-free infrastructure to comply with Proposition 12 face financial losses if federal policy shifts. Transitioning to cage-free systems costs $40–$50 per hen, and producers who borrowed capital for upgrades may struggle to compete with cheaper, non-compliant operations. This could destabilize markets and disincentivize future investments in animal welfare innovations.

Encouraging families to raise backyard chickens—a proposed measure to increase egg accessibility—poses documented public health hazards. Backyard chickens generate manure that, if improperly managed, contaminates water sources with nitrogen and pathogens. Unlike commercial farms, which must comply with EPA waste regulations, residential coops often lack runoff controls, increasing pollution risks in urban watersheds. And, raising hens at home is cost-prohibitive for most families. A Purdue University study found that backyard eggs cost $3–$5 per dozen when factoring in feed, coops, and labor—far exceeding retail prices. This inefficiency contradicts the USDA’s goal of improving affordability for low-income households.

Municipal laws governing backyard poultry vary widely, with only 50% addressing slaughter practices and 30% mandating veterinary care. Federal encouragement of backyard flocks without parallel safety standards could exacerbate existing disparities, leaving communities unprepared to manage health risks.

The USDA’s $500 million biosecurity program targets commercial farms, but backyard chickens—often exempt from such measures—remain a weak link in outbreak prevention. This fragmented approach mirrors pre-2025 criticisms of the Biden administration’s “piecemeal” avian flu response.

While the administration’s plan contains legitimate elements that could help address the egg price crisis, its characterization of the problem as primarily a result of the previous administration’s policies is misleading. The avian influenza outbreak represents a complex agricultural challenge that has persisted across multiple administrations. The effectiveness of the proposed alternatives to culling remains unproven, and the timeline for price relief may be longer than suggested.

Additionally, Secretary Rollins’ regulatory rollbacks and backyard poultry initiatives risk solving one crisis by exacerbating others. While lowering egg prices is critical for food-insecure families, achieving this through weakened animal welfare standards and unregulated poultry rearing could harm public health, consumer trust, and long-term agricultural resilience. A more balanced approach would pair targeted subsidies for cage-free farmers with rigorous safety protocols for backyard flocks, ensuring affordability does not come at the expense of ethical and sustainable food systems.

REFERENCES

• 2025-02-26: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins: My Plan to Lower Egg Prices | WSJ — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins outlines a five-point strategy to combat avian influenza and lower egg prices, which have risen 237% since January 2021 to an average of $4.95 per dozen last month. The plan includes investing up to $1 billion to implement biosecurity measures, provide financial relief to affected farmers, research vaccines and therapeutics, reduce regulatory burdens, and consider temporary egg imports that meet U.S. safety standards.