The Problem with Eggs

A special report on a Trump “Day 1” promise

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Trump promised to bring down grocery prices on “Day One”. So what happened to eggs?

Hello The Rural Angle readers. It has now been two months since Trump came into office promising to bring down grocery prices on “Day One”. Instead, as you all know, the price of eggs at the grocery store has just kept on climbing. In fact, the USDA predicts that the price of eggs could jump 43% this year! So much for “Day One”.

The White House’s response was to blame egg shortages on the avian flu. USDA eventually announced a $1 billion plan to combat it, which relies in part on funding already approved under the Biden administration to deal with the crisis.

The avian flu is certainly a short-term problem. However, the truth is that egg prices have been going through the roof for awhile — and egg shortages have been rampant. And the common excuse that avian flu is the principal cause is simply wrong. A fascinating report by the monopoly newsletter BIG shows that, as the egg industry has merged into a few monopolistic companies, the disease has become another handy excuse to keep egg production down — and do some serious price gouging.

Take, for example, Cal-Maine, the nation’s largest egg producer. Its annual gross profits in the past three years have soared to between 3 and 6 times what it used to earn before the avian flu epidemic started — breaking $1 billion for the first time in the company’s history”. In short, as has happened in many other industries (where monopolists have taken advantage of Republican obstruction of government oversight), large egg producers have been able to pad their profits by gobbling up their competition.

To make matters worse, they have formed an industry association – an “egg cartel” – through which they can force smaller producers to toe the line. This cartel is the most likely reason why egg retail prices have barely changed in recent weeks even though wholesale prices have dropped dramatically.

On top of that, two companies that provide hens to egg producers, one a private-equity owned Dutch firm, the other owned by a German billionaire, “have systematically gained control over the supply of egg-laying hens to American producers by buying out or suppressing rivals and challengers.

The net result is supply has been suppressed and prices raised, so that profit margins can go sky high, even during a chicken disease pandemic. Sound familiar? That is exactly what happened when the covid pandemic ended as companies in many industries, from oil to groceries, jacked up their profits.

So it turns out that Trump didn’t actually have a plan for how to deal with the root causes of high egg prices. Instead, he asked his Agricultural Secretary to “look into it”.

Meanwhile, what is the first thing he told his new FTC head to do? Go after DEI initiatives! Alvaro Bedoya, one of the Democrats on the FTC, who has been calling for going after the egg monopoly, dissented. He said that he has met folks all over the country struggling with higher prices and “Let me tell you what they didn’t talk about: ‘DEI.’” Shortly thereafter, Bedoya and the other Democrat on the FTC board were fired (without cause, which is probably illegal as such agencies are designed by Congress to be bipartisan).

Only now, two months later, has the FTC finally begun an investigation of illegal monopoly practices in the egg industry.

The Rural Angle has written regularly about the damage done to rural communities by monopolies, including columns on pharmacy benefit managers, health care providers, grocery store consolidation and Big Oil price gouging to name a few. To his credit, Trump seems to have broken with decades of Republican party support for big business monopolies.

Unfortunately, he also seems to be intent on destroying our only hope for breaking up monopoly power - strong government oversight. Because without government to serve as the referee that guarantees a level business playing field, monopolies will keep on winning. And your eggs (and much else) will stay expensive.

PS: We don’t like you, but could you spare an egg anyway?

Desperate to find a new source of eggs, Trump’s USDA sent a letter in February to several countries, including Denmark, asking them to send eggs to America. Denmark, however, once one of our closest friends and allies, has been attacked, threatened, and insulted repeatedly by Trump in his bizarre ,quest to takeover Greenland. The Danish Egg Association quickly replied that they had…. no eggs to spare. Or maybe just not for America? Sometimes it might really be nice to have a friend…

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/hatching-a-conspiracy-a-big-investigation?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=1frduf&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/fowl-play-how-chicken-genetics-barons

https://www.foodandpower.net/latest/egg-prices-bird-flu-corporate-consolidation-feb-25

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ftc-andrew-ferguson-alvaro-bedoya-dei_n_6792e841e4b0067621f84b16

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/business/egg-prices-bird-flu-producers.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/business/us-egg-prices-investigation.html

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-fires-2-democrats-federal-trade-commission/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/16/egg-prices-tariffs-trump-costs/82470172007/

https://time.com/7259818/exclusive-denmark-frederiksen-trump-greenland-interview/

https://apnews.com/article/record-egg-prices-usda-bird-flu-virus-92e9f5fbc4e0a792be484a4aee5b9c16

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