Tag: food

Largest US Egg Producer Cal-Maine Under DOJ Price Investigation

Cal-Maine Foods Inc., the nation’s largest egg producer, on Tuesday acknowledged that it is being investigated by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division over the national increase in egg prices.

The brief admission in its newest financial report made headlines and the company’s shares fell by about 4 percent in after-hours trading.

“In March 2025, the Company received a civil investigative demand in connection with a widely publicized investigation by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice into the causes behind nationwide increases in egg prices,” Cal-Maine said in its financial report for its third quarter on Tuesday. “The Company is cooperating with the investigation.”

Egg prices have hit record highs in recent months, largely due to a bird flu epidemic that has forced farmers to slaughter more than 166 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens.

One dozen Grade A eggs cost an average of $5.90 in U.S. cities in February, up 10.4 percent from a year ago. That eclipsed January’s record-high price of $4.95.

The Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine accounts for roughly 20 percent of the nation’s egg supply.

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US Peanut Allergy Epidemic Sprang From Experts’ Exactly-Wrong Guidance

In the 1980s, peanut allergies were almost entirely unheard-of. Today, the United States has one of the highest peanut-allergy rates in the world. Disturbingly, this epidemic was precipitated by institutions that exist to promote public health. The story of their malpractice illuminates the fallibility of respected institutions, and confirms that public health’s catastrophically incorrect guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t an isolated anomaly.

The roots of this particular example of expert-inflicted mass suffering can be found in the early 1990s, when the existence of peanut allergies — still a very rare and mostly low-risk phenomenon at the time — first came to public notice. Their entry into public consciousness began with studies published by medical researchers. By the mid-1990s, however, major media outlets were running attention-grabbing stories of hospitalized children and terrified parents. The Great Parental Peanut Panic was on.

As fear and dread mounted, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a professional association of tens of thousands of US pediatricians, felt compelled to tell parents how to prevent their children from becoming the latest victims. “There was just one problem: They didn’t know what precautions, if any, parents should take,” wrote then-Johns Hopkins surgeon and now-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in his 2024 book, Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health.

Ignorance proved no obstacle. Lacking humility and seeking to bolster its reputation as an authoritative organization, the AAP in 2000 handed down definitive instructions: Parents should avoid feeding any peanut product to children under 3 years old who were believed to have a high risk of developing a peanut allergy; pregnant and lactating mothers were likewise cautioned against consuming peanuts.

The AAP noted that “the ability to determine which infants are at high risk is imperfect.” Indeed, simply having a relative with any kind of allergy could land a child or mother in the “high risk” category. Believing they were erring on the side of caution, pediatricians across the country started giving blanket instructions that children shouldn’t be fed any peanut food until age 3; pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were told to steer clear too.

What was the basis of the AAP’s pronouncement? The organization was simply parroting guidance that the UK Department of Health had put forth in 1998. Makary scoured that guidance for a scientific rationale, and found a declaration that mothers who eat peanuts were more likely to have children with allergies, with the claim attributed to a 1996 study. When he checked the study, however, he was shocked to find the data demonstrated no such correlation. The study’s author, Irish pediatric professor Jonathan Hourihane, was himself shocked to see his study used to justify the policy. “It’s ridiculous,” he told Makary. “It’s not what I wanted people to believe.”

Despite the policy’s lack of scientific foundation, the US government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) fully endorsed the AAP guidance. In time, it would be all too apparent that — as with public health’s later response to Covid-19 — the experts weren’t erring on the side of caution, they were erring on the side of catastrophe.

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Socialist NYC Mayoral Candidate Wants City-Owned Grocery Stores

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a far left socialist and he wants the Big Apple to have government owned grocery stores.

This idea has been tried before and it failed miserably. Anyone who knows history remembers the images of bare shelves in government owned grocery stores in the former Soviet Union.

Mamdani recently shared a survey on Twitter/X showing that New Yorkers support his idea.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also pushed this terrible idea.

From City Journal:

One of his more curious proposals, about which he is buoyant, is to open city-owned and city-managed grocery stores. His campaign literature explains that these municipal stores will be “focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit. Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers. They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.”

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RFK Jr. Moves to Cut Soda from List of Approved Food Stamp Purchases – Pay Attention to Who Is Fighting Him on It

If HHS Secretary and healthy food advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his way, SNAP will stand for Soda Not Allowed Period.

On Friday, Kennedy brought his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign to West Virginia, where Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that he will be seeking permission from the Department of Agriculture to put soda on the list of items that cannot be bought through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often referred to by its former name of food stamps, according to The Washington Post.

“Taxpayer dollars should be targeted toward nutritious foods,” Morrisey said.

Kennedy issued a full-throated request for states to copy Morrisey’s lead.

“I urge every Governor to follow West Virginia’s lead and submit a waiver to the USDA to remove soda from SNAP,” Kennedy said in a statement, according to Newsweek.

“If there’s one thing we can agree on, it should be eliminating taxpayer-funded soda subsidies for lower income kids. I look forward to inviting every Governor who submits a waiver to come celebrate with me at the White House this fall,” he said.

Waging a SNAP war on soda is opposed by Valerie Imbruce, director of the Center for Environment and Society at Washington College.

“Controlling how the poor eat is a paternalistic response to a problem that is not based in SNAP recipients’ inability to make good decisions about healthy foods, it is a problem of the price differential in choosing healthy or junk foods,” she said.

“Soda and candy are much cheaper and more calorie dense than 100 percent fruit juices or prebiotic non-artificially sweetened carbonated beverages, thanks to price supports and subsidies by the federal government to support a U.S. sugar industry,” she added.

The soda industry was also miffed, the Post noted.

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Organic Industry Watchdog Group Calls On HHS Secretary Kennedy To ‘Save True Meaning’ Of Organics

An organic industry watchdog group is calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to protect organic farmers and food from corrupt practices allowed by previous administrations.

In a letter to Kennedy, Organic Eye asked Kennedy to “actively intervene to save the true meaning of the organic label,” and offered to collaborate with him on that process.

As the organic industry has expanded over the last two decades, Organic Eye Executive Director Mark Kastel said major agro-industry players have come to dominate the industry, drowning out the voices of the family farmers who started it.

Agro-industry has successfully lobbied the USDA to allow practices — like hydroponic vegetable production and industrial meat, egg and milk production —  to be certified as “organic” even though they don’t meet the original intent of the Organic Foods Production Act Congress passed in 1990, which established organics as an alternative to industrial farming, he said.

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Farmer and Doctor Agree: Poultry Mass Destruction Must Stop

Here is some background on Salatin and the “Polyface Story”

In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations. Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.

Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world. The Salatins continue to refine their models to push environmentally-friendly farming practices toward new levels of expertise.

Gornoski does a masterful job framing the issues. Salatin believes we should let a natural immunity strategy play out and only cull the sick birds. I can tell you as a doctor, The Wellness Company did not wait for the government agencies to step in and protect farmers like Salatin. We announced the Prevent and Protect Program to supply our critical poultry and egg suppliers with bird flu kits which will help keep the workers safe as they allow flocks to develop natural immunity.

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Egg Price Collapse Scrambles Democrats’ Inflation Propaganda Against Trump

Democrats just had their egg-related misinformation and disinformation campaign against the president scrambled, as new USDA data reveals a third consecutive week of price declines at supermarkets. The drop follows President Trump’s recent countermeasures to stabilize national supply after the Biden-Harris administration’s reckless culling of 150 million egg-laying hens plunged the industry into turmoil and sparked egg-flation.

Even leftist ABC News had to acknowledge falling USDA egg prices. 

This followed weeks of Democrats and leftist corporate media attempting to pin the egg crisis on Trump. 

USDA egg prices hit a historic high of $8.17 per dozen on March 3, roughly two weeks ago. Since then, prices have more than halved.

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Why the Egg Industry Is Pushing for a Bird Flu Vaccine

The decision is complex because vaccination would instantly cut off more than half of the United States’ poultry exports due to trade provisions that forbid vaccination.

Even before any vaccine is approved, government officials are talking to international partners to soften the blow on the U.S. chicken export business in the eventuality that the United States deploys a vaccine.

Bird flu and the culling measures taken to attempt to stop its spread have wiped out 166 million birds in the United States since the current outbreak began in February 2022. This has driven up egg prices and triggered isolated shortages around the nation.

Over the past decade, the United States has faced two large outbreaks of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu. The first outbreak, which occurred over the winter of 2014–15, hit the egg and turkey industries hard but was halted through the culling of sick birds, movement controls, and strict biosecurity measures.

The current bird flu outbreak has continued almost nonstop since February 2022 and the old strategy has so far failed to break the tide of the infection. As a result, both producers and regulators are considering a vaccine as a solution, even though it could cause extensive damage to the lucrative chicken export business.

Vaccination on the Table

The crisis has drawn the attention of the White House. During an address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, President Donald Trump said the price of eggs was “out of control” and called on his Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, to “do a good job” of handling the issue.

Rollins announced the first step in carrying out that objective on Feb. 26. Along with committing as much as $1 billion to fight bird flu and drive down egg prices, Rollins announced the USDA will be taking the extraordinary step of exploring “vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovative solutions to minimize depopulation of egg-laying chickens.”

Using a vaccine is a tricky subject in the poultry world because of the significant potential international trade impacts.

Greg Tyler, the president and CEO of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, told The Epoch Times that if the United States started vaccinating today, as much as $3 billion worth of the country’s $5.8 billion poultry export market could be instantly closed off.

A senior USDA official who spoke with The Epoch Times confirmed that the agency considers vaccination an option to fight bird flu but it hasn’t made any final decisions and won’t rush to make any.

Rollins, the official said, understands the complexity of the issue and will consult with all parties in state governments, the agriculture industry, and the international trade community before making any decision.

The official said Rollins understands that vaccination is not the only solution to the country’s bird flu problem and may well not be the best possible solution. Logistically, the official said, vaccinating birds would be difficult as the technology does not yet exist for a dose to be administered without physically injecting birds.

The USDA has not yet approved any bird flu vaccine for use in the United States.

Tyler said he’s aware of a governmental effort to present a vaccination plan to the U.S.’s major trading partners to solicit each country’s feedback and, therefore, minimize trade impacts. Previously, he said, government officials were rushing to vaccination as a “quick fix” to drop egg prices. Still, he said the education offered by the poultry industry and elected officials from states with a significant poultry industry led to a more measured approach surrounding vaccination.

Ultimately, Tyler said the U.S. poultry industry wants to move ahead with vaccination if it helps the domestic egg industry, but a solution that doesn’t interfere with the massive U.S. export business needs to be found.

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HERO: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ends FDA Loophole Allowing Big Food to Sneak Harmful Chemicals Into U.S. Food Supply

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now serving as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under President Trump, has announced a bold initiative to eliminate harmful chemicals from America’s food supply.

Kennedy’s announcement, made via an X post and an accompanying video, exposed the catastrophic failures of the FDA’s so-called Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) designation.

Originally intended to apply to simple ingredients like salt and baking soda, GRAS has been hijacked by corporate interests to sneak in potentially dangerous chemicals—no testing, no oversight, and no accountability.

“I am directing the FDA commissioner to start the process of changing the rules to eliminate the self-affirmed GRAS pathway for new ingredients,” said RFK Jr.

“I am also calling on the US FDA and NIH to continue to conduct and improve post-market assessments of GRAS chemicals currently in our food so we can rapidly identify the compounds that are making Americans so sick and so that American consumers and regulators can make informed decisions. This is an important step in our pursuit to Make America Healthy Again.”

In a video statement accompanying his post, Kennedy exposed how unelected bureaucrats and corporate interests have been playing fast and loose with public health, prioritizing profits over American well-being.

Kennedy laid out a shocking reality: 10,000 chemicals are currently lurking in the U.S. food supply, while Europe has banned all but 400.

Instead of requiring proof of safety before approving new food additives, the United States allows corporations to rubber-stamp their own chemicals as “safe”—no independent review necessary.

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RFK Jr. Warns Against Vaccinating Chickens For Bird Flu

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advised against providing vaccines to poultry amid a bird flu outbreak that has caused a steep increase in egg prices in recent months.

In an interview with Fox News on March 11, Kennedy said his primary concern with providing shots to egg-laying chickens is that the vaccine doesn’t provide complete protection against avian influenza.

“All of my agencies advise against vaccination of birds because if you vaccinate with a leaky vaccine—in other words, a vaccine that does not provide sterilizing immunity, that does not absolutely protect against the disease—you turn those flocks into mutation factories,” he said in the interview.

It is “much more likely” to jump to other animals at that point, Kennedy said, adding that officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and Food and Drug Administration advised against vaccinating birds.

“It’s dangerous for human beings to vaccinate the birds,” he said.

Since an outbreak of bird flu in the United States started in 2022, millions of egg-laying hens have been culled to prevent the spread of the virus. Egg prices have skyrocketed as a result, increasing to $4.95 per dozen on average in January 2025, according to recent data.

“We’ve killed 166 million chickens. That’s why we have an egg crisis,” Kennedy told Fox’s Sean Hannity, adding that bird flu is not transmissible via eggs or food.

“Most of our scientists are against the culling operation. They think that we should be testing therapeutics on those flocks. They should isolate. You should let the disease go with them and identify the birds that survive, which are the birds that probably have a genetic inclination for immunity.”

The price for a dozen had consistently been about $2 for decades before the disease struck. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said recently that it expects egg prices to rise by 41 percent in 2025.

But the USDA reported last week that egg shortages are easing and wholesale prices are dropping, which might provide relief on the retail side before this year’s late Easter, which is three weeks later than last year’s. It said there had been no major bird flu outbreak for two weeks.

“Shoppers have begun to see shell egg offerings … becoming more reliable although retail price levels have yet to adjust and remain off-putting to many,” the agency wrote in a March 7 report.

As for bird flu spreading to people, the CDC has said the risk to the public remains low.

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