Tag: food

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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Here’s How the Media Is Covering up Plunging Egg Prices

Earlier this week, we reported that the price of a dozen eggs, which had reached a record high of $8.17 in early March, had fallen by more than two dollars, now sitting well below the $7 average when President Trump took office in January. As I pointed out at the time, this was bad news for Democrats, who had hoped that sky-high egg prices would be the silver bullet to drive down Trump’s approval ratings and fuel a Democratic resurgence. But with egg prices continuing to drop, the left-wing media has now stepped in to claim that egg prices are still on the rise.

According to Trading Economics, the price of a dozen eggs is now below $5/dozen, lower than they were around Christmastime last year. But the mainstream media doesn’t want you to know that.

Reporting on the declining rate of inflation in February, ABC News didn’t report on the latest egg prices. Instead, the network declared, “Egg prices, however, a closely watched symbol of price increases, soared 58.8% in February compared to a year ago, accelerating from the previous month.”

They weren’t alone. 

“Egg Prices Are Still Surging, Hitting Consumers’ Wallets,” the New York Times claimed in a headline on Wednesday, even though egg prices were actually declining.

“Egg prices continued their upward climb in February despite some easing in overall inflation, further straining consumers seeking relief from rising prices in the grocery aisles,” the article noted, completely ignoring the sharp decline in March.

MarketWatch was no better.

The cost of eggs jumped a little more than 10% in February after a 15% increase in January — and prices are likely to remain high for a while.

The surge in egg prices stems from outbreaks of the avian flu that have resulted in millions of chickens being slaughtered. It takes at least several months for egg-laying chickens to repopulate.

Not only that, but Easter is just around the corner. It’s the biggest egg-selling period of the year and is likely to keep upward pressure on egg prices given the increased demand.

The Trump administration has announced its intention to lower the cost of eggs, but the effort is just getting under way, and it’s unclear whether and how it will work.

Yahoo! Finance also ignored the recent data to cover up the sharp decline in egg prices.

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RFK Jr. Seeks To End Rule Allowing Food Companies To Bypass FDA Ingredient Approval

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on March 10 that it is seeking to terminate a rule allowing food manufacturers to use additives without formal regulatory approval.

The Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) rule allows companies to self-approve the inclusion of additives in food items without requiring a review and the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The rule enables manufacturers to add an ingredient even if the FDA has not determined its safety.

On Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the acting FDA commissioner to explore the possibility of eliminating the “self-affirmed GRAS pathway” available to companies, the department said in a statement.

“This will enhance the FDA’s oversight of ingredients considered to be GRAS and bring transparency to American consumers,” HHS said.

As of now, manufacturers submit notices through the FDA’s GRAS notification program, which is not a mandatory process. The agency assesses 75 such submitted notices on average each year.

By eliminating the self-affirm pathway, companies would be required to publicly notify the FDA before introducing new ingredients to food items. The notification must include details such as underlying safety data and the intended use of the ingredients

A 2022 analysis conducted by the activist organization Environmental Working Group found that “nearly 99 percent of all food chemicals introduced since 2000 were greenlighted for use by the food and chemical industry” through the GRAS rule, without requiring FDA approval.

Out of the 766 new chemicals added to the food supply since 2000, only 10 involved companies petitioning the FDA to approve the ingredient.

Nine out of the 10 FDA petitions were filed before 2010. The only petition filed post-2010 was in 2018, EWG said.

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USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks

The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending.

Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association.

State officials were notified Friday of USDA’s decision to end the LFS program for this year. More than 40 states had signed agreements to participate in previous years, according to SNA and several state agencies.

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which supports food banks and other feeding organizations, has also been cut. USDA notified states that it was unfreezing funds for existing LFPA agreements but did not plan to carry out a second round of funding for fiscal year 2025.

In a statement, a USDA spokesperson confirmed that funding, previously announced last October, “is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.”

The spokesperson added: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance.”

The Biden administration expanded the spending for both programs to build a more resilient food supply chain that didn’t just rely on major food companies. Last year, USDA announced more than $1 billion in additional funding for the programs through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a New Deal-era USDA fund for buying agricultural commodities.

The Trump administration’s move to halt the programs comes as school nutrition officials are becoming increasingly anxious about affording healthy food with the current federal reimbursement rate for meals. As food costs have risen in the last few years, more people are turning to food banks and other feeding organizations to supplement their increased grocery bills.

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Trump’s DOJ Launches Investigation Into Soaring Egg Prices

The Department of Justice under President Trump has officially launched an investigation into the staggering surge in egg prices, which is expected to rise by more than 40% in 2025.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the DOJ has sent letters to major egg producers, demanding they preserve documents related to their pricing discussions with customers and competitors, as well as communications with Expana—formerly Urner Barry—a business publisher that tracks egg prices.

The investigation appears to be focused on determining whether major egg companies colluded to restrict supply and artificially inflate prices while raking in record-breaking profits.

The Biden administration’s economic disaster has already led to a crippling increase in food prices that have burdened American families. When Biden took office in January 2021, the average cost of a dozen eggs was just $1.47.

Fast forward to December 2024, and that same carton costs $4.15—a nearly 200% increase, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis.

Now, with some stores pricing a dozen eggs at $10 or higher, the Trump administration is stepping in to determine whether corporate price gouging has worsened the crisis.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest data indicates that the national average price of eggs has soared to an alarming $6.85.

According to ABC7, one company that has greatly benefited from this crisis is Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer of fresh eggs in the United States.

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US Scours World For Egg Supplies After Biden’s “Insane Slaughter Of 150 Million Chickens”

The Biden-Harris regime’s questionable handling of the nation’s food supply chain—leading to the culling of 150 million egg-laying chickens amid the avian flu crisis—has led to nationwide supply disruptions and record-high egg prices. There were no visible countermeasures Biden officials put in place to offset the loss of domestic production, and the out-of-control culling only created an epic disaster for consumers. Now, the Trump administration is left to manage the fallout, scrambling to secure global egg supplies in an urgent effort to stabilize prices. 

On Thursday, Elon Musk wrote on X, “It’s true. There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration.” 

The mass culling of chickens infected with avian flu—or at least what the prior administration claimed—was part of the USDA’s “stamping-out policy.” Whether depopulating entire commercial flocks was the right approach remains to be seen.

According to Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, the previous administration’s approach was simply “to just, you know, kill chickens.”

Speaking to CBS last month, Hassett stated, “They spent billions of dollars randomly killing chickens within a perimeter where they found a sick chicken.”

On Tuesday night, Trump told a joint session of Congress that “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control. And we’re working hard to get it back down.”

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Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Encourages Americans to Raise Their Own Chickens at Home

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recommended that Americans raise their own chickens to help deal with the soaring prices of eggs.

The newly confirmed official in the Cabinet of President Donald Trump made the recommendation on “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday to anchor Rachel Campos-Duffy.

“I think the silver lining in all this is how do we, in our backyards — we’ve got chickens, too, in our backyard — how do we solve for something like this?” Rollins said, according to a report from Mediaite.

“And people are sort of looking around thinking, ‘Wow, well, Maybe I can get a chicken in my backyard,’ and it’s awesome.”

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A Third of Chocolate Products Are High in Heavy Metals, CR’s Tests Find

With the holiday season approaching, many of us will be indulging in a favorite treat: chocolate. Yet despite dark chocolate’s reputation as a healthier sweet, it can also be contaminated with lead and cadmium, two heavy metals linked to serious health problems, as many people learned from Consumer Reports’ testing last year.

Now CR has the results of our new tests on heavy metal levels in other kinds of chocolates and foods made with it.

In chocolate products, the lead and cadmium are concentrated in the cocoa (or cacao), the ingredient that gives chocolate its distinctive flavor. Dark chocolate tends to have higher levels of cacao. But other chocolate products contain cacao, too, in varying quantities—from cocoa powder, which is essentially pure cocoa, to milk chocolate, which can have very little.

CR’s experts wanted to see whether other cacao-containing foods posed a risk, so we tested 48 different products in seven categories—cocoa powder, chocolate chips, milk chocolate bars, and mixes for brownies, chocolate cake, and hot chocolate. We also added a few more dark chocolate bars to our test. Products came from big name brands such as Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, and Nestlé; national retailers like Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Whole Foods; and specialty makers such as Droste and Navitas.

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