“Inflation was already spiraling out of control when the current bird flu outbreak began in February 2022. Eggs have often led the inflation charge, today costing over twice as much as just a few years ago. Meanwhile, bird flu has now jumped to commercial dairies, infecting dozens of farmworkers along the way. Disease experts warn that future mutations or viral reassortment with the seasonal flu could unleash the next global pandemic. The corporate food system is to blame for exacerbating the scale of the outbreak as well as the high cost of eggs. Factory farms are virus incubators, with the movement of animals, machines, and workers between operations helping to spread the virus.”
“Meanwhile, just a handful of companies produce the majority of our eggs, giving them outsized control over the prices paid by retailers, who often pass on rising costs to consumers. This highly consolidated food system also enables companies to leverage a temporary shortage in one region to raise prices across the entire country,” says a new report from group Food and Water Watch.