Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has hit the ground running with a five-pronged strategy to combat the inflated price of eggs.

Egg prices are skyrocketing, and it isn’t simply a matter of inflation. Grocery prices rose by more than 20% on President Biden’s watch, but the average price of a dozen eggs went up 237%, from $1.47 in January 2021 to $4.95 last month. This matters for American families because eggs are a healthy, accessible and generally affordable source of protein.

In many cases, families are seeing prices of $6, $7, $10 or more. This is due in part to continuing outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has devastated American poultry farmers and slashed the egg supply over the past two years.

The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed. By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously. To that end, today I am announcing a comprehensive strategy to combat avian influenza.

Rollins plans to make a $1 billion investment toward that end, ultimately reducing the inflation on eggs. Rollins is also working with DOGE to find and cut the wasteful spending at the Department of Agriculture. Rollins' aim is to repurpose the appropriated dollars into long-term solutions to combat avian flu. Since 2022, the Biden administration culled 166 million laying hens as their solution to address the virus.

Rollins outlined her strategy thusly:

1. Biodiversity and Biosecurity Measures

Rollins plans to allot up to $500 million to assist U.S. poultry producers in implementing gold-standard biosecurity measures. 

2. Financial Relief to Affected Farmers

The USDA will increase to $400 million the financial relief to farmers whose flocks have been affected by avian flu. Rollins also plans to cut through the red tape so that farmers can receive faster approval to remount their laying operations once an outbreak is quelled.

.@SecRollins discusses USDA's commitment to investing in biosecurity, repopulating chicken farms, and cutting burdensome regulations to combat the effects of avian flu:

"American taxpayers, American consumers, and American poultry farmers have relief coming." pic.twitter.com/c4rHMNXgGb

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 26, 2025

3. Vaccines and Therapeutics for Laying Chickens

The USDA plans to provide up to $100 million in research and development of vaccines and therapeutics.

4. Targeted Actions to Lower Egg Prices 

These actions include removing unnecessary federal and state regulation where possible which limits the production of egg farmers, and making it easier for families to raise their own laying chickens. Many municipalities, even rural ones, refuse to allow families to have their own hens, which would not only allow families to feed themselves, but would allow them to share and sell their produce. I pay $3.00 for a dozen eggs because I buy them from a private farm instead of a food retailer.

5. Import Eggs from Other Countries

Finally, we will consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term. We will proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent U.S. safety standards and if we determine that doing so won’t jeopardize American farmers’ access to markets in the future. 

Among the five options, this is the least attractive and could create a domino effect that would further hamper small and local farmers.

In terms of flu resistance, regenerative Farmer Joel Salatin has an even better solution: breed avian-flu resistant birds, which would ultimately eliminate the need for vaccines.

Farmer Joel Salatin on bird flu immunity:

"The thing that gets me about avian influenza is the response to it. In any flock that gets avian influenza, there are always survivors—many times, more survivors than not.

Now, you would think that if the people in charge were actually… pic.twitter.com/Bbvc1rH0Ue

— Jonny Paradise (@plantparadise7) February 19, 2025

Farmer Joel Salatin on bird flu immunity: 

"The thing that gets me about avian influenza is the response to it. In any flock that gets avian influenza, there are always survivors—many times, more survivors than not. 

Now, you would think that if the people in charge were actually thinking, they would say, "Huh, we’ve got a flock here of chickens. Some got it, some didn’t. Why don’t we save the ones that didn’t? 

 We’ll take their genetics, breed them, and maybe we’ll actually breed in more robust immune systems. Wow, fancy that! Wouldn’t that be cool?" 

"No. If you have 10,000 birds in a flock and one bird’s got avian influenza, immediately, by government decree, all of them must be exterminated." 

 All of them—survivors, non-survivors—everything. 

Back many years ago, when a pathogenic influenza hit Indochina—remember when it came through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and all that?—the UK did some experiments. They found that if a chicken eats two fresh blades of grass a day—two blades of fresh grass a day—she doesn’t get avian influenza."

But the very fact that action is being taken and solutions being offered to combat the egg crisis gives hope that the new USDA is forging different pathways that benefit the American farmer and the American consumer. 

Rollins appeared on America's Newsroom on Wednesday to discuss her five-pronged strategy.

WATCH:

NEW: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins tackling a new approach to bird flu & the rising price of eggs. pic.twitter.com/Ejh6EVWz7Z

— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) February 26, 2025