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As egg prices continue to skyrocket due to the ongoing outbreak of H5N1 avian flu, the US Secretary of Agriculture has announced a multifaceted strategy to combat disease, including an effort to dismantle voters in California, the popular Animal Welfare Act approved in 2018.
In the Wall Street Journal released Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins wrote that egg prices have increased 237% since January 2021, rising from a national average of $1.47 to $4.95 per dozen, denounced the bird flu and the Biden administration.
To “restore stability in the egg market over the next three to six months,” Rollins said USDA will “reduce this crisis and make eggs affordable again” to invest nearly $1 billion.
With support from Elon Musk’s government efficiency, the USDA will cut “number of millions of dollars of wasted spending” and redirect those funds towards “long-term solutions to avian flu,” writes Rollins. These efforts include investing in new biosecurity measures, providing economic relief to farmers who have lost their flocks, and exploring “vaccines and therapeutics to lay chickens.”
And in California, the average price for 12 eggs reached nearly $9, but the agency targets Proposal 12, which is described as “overly restrictive.”
The 2018 voting law known as the Farm Animal Abuse Prevention Act establishes minimum space requirements for calves raised for egg-soaked chickens, breeding pigs and calves.
The law prohibits California businesses from selling eggs from chickens that don’t meet the requirements, enforcing both California farmers and out-of-state suppliers to comply with the law. In 2021, the law was challenged by the North American Meat Institute, which allegedly violated the commercial provisions of the US Constitution, but the lawsuit was rejected by the US Supreme Court.
The prospect of eliminating the law raised concerns among some farmers, researchers and legal scholars.
California Poultry Federation President Bill Matos said they found comments on Prop. 12 on their commitment to combat avian flu with all poultry species while he and his organization “admire” Rollins and the Trump administration.
Matts said California egg farmers have spent millions of dollars over the past few years to upgrade and adapt the farm. Reversing the law puts California poultry farmers, as well as all other egg producers for sale to California, at a major economic disadvantage. He said that such conversions are unacceptable for most poultry, as most egg farms currently do not have cages. They will need to buy cages and invest millions of dollars to refit the facilities for such businesses, he said.
“This is not a constructive solution to avian flu, but a plan to disband most of the accepted mainstream production strategies of the American egg industry,” said Wayne Pasel, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for Humanitarian Economics. He said several states have similar laws, including Massachusetts, Nevada and Colorado.
Maurice Pitsky, a veterinarian and UC Davis poultry expert, said he was not surprised that the USDA targeted Proposition 12.
He said it was simple economics: the law reduces supply, and as a result, prices rise. “California cannot provide supply as easily as states that do not have these welfare laws,” he said.
But there’s not much that an agency can do without conduct from Congress, said Irwin Kemelinski, dean of the Law School in Berkeley, California.
Congress may pass federal laws that preempt state law. “Includes state laws adopted by voters through the initiative,” he said. Alternatively, you can grant USDA authority to preempt the law.
But will change the law actually affect the supply or price of eggs?
Daniel Sumner, professor of agriculture and resource economics in Davis, California, doesn’t think so.
“Props. 12 is almost unrelated to the impact of avian flu, and bird flu is almost unrelated to props.
“A generation ago, California was in a large egg state and we shipped eggs,” he said. However, egg production in the state gradually declined. In 2024, California produced 3 or 4% of US eggs and 10% of cageless eggs, accounting for about a third of all US eggs. He said 70% of the eggs consumed in California are imported from other states.
And he said there was no indication that the cageless herds are more or less vulnerable to the virus.
In December, he said, there was an unbalanced share of the US avian flu outbreak in Cageless flocks and California. However, in January, it was mostly herds of cages from states such as Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina.
But the law makes California consumers “more likely to point towards price spikes because when avian flu hits more harder cage-free flocks, consumers here don’t have the option to move from caged flocks to eggs. More choices reduce price flow.”
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