Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is sticking it to the “radical Left” on Nationwide Egg Day by bragging about falling costs, however her celebration doesn’t fairly seize the bigger image.
“PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” she crowed on X Tuesday, claiming that “For months, the radical Left gloated over soaring egg prices, desperately pinning their failures on President Trump.”
However Rollins’ guarantees, not not like her boss Donald Trump’s, are being saved in glass henhouses.
The worth of eggs was certainly down as of Tuesday after a fowl flu epidemic that curtailed the provision for months. Individuals are as soon as once more having fun with an over-easy breakfast with out breaking the financial institution—thanks, partly, to Rollins’ short-term import plan.
To attempt to ease the ache of a decimated egg provide and subsequent record-high costs, Rollins opted to import 1.6 million eggs from Turkey, Brazil, and South Korea in January and February alone.
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Nevertheless, this short-term repair solely serves as a Band-Support whereas struggling hen farmers throughout the US work to revive egg manufacturing to regular ranges. And persevering with to lean on international locations like Turkey and Brazil is likely to be troublesome as they cope with their very own bouts of fowl flu, in line with Reuters.
And whereas Rollins gave herself a pat on the again Tuesday, one of many largest egg suppliers within the Southwest was nonetheless grappling with the lack of almost 6 million hens.
Hickman’s Household Farms in Arizona was hit by the extremely pathogenic avian influenza, also called HPAI, forcing the provider to shut its operations. The farm, which employs about 850 individuals, is predicted to have huge layoffs as nicely.
CEO Glenn Hickman pointed a finger at Rollins’ inaction for why hundreds of thousands of chickens are lifeless. Regardless of the USDA granting conditional approval in February for a poultry vaccine, the billion-dollar meat business has lobbied in opposition to its use within the U.S. as a result of some international locations gained’t purchase vaccinated meat.
“The federal government knows that vaccination works,” Hickman mentioned throughout a press convention on Might 30. “Some European countries are already vaccinating their poultry.”
The Trump administration appears to be siding with the billion-dollar meat business for now. Then once more, it wouldn’t be the primary time Rollins selected large enterprise over staff and customers.
In different phrases, Rollins is making an attempt to have her eggs and eat them too.
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