Farmer Explains The Real Reasons Why Eggs Are So Expensive
It comes down to two issues that the powers that be have done nothing about.
BearFotos | Shutterstock Remember back in August 2024 when President Donald Trump swore that he'd bring grocery prices down on "day one" of his presidency? You may have noticed that that has not materialized — and, in fact, many items, most notably eggs, have gone up since he took office.
But what's behind the price increase? Everyone seems to have an opinion, but one farmer claimed the answer is very simple. While it's not the President's fault per se, the actions of his administration certainly haven't helped.
The farmer said there are two real reasons why eggs are so expensive.
The price of eggs has become a hot-button and highly politicized issue — some even theorized back in November that egg prices were quite literally what cost Vice President Kamala Harris the election. That's probably overstating, but polling shows grocery prices and inflation, in general, were among the top reasons independent and swing voters chose Trump.
But a bit over a month into his presidency, not only have his promises to immediately bring prices down not materialized, but egg prices are now through the roof. As of February 24, 2025, they've hit an all-time high of $8.06 per dozen on average.
On "day one" of Trump's term, just over a month ago, eggs were $4.59. Since then, food prices have gone up across the board. So has gas. So has housing. So has inflation.
So what is going on, exactly? In a TikTok, a farmer explained what he's witnessed as someone who himself raises chickens for their eggs, and it's actually all very simple.
Part of the reason is that bird flu is decimating poultry flocks, causing egg shortages.
Chris Newman, a Virginia farmer who makes content under the TikTok handle @sylvanaquafarms, which is also the name of his farm, is in the poultry business. After controversy arose online about whether or not bird flu was responsible for egg prices, he decided to set the record straight based on his experience.
He addressed people asking if bird flu is real or if the price hikes are BS. "The answer is: it's both," Newman said. Both the current bird flu strain, H5N1, and bird flu in general have been circulating and causing trouble for several years now, with little disruption to egg prices. But now, the problem has turned a corner of sorts.
"Unlike the last couple of outbreaks of bird flu, this time it's hitting all major production flocks," Newman explained. "So it's not only hitting conventional cage birds" — which are notoriously sicklier than other types of poultry due to their close quarters — "but it's also hitting cage-free, organic, it's hitting the backyard [farmers]. It's really serious this time."
Newman said the U.S. egg-laying chicken flock "usually hovers just under 400 million chickens," or around 382 million in 2023 according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As of February 2025, some 20 million of those chickens have died or been culled due to bird flu.
"That's a real supply chop," Newman said. "Like, as somebody that does this for a living, that would cause prices to go up. That would disrupt the supply chain, absolutely." But as is all too often the case these days, that's only part of the story.
Newman said sellers and corporations are also using shortages to justify price-gouging — or 'greedflation.'
"Now here's where the BS comes in," Newman said. "Major producers, who are the ones who are mostly being hit by this outbreak of bird flu, they're probably raising prices more than they really need to."
This has been the story of groceries, and pretty much everything else, for years now — companies have been artificially jacking up prices under the guise of inflation since at least 2021, with studies showing that at least half of the "inflation" we've seen since the pandemic is just price gouging, a process known as "greedflation." Several corporations have even since admitted to it.
But Newman said with eggs, it goes beyond just big corporate farms and grocers. "Yesterday I went to visit one of my oldest customers," Newman said of a nearby butcher shop he supplies. "They told me that their current supplier of eggs," a farm in Pennsylvania, "called this butcher shop overnight and said, 'we're raising our egg prices 50%.'"
Newman also explained in another video that this is partly because chickens are ready for harvesting for meat much sooner than they are ready to lay eggs — about six weeks for the former, versus 16 to 24 for the latter. This is part of why the meat supply hasn't been affected by bird flu as much as the egg supply, and why the egg market has turned into what Newman called "a self-serving grift."
The Trump Administration's actions seem to have made the egg and bird flu situation worse.
A slew of employees at the USDA were among the waves of supposedly superfluous, wasteful federal workers to be fired by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, including most of the workforce tasked with tackling the bird flu outbreak.
Days later, the USDA was scrambling to hire those workers back as the bird flu crisis deepened. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions," a spokesperson said in a statement, "and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission."
The Trump Administration's communication blackout among public health agencies and lack of cooperation with the World Health Organization has continued, however, even as human cases of the sickness increase.
As for grocery prices soaring since he took office, Trump doesn't seem to see any connection — he has simply blamed the problem on Joe Biden while promising his Secretary of Agriculture will "do something" about it. Musk has vowed to tackle inflation issues with more government spending cuts, which has convinced neither economists nor the American public, according to polling.
Of course, even if any of that did work, it wouldn't address the other part of the egg problem, the price-gouging and corporate greedflation Kamala Harris vowed to tackle as part of her economic plan. If only this information had been readily available for months before Americans angry about grocery prices went into the voting booth back in November. Oh well, better luck next time.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.