As families across the country will color eggs this week for Easter, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins celebrated a decrease in egg prices. She says this was an issue that spiked during former president Joe Biden’s administration.
Retail prices for eggs are still at a record high in March at an average of $5.98 a dozen. However, at the same time, wholesale egg prices have fallen by roughly half since President Donald Trump took office. Most of this change took place in March, so it could take time to reach retailers and consumers.
“Eggs have been a big driver in that under Joe Biden, increased by 230% in the last administration. Wholesale prices are down almost 60%. We will keep working on that and fighting for everyday Americans, and especially our American farmers and ranchers here at USDA,” Rollins said on Fox Network’s Fox News Sunday.
While the increase in egg prices has largely been attributed to the bird flu outbreak at the start of this year, the Department of Justice has reportedly conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter. Reported cases of bird flu began steadily increasing in November, peaking in January with 85 commercial flocks infected. By February there was already a decrease in bird flu cases.
Rollins rebutted Rep. Pat Ryan’s (D-NY) claims that recent cuts to USDA funding are taking money away from programs that feed hungry children. The USDA allocated $500 million to nationwide food banks for the rest of the year.
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“First of all, that is absolutely fake news. That Democrat from New York has no idea what he’s talking about. We did pull some funds back, but those were COVID-era funds that were specific to programs that had not been spent yet. And in fact, they were asking for more time because they can figure out how to spend the money so quickly, so that is what we pulled back,” Rollins said. “Now keep in mind just two weeks ago, we released another community food bank program funding of $280 million to get locally sourced family farm nutritious food into our schools and into our community food programs.”
Food bank leaders in Ohio, Delaware, California, and West Virginia reported canceled food orders after cuts were made to USDA.