The Wall Street Journal | Justice Department Opens Probe of Sharp Surge in Egg Prices
The Department of Justice launched an investigation into egg prices following Farm Action’s letter to federal agencies.
The Department of Justice launched an investigation into egg prices following Farm Action’s letter to federal agencies.
Farm Action’s letter to FTC and DOJ lays out new evidence on how the highly concentrated egg industry is ripe for manipulation by the dominant egg firms at the expense of both consumers and smaller egg producers.
Farm Action Fund’s Joe Maxwell says that while farmers have been paying billions into commodity checkoff programs, we have lost hundreds of thousands of farmers.
Farm Action says dominant egg producers have leveraged the bird flu supply disruption to raise prices, amass record profits, and consolidate market power.
“Dominant egg corporations are blaming avian flu for the price hikes that we’re seeing. But while the egg supply has fallen only slightly, these companies’ profits have soared,” said Angela Huffman, Farm Action’s president.
Farm Action has called for a deeper investigation into whether industry concentration and practices are behind this price spike.
There is a solution, and it’s now in the hands of President Donald Trump—who campaigned on lowering prices—to do something about it.
Internal documents reveal that the USDA failed to meet legal oversight requirements for checkoff programs and enabled the misuse of funds.
The group contends that the losses from culling egg-laying chickens has been “relatively modest” in relation to the size of the U.S. egg-laying flock, while producers’ profit margins have soared.
In a letter to Secretary Rollins and Elon Musk, Farm Action says checkoff programs lack transparency and oversight and cost farmers more than a billion dollars a year.