NPR | USDA Unveils a $1 Billion Plan to Address the Egg Crisis
Farm Action has called for a deeper investigation into whether industry concentration and practices are behind this price spike.
Farm Action has called for a deeper investigation into whether industry concentration and practices are behind this price spike.
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.
“By withholding software information to diagnose and repair equipment, manufacturers are forcing farmers to often face long wait times and sometimes drive hundreds of miles to find an authorized dealer — jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential yields,” said Farm Action’s Joe Maxwell.
“These are supposed to be competitors, but they’re sharing all of this proprietary data,” said Farm Action’s Sarah Carden.
“Today’s ruling is a necessary blow to corporate control over our food and agriculture system,” said Farm Action’s president and co-founder Angela Huffman.
Farm Action’s Angela Huffman sounded the alarm on CNBC news that America’s family farmers are struggling under harmful government policies that put the largest corporations first.
The agricultural supply chain is dominated today by roughly three dozen companies, according to an analysis from Farm Action.
“The FTC and DOJ [Department of Justice] now have much stronger guidelines. Over time, I think that’s going to make a big difference, regardless of who’s president,” Farm Action president Angela Huffman said.
Joe Maxwell, co-founder of Farm Action, a nonprofit that works against agricultural consolidation, believes Vilsack is an example of the ways regulations have been delayed or stymied because of the close nature between the federal government and industry
As of 2020, the five biggest egg companies controlled between 36% and 40% of all egg-laying hens in the United States, according to a recent report by Farm Action, a group that fights corporate control of the food system.