Whether hard-boiled or sunny-side up, eggs are top of mind for millions of American families.
From nationally renowned heists to viral videos, the issue has become central to sticker-shocked voters concerned about affordability.
But Americans are being deceived about the true cause of higher egg prices. A new lawsuit from Attorney General Pam Bondi seeks to overturn a California law giving laying hens the space to stand up and spread their wings, claiming its democratically-approved animal welfare standards are to blame for shortages.
Agricultural economists disagree. They point out that the contagious spread of the H5N1 bird flu, a viral disease that is made worse by the overcrowding of animals, was the culprit of the price spike. In fact, President Donald Trump-appointed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made it clear that bird flu was the central driver of price spikes when announcing the fall of egg prices from their peak. The secretary made no mention of animal protection laws passed in California or anywhere else.
Bondi’s lawsuit is an industry-supported effort to overturn hundreds of state laws, using California as a convenient political proxy. After all, more than a dozen states have laws restricting extreme farmed animal confinement, including conservative states such as Ohio, Florida and Utah. These laws are the natural result of 8 in 10 Americans supporting the phase-out of inhumane practices such as putting laying hens in battery cages, which confine these animals to an area the size of a piece of printer paper where the bones of their wings often become enmeshed with the metal caging.
Despite Bondi’s claims, these laws also fall well within state’s reserved powers under the U.S. Constitution. Just last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by the Iowa Pork Producers to California’s voter-approved animal space laws. The court had previously upheld states’ rights to regulate what is sold on their grocery store shelves, ruling against cases brought by the North American Meat Institute and the National Pork Producers Council. As conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority opinion: “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list.”
Some members of Congress are also trying to overturn the will of voters and states with Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall’s proposed Food Security and Farm Protection Act. This bill could nullify hundreds of state agriculture laws across the country, including in Kansas and Missouri. It would allow the largest corporate farming interests — like China-owned Smithfield Food — to bypass local regulations and outcompete most small farmers who give animals more reasonable space by tradition.
Last week, likely in coordination with Bondi’s latest lawsuit, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the “Implications of Proposition 12,” the voter-approved ballot question in California that created some humane space standards for animals. Notably absent were any of the independent, small farming associations that support these local laws and provide animals with reasonable space. It also lacked serious discussion of the threat posed by H5N1, a virus that continues to threaten egg and dairy supply chains, and poses serious risks to humans as well.
These recent political moves are a shell game — put forward by market-dominating players upset with state requirements that they treat farmed animals with a shred of dignity. This industrial complex weaponizes the issue of egg prices cynically: it would quietly celebrate higher prices for consumers if that dynamic happened to serve its bottom line.
If we allow Bondi and Marshall to strip away local, commonsense protections, the cost will be far greater than a carton of eggs. There is nothing sunny-side up about it.