Jackson Jambalaya

Empty coolers on grocery store egg product shelves, dramatically higher prices when you can find eggs, and angst and dread among those who make their livings in Mississippi’s robust poultry and egg industry – that’s the new reality.

How robust is Mississippi’s poultry industry? We rank fifth or sixth in the nation.

For 30 years, Mississippi's leading agricultural commodity has been poultry and eggs. In 2024, Mississippi produced 731 million broiler chickens worth $3.3 billion and $484 million worth of eggs for a total of $3.8 billion in farm gate value – a number that had been expected to rise past $4 billion in the next five years. Yet anyone strolling down the egg section of the grocery store knows that retail prices of eggs are soaring. The average price of a dozen eggs in 1980 as 84 cents. In 2000, the price of a dozen eggs was $1.66. Last week, the national average price was $6.70 a dozen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service has projected egg prices to rise 41% in 2025.

While there are several factors impacting the increase in prices since 1980, the overarching culprit in the current chaos in the egg market is the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also refers to the so-called “bird flu” as H5N1 Bird Flu.

Mississippi State University Extension Service reported last month that “the latest confirmation of HPAI in Mississippi was Dec. 30, 2024, at a commercial broiler production facility in Copiah County, affecting more than 200,000 birds. Another case was reported Dec. 20 in Greene County where more than 34,000 birds were culled from a breeder house.”

USDA officials confirm that H5N1 Bird Flu detections have been made in Mississippi in backyard and commercial poultry operations in Copiah, Greene, Leake, Lowndes and Monroe counties in Mississippi from 2022-24. The Centers for Infectious Disease Research & Policy Research Innovation Office at the University of Minnesota reports that “since the first detection in U.S. poultry in early 2022, H5N1 outbreaks have now led to the loss of a record 138.7 million birds across 50 states and Puerto Rico.”

It is important to note that so far, chicken prices are not soaring in lockstep with egg prices. While an estimated 19 million-plus egg-laying hens have been impacted by the disease, broilers raised for meat have not been impacted to the same degree, leaving retail chicken prices steady.

The Trump Administration’s response to the bird flu outbreak has drawn attention given the ongoing efforts of Elon Musk’s “Dept. of Government Efficiency” to reduce the size of the federal workforce and curb or eliminate USAID spending altogether.

But Trump’s new Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said last week that the agency would spend $1 billion in USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation funds to battle the spread of the H5N1 virus. Much of that spending would be on biosecurity, while some would be spent helping farmers repopulate their farms.

“As we look to streamline and make more efficient the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out?” Rollins said. “We are convinced that we will, as we realign and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”

Mississippi Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson was in Washington attending the winter meetings of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture when Rollins announced the five-point bird flu plan. “Farmers across the country are suffering from the past few consecutive years of depressed commodity prices, inflated input costs, high interest rates, HPAI outbreaks and droughts, floods and other weather-related impacts. Farmers are resilient people and can overcome a year of any of these challenges, but farmers can’t make a profit and continue to farm when facing numerous challenges like these simultaneously year after year,” Gipson told Mississippi New Group’s Bob Bakken.

Gipson said: “I am glad to see a multifaceted approach with potential solutions being brought to the table that includes assistance to producers. I look forward to working with Secretary Rollins over the next four years to strengthen agriculture and our rural communities.”

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.