POULTRY

California Has 'Gone Rogue,' Consumers Pay the Price Under Proposition 12, Rollins Says

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:00:07 GMT

President Donald Trump’s administration sued California on July 9 over its regulation of eggs and chicken farms, saying these California laws impose burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products nationally in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“California has gone rogue and caused real harm to consumers under its cage-free egg commitments,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said in a statement frollowing the announcement of the Trump Administration’s lawsuit. “By not allowing consumer choice, Californian’s are forced to buy more expensive eggs. California’s actions under Proposition 12 fly in the face of Federal jurisdiction and regulation over food production and safety under the Egg Products Inspection Act.”

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of California, Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and other state officials. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, argues that the federal Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970 pre-empts state laws related to eggs. The federal law authorizes the USDA and Health and Human Services to regulate eggs in order to protect consumers’ health and welfare, and it also requires “national uniformity” in egg safety standards, the lawsuit says.

“It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” Secretary Rollins said. “Thankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.”

Secretary Rollins has worked diligently to support American poultry and egg producers, combat avian flu, and lower the cost of eggs for consumers, USDA pointed out in a statement. In February, she announced a five-point plan to combat the avian flu and lower egg prices which has been applauded by agriculture and government leaders across the country. Since the five-point plan was announced, the price of eggs has decreased 63%.

“It is great to see the Trump administration taking decisive action to protect the country from California’s overreaching policies, but Americans facing high food costs cannot afford to wait for years of court appeals. Congress could—and should—pass legislation tomorrow to get us there sooner,” Jack Hubbard, executive director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW) said in a release. “Recent polling shows California voters now regret the passage of Proposition 12, and there is strong bipartisan support for a legislative fix to nullify California’s inflationary farm mandates.”

(YouTube)

In May, CEW launched a public education campaign urging Congress to stop the far-reaching consequences of Prop 12. According to Consumer Price Index data, national egg prices have spiked 103% since Prop 12 went into effect in 2022. Meanwhile, in California, the cost of eggs has tripled and pork prices have increased by between 20 and 40%.

EU Halts Brazil Poultry and Meat Imports After HPAI Outbreak

Mon, 19 May 2025 19:40:51 GMT

Brazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and main poultry meat importer into the European Union, is no longer allowed to ship poultry and meat products to the EU due to the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Brazil confirmed the country’s first HPAI outbreak on a commercial farm in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on May 16.

The entire territory of Brazil has suspended its official status of being “free of highly pathogenic avian influenza.” The EU joins with bans from top buyer China, Reuters reported. According to a European Commission spokesperson, EU import conditions require that the country of export (Brazil) is free of HPAI.

Why do U.S. farmers need to pay attention?

There are two reasons for U.S. farmers to be watching the developments of the disease and its effect on the Brazilian poultry industry.

Dan Basse, AgResource Company, says Brazil poultry exports account for about 33% of the global poultry supply.

“A good portion of that goes to China,” Basse says. “The Chinese are out and already saying that they are going to be restricting Brazilian poultry but, we’ll see. The Chinese took last year about 570,000 tons of Brazilian product. I don’t know where they would replace it–but they’re not going to do it from the United States with the trade war.”

He says another reason to watch is the feed side of the Brazilian poultry flock.

“Those birds consume a lot of meal and a lot of corn, it’s like 17.6 million metric tons of Brazilian meal, and 42 to 43 million tons of corn,” Basse says. “So we’ve got to think about this not only from a export opportunity for US poultry, but from a demand concern of what the Brazilians will do in terms of feed consumption. They’ll become more aggressive in offering meal and corn to the world market if flocks down there do need to be depopulated and are starting over.”

What are teh next steps?

Restriction on poultry exports follows rules agreed on with each importing country, based on international health certificate requirements, the Agriculture and Livestock ministry told the Associated Press (AP). Depending on the type of the disease, some deals apply to the whole country while others involve limits on where products can come from — for example, a specific state, city or just the area of the outbreak.

Countries like Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines have already accepted this regional approach, AP reported.

Brazil exported more than 5 million tons of poultry meat in 2024. Reuters reported that approximately 4.4% headed to the EU. Of total EU poultry imports, Brazil is the main origin with a share of 32% last year, according to official EU data.

The U.S. bird flu outbreak and wider trade tensions with Washington have limited Chinese appetite for American poultry. China now blocks poultry from more than 40 U.S. states over HPAI, according to U.S. government data, Reuters reported .

If the HPAI outbreak spreads across Brazil, as it did in the U.S., officials and analysts said outlooks could get dimmer, Reuters reported. That scenario would raise U.S. hopes for China to ease restrictions on American poultry.

Under a Phase 1 trade agreement China signed with U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in 2020, China is supposed to lift statewide bans on U.S. poultry 90 days after states eliminate bird flu from infected farms.

However, China has kept bans in place longer than it had agreed in that deal, according to the article.

Greg Tyler, CEO of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council industry group, told Reuters he is hopeful China will move back to abiding by that regionalization agreement.

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Georgia Farmers Say Hurricane Helene is Most Catastrophic, Costly Storm Ever

Farmers in southeast Georgia are still trying to recover from Hurricane Helene, the most catastrophic and costly hurricane they’ve ever seen, superseding even Hurricane Katrina.

Cleanup is underway, but it might take years to put the pieces back together. Farmers say with lower commodity prices, many were already on the financial brink before the storm.

Catastrophic Damage from Hurricane Helene

The loss from Hurricane Helene was devastating for farmers in southeast Georgia. A foot of rain and hurricane winds of 125 mph ripped through Coffey County, the epicenter.

“We were considered one of the hotspots for it because that was the highest-recorded wind. We had 30 tornadoes also come through this county at the same time during the hurricane,” says Van Grantham, a farmer in Coffee County, Ga.

He says the biggest loss was to timber as tree stands they’ve been growing for 35 to 40 years are completely gone and will cost $1,000 per acre to cleanup and restore.

“There was probably 75% to as high as 100% damage on timber stands,” he adds.

Damage from Hurricane Helene to the timber trees in southeast Georgia.

(Andrew Lyon )

Severe Impact on Agriculture in Coffey County

The Granthams also have 215 acres of peanuts to harvest and 1,400 acres of cotton. The latter has been nearly wiped out.

“We’ve lost all of our cotton acres and peanuts,” Grantham says. “We should have been midway through harvest, if not three-quarters. We can’t get into the fields, and they’re saying everything is down [power] for another three to four weeks.”

Damage from Hurricane Helene to the cotton crop in southeast Georgia.

(Andrew Lyon)

Livestock Losses

In addition to row crops, the Granthams also lost livestock. They lost several cattle and over 100,000 chickens on their operation.

It’s a story of dramatic losses and damage when you talk to any farmer in southeast Georgia right now.

“It’s about a four-county area that was hit. It’s counties like Kulfi County, Jeff Davis and Atkinson County,” he adds. “I know there’s 598 chicken houses total, but there’s 298 on the ground.”

The Financial Hit From the Storm

Thousands of farms and homes are still out of electricity and water. Farmers in southeast Georgia have met with state and federal officials with the message they need disaster assistance immediately.

“It was already struggling before, and then this just kind of added way more on us physically, mentally and financially. I mean, this is a financial burden with the devastation,” adds Chase Grantham, Van’s son.

The damage caused by Hurricane Helene to infrastructure in southeast Georgia is monumental. Not only did the hurricane pack a punch of high winds, but it also brought more than 30 tornadoes to the area.

(Andrew Lyon)

While the immediate needs are clear, Chase says it could take farmers several years to rebuild and they may never be whole.

Seeing the Devastation First-Hand

Farm Journal’s Trust in Food team traveled to southeast Georgia last week and saw the devastation first-hand. The team spoke to growers, walked cotton fields torn to shreds by the storm and saw infrastructure crushed by the storm. Trust in Food’s Andrew Lyon spoke to AgriTalk’s Chip Flory about what the team saw last week and the impact it could have on growers for years to come. You can listen to that conversation here.