State Rep. Jerry Neyer, R-Shepherd, today issued a statement about the cause of high egg prices. Neyer is a dairy farmer who served more than 20 years on the Isabella County Farm Bureau and the United Dairy Industry of Michigan Board. He represents the 92^nd House District (Mt. Pleasant area), where one of the first cases of bird flu in cows was detected. Neyer has been following the situation closely and is in regular communication with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. He also served on the agriculture committee during the 2023-2024 legislative session:

The reason egg prices are so high is because of the bird flu, not because of the cage-free law.

There’s confusion about this because last month many stores put signs in their egg cases to explain to their customers that as of Jan. 1, most eggs sold in Michigan had to be from cage-free operations. The timing happened to coincide with the sudden rise in egg prices, which gave shoppers the false impression that the cage-free law is the main reason why egg prices went up. But it’s not.

In the past year, we’ve lost more than 40 million egg-laying hens nationwide. Here in Michigan, we lost more than 6.5 million hens due to bird flu. A majority of those losses were in the last quarter of 2024, so that’s why there’s been a spike in prices, and egg shortages.

When an egg-production operation becomes infected with the highly contagious bird flu, the entire flock must be destroyed. It then takes nine to 12 months to clean and disinfect the facilities, raise a new flock of hens, and get back to full egg production.

Egg producers had 15 years to adjust to the cage-free law, so that cost was already built in a long time ago; it’s not the reason for the high prices. And the cage-free law is better for the birds.