What if eggs ran out?
Food — di Valeria Berzero
The egg shortage in the United States brings to light a major problem within the food industry system.
What if eggs ran out?
The egg shortage in the United States brings to light a major problem within the food industry system.
What happens when, all of a sudden, a staple food disappears? How do we react when, standing in front of a supermarket shelf, that ingredient is simply no longer there?
The history of food teaches us one simple lesson: when a food item vanishes from shelves, the market descends into a state of confusion. We saw it with flour during the pandemic, when the home-baking community grew exponentially and, with lockdowns as an accomplice, houses turned into small bakeries.
Then came the turn of sunflower oil. Overnight it vanished, shelves emptied, and a scramble for frying oil immediately broke out — as if, during those weeks, we could think of nothing else but frying. The cause: the interruption of sunflower imports from Ukraine, overwhelmed by the Russian invasion.
And then there are the serious cases — the ones where it is bread that is missing. When there is none, or when it costs too much. In these cases, riots often break out. History is full of them. One need only recall the Arab Springs: one of the first signs of discontent was the rise in the price of bread, with Tunisian protesters brandishing baguettes like flags.
The US is experiencing an egg shortage, here's why fox10tv.com/2025/01/14/us-…
The price of eggs in the United States
Now it is eggs that are in short supply, above all in the United States, where in recent weeks they have become a scarce and extremely expensive commodity: in some cities a dozen-egg carton has approached ten dollars — a price that would have been unthinkable until recently. Images of empty shelves have travelled around the world. Some supermarkets have rationed sales. The cause is a new wave of avian influenza which, according to the FAO, is accelerating on a global scale. For Deputy Director General Godfrey Magwenzi, the spread is "unprecedented, with severe impacts on food security and supply in every country: loss of nutrients, jobs, rural income, shocks to local economies and rising costs for consumers."
In the United States, where eggs are woven into food culture and the collective imagination — there is no American film or TV series without a breakfast featuring eggs — the news has not gone unnoticed. In truth, vast quantities are eaten everywhere. The figures speak for themselves: around 200 per person per year. In total, that amounts to 1,600 billion eggs produced worldwide every year.
United States egg production totaled 9.29 billion during March 2024, up 1% from last year. See more #AgStats in the Chickens and Eggs report ➡️release.nass.usda.gov/reports/ckeg04…
Avian flu has been circulating for 150 years
And yet, as in the most classic of clichés about the finger pointing at the moon, public debate has focused exclusively on the finger — the egg shortage — forgetting the moon. But what is the moon? The simplest answer is: avian flu. But this is not a new virus. It is a form of influenza — often lethal — that has been circulating for around 150 years. The first recorded description dates back to 1875, in Italy. Since then, it has never stopped circulating.
What has changed over 150 years is the context. Today viruses adapt and multiply in high-density animal environments, wherever there is overcrowding. And what better example of overcrowding than an intensive farm? There, then, is our moon: intensive farming. That is where the risk multiplies, and that is where epidemics become a systemic problem.
All the more so given that ever greater numbers of animals are being farmed. Simone Pollo, in his book Considera gli animali, cites some figures that help to put things in perspective. According to the FAO, every year 75 billion chickens are slaughtered worldwide — almost all of them reared intensively. And over the past sixty years global meat consumption has increased nearly sevenfold: today it exceeds 350 million tonnes a year. (A parenthesis I feel compelled to add: the book not only deserves to be read, but is also published in a new Laterza series called FiliRossi, which is truly remarkable.) With numbers like these, it becomes easier to grasp the scale of the problem. Reports have emerged of people driving from Texas to Mexico in search of eggs. Or of others turning to the black market, smuggling eggs across the border. The BBC even reported a theft of 100,000 eggs in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the US administration went looking for eggs elsewhere in the world, knocking on the doors of some entrepreneurs in Veneto as well.
What is certain is that when an infected animal is found, every animal on the farm is culled: we are talking about more than 166 million animals. And yet public debate remains muted. Discussion centres on compensation for farmers, emergency imports, contingency plans. All necessary, of course. But in the meantime, no one seems willing to ask the most pertinent question: is this really the system we want to defend at all costs?
Because, while on one hand the numbers speak for themselves – 75 billion chickens slaughtered every year worldwide, 1,600 billion eggs consumed – on the other we must ask ourselves how sustainable, in the long run, a supply chain built on hyperproduction and concentration really is. Not only for the environment or for animal welfare, but also for our food security.
The egg industry in Italy
In Italy, the situation is not yet as explosive as in the United States, but the signs are there. More than 50 million hens are farmed, predominantly in the North. Many of them still live in cages barely larger than an A4 sheet of paper. The others are raised "on the ground" which, importantly, does not mean they roam outdoors – they are still crammed inside sheds. Only a small percentage (around ten per cent) lives outdoors and is raised using organic methods.
Differences between farming systems do exist, of course, and they deserve to be recognised. But the dominant model remains intensive farming. And the virus, in the meantime, has already led to the culling of millions of animals here too.
Perhaps, then, before asking ourselves when eggs will be back on the shelves, we should be asking what kind of agriculture and farming we are building for the future. Because this is not just a matter of eggs. It is a matter of the whole system.