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From NPR Monday March 18

“With egg prices in the United States at record highs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now exploring the ways other countries produce eggs for potential solutions. The department may not have to look far: Just over the border, eggs remain plentiful and affordable in Canada.

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“But perhaps the biggest difference is that egg farms in Canada are much smaller, so when one farm does suffer a flu outbreak, the effects are less far-reaching. The typical egg farm in Canada has about 25,000 laying hens, whereas many farms in the U.S. have well over a million. In effect, American farmers have put a lot more of their eggs in a relatively small number of baskets.

“If individual farms represent a larger proportion of production, then when an individual farm is affected, you’re taking more of that supply, right?” von Massow says.

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“When avian flu is discovered on an {American} egg farm, all the chickens on the farm are killed to limit the spread. More than 40 commercial egg farms suffered flu outbreaks in January and February alone, with a loss of more than 28 million chickens, according to USDA figures analyzed by the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute. That’s about 9% of the country’s commercial egg-laying flock wiped out in just two months.

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“So, what has kept Canadian egg farmers relatively small? Von Massow points to Canada’s supply management system, which guarantees even small farmers enough income to stay in business.”

Thanks to NPR for this story. While America has always pushed the scale of its agribusiness, there are downfalls to the system. One of the downfalls is that failures can sometimes be on a massive scale that hurts the farmer and the consumer.

Let me add another wrinkle to this story. Also on March 18th, America’s newly confirmed Secretary of HHS- Robert F. Kennedy, jr. added his thoughts to the whole egg price discussion. To use a metaphor, RFK’s thoughts were way undercooked.

Kennedy’s idea was to just let the avian flu rip its way through the chicken farms of America and do its damage. Kennedy felt that once the damage was done the birds that were left would be resistant to the flu. Giving a simpleton like Kennedy a platform to make his insane arguments is one of the best reasons why the senate should have rejected him

Scientific American had an analysis of Kennedy’s thoughts:    I will give a quick quote from the article to give you a flavor:

“Farmers must currently cull infected flocks to contain the disease before it spreads. They’re financially compensated for the culled birds by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The policy is supported by science because highly pathogenic avian influenza is so deadly on its own, killing 90 to 100 percent of chickens in three or four days, says Matt Koci, an immunologist and virologist at North Carolina State University’s poultry science department.

The disease overwhelms birds, Crespo says. “It’s devastating,” she says. “It’s a disease that attacks every single organ.”

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Kennedy’s remarks belie a lack of knowledge about the way poultry breeding works, Koci says. The chickens that provide meat and eggs are not in the breeding population: they’re the product of parent generations that are bred to maximize disease resistance and meat or egg production. Wiping out the working offspring of these breeders wouldn’t do anything to alter the next generations of chickens coming down the line.

Another problem with the let-it-rip strategy would be the inability of farmers to sell chicken products internationally because the policy might lead importers to ban American products. The resulting mass poultry death would also make today’s egg prices look like a great deal.”

Just absolutely scares me that this guy has anything to do with health care policies for Americans.