The Aggregate Aggregation V4
Agroecology in the News (Week of February 24, 2025)
Welcome back to The Aggregate Aggregation, our weekly roundup of news and publications that caught our eyes over the last week or so. You can read Volume 3 here.
In this issue, we skip the usual Digging Deep - our weekly news aggregator was attending Ag Outlook in Washington, D.C., and will have an overview of the conference next week! Never fear, there was plenty of news this week, especially regarding bird flu and still-rising egg prices, which we cover in Surface Level.
Let’s make it a conversation! Please share your reflections - we’d love to continue the discussion in the comments.
Surface Level
This week, we noticed themes across bird flu and egg prices, continued uncertainty for farmers due to changes in federal policy (and the emergence of resources for farmers), and some great journalism on a host of other topics.
🐓Bird flu and egg prices
USDA Invests Up To $1B to Combat Avian Flu and Reduce Egg Prices (Morning Ag Clips). “U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today [Feb. 26, 2025] announced a $1 billion-dollar comprehensive strategy to curb highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), protect the U.S. poultry industry, and lower egg prices. This is in addition to funding already being provided to indemnify growers for depopulated flocks.”
Trump administration struggles to rehire fired bird flu employees (Politico). “The Trump administration touted a nearly $1 billion plan Wednesday to combat the spread of avian flu and mitigate skyrocketing egg prices as the outbreak rips through poultry flocks across the United States. But the measures come as the Agriculture Department is struggling to rehire key employees working on the virus outbreak who were fired as part of the administration’s sweeping purge of government workers. Roughly a quarter of employees in a critical office testing for the disease were cut, as well as scientists and inspectors.”
Egg Prices Could Jump Another 41% This Year, USDA Says, as Trump’s Bird Flu Plan Unveiled (Morning Ag Clips). “The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs. With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022. Officials had hinted at the plan earlier this month. It’s not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out.”
Lowering Egg Prices Starts with Stopping Big Ag’s Monopoly Power and Anticompetitive Tactics, Not Corporate Subsidies (American Economic Liberties Project). “In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece this week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlined the Trump administration’s plan to address rising egg prices and shortages. Rather than tackling the root causes of high prices—corporate price gouging and industry consolidation—her plan consists of handing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to massive agribusinesses and cutting regulations that protect fair competition.”
Egg Prices Are Soaring. Bird Flu May Not Be the Only Culprit. (The New York Times). “The nation’s biggest egg producer has seen rising revenues and profits. Now some Democrats are calling for an investigation into pricing practices in the industry.”
Eggs aren’t expensive enough (Today, Explained). This podcast episode covers the reasons behind the current higher price of eggs, talks about the bird flu, and then goes further and talks about why bird flu is more likely and more problematic because of our incredibly large and jam-packed egg-layer production facilities.
What Climate Change Means for Bird Flu - and the Soaring Price of Eggs (Grist). “Extreme weather is shifting the migratory patterns of birds, increasing the chances of deadly avian flu outbreaks on farms.”
Backyard Poultry Face HPAI Risk When Migrating Mallards Stop to Rest (Morning Ag Clips). “Knowing where, when and for how long mallard ducks – natural carriers of avian influenza – stop and rest as they migrate can help predict the probability that they will spread bird flu to backyard poultry flocks, according to a Cornell University study.”
🌏Policy uncertainty at the federal level, and the response, continues
Farmers Say Climate-Smart Commodities Projects Are Crumbling (Civil Eats). “Thousands of farmers across the country were enrolled in dozens of projects and expecting USDA payments to implement conservation practices. Now contracts are being cancelled, and farmers face uncertainty…. After failing to respond, DOGE later updated the record, claiming that the Clark Group contract cancellation has saved the administration $2 million. Civil Eats is not able to verify this amount, and other reporting has found DOGE’s accounting contains many mistakes.”
USDA Unfreezes $20 Million in Conservation Funds (Civil Eats Policy Tracker). “On February 20, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the release of $20 million in conservation program funds already granted to farmers through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). The money represents a drop in a very large bucket of money farmers are waiting on, since a long list of additional USDA programs remain paused.”
Editorial: Righting the Apple Cart: Tracking the Impact of the Trump Administration on Food and Food Policy (CUNY Urban Food Policy Monitor). “The Trump administration has toppled business-as-usual, as promised during the campaign, and food policy professionals and advocates must decide on responses that fulfil our professional and moral obligations to those we serve with urgency before the changes become irreversible. This will require laser focused attention and strategic thinking. Colleges and universities, together with their community partners, have unique capabilities to address these challenges, and can continue to collectively leverage at least five strategic areas of food policy work.”
USDA Scholarship for Students at Historically Black Colleges Suspended (Morning Ag Clips). “A federal scholarship aimed at boosting students from underserved and rural areas attending historically Black colleges and universities has been put on hold.”
Update on February 25 from the Civil Eats Food Policy Tracker: “The USDA ended the suspension of the 1890 National Scholars Program and is now accepting applications through March 15.”
Farmers Sue Over Deletion of Climate Data on Government Websites (New York Times). “The department had ordered staff to take down pages focused on climate change on Jan. 30, according to the suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Within hours, it said, information started disappearing. That included websites containing data sets, interactive tools and funding information that farmers and researchers relied on for planning and adaptation projects, according to the lawsuit.”
NOFA-NY Files Suit Against USDA for Erasing Webpages Vital to Farmers (Morning Ag Clips). “On Monday, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Environmental Working Group (EWG), represented by Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for unlawfully removing department webpages focused on climate change.”
Klobuchar and All Agriculture Committee Democrats Press USDA on Mass Layoffs (Morning Ag Clips). “Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, led all Committee Democrats in pressing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to explain recent mass layoffs at the Department. The Senators asked how many USDA employees were fired and for a breakdown by state, agency, job position, and veteran status—all details the Administration has not provided to date.”
New Senate agriculture committee leadership has extensive ties to industry heavyweights (Investigate Midwest). “U.S. Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, has received tens of thousands of campaign donations from employees at Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest meat companies.”
Trump policy concerns send US consumer confidence plummeting to eight-month low (Reuters). “U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated at its sharpest pace in 3-1/2 years in February while 12-month inflation expectations surged, offering further signs that Americans were growing anxious about the potential negative economic impact of the policies of President Donald Trump's administration.”
🌸Resources for farmers and allies
New Farmer Resource Guides from Farm Aid (NSAC newsletter). “Farm Aid's Hotline Team has compiled Farmer Resource Guides for the topics farmers most often call the hotline about, including legal assistance, farm financing and farm stress.”
Congress Protect Your Farmers (NSAC newsletter). “Congress is letting all of us down by not protecting our farmers from the federal funding freeze, and we need to make sure they’re hearing from us! NSAC set up a portal for constituents to email their members of Congress and demand an end to the federal funding freeze.”
2025 Federal Funding Resources (NSAC newsletter). “Land Liberation LLC is compiling information on Executive Orders, the federal funding freeze, relevant litigation & the on-going impacts on the food system.”
🔄Everything else that caught our eyes
Open consultation on the V0 draft of the report “Building Resilient Food Systems” until March 04, 2025: Add your input to the first go of the report drafted by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition. The report will be presented at the 53rd plenary session of the Committee on World Food Security in October, 2025. Anatomy of a convenience food: Making sense of nutrition labels, once and for all (FERN). “The recent frenzy over the ultraprocessed foods that dominate the American diet has sharpened the label debate and raised questions about what is, and what is not, ultraprocessed, and whether all ultraprocessed foods are unhealthy, or if only some of them are, and why.”
Long-Term Study Reveals Best Practices for Building Soil Carbon in Agricultural Soils (Morning Ag Clips). “Investigators at the KBS LTER site find differences in soil carbon gain among cover cropped, no-till, and perennial cropping systems after 25-years. Cover cropping found to be a powerful tool for building soil carbon even in cropping systems that are plowed. No-till and diverse perennial plantings also emerge as effective ways to build long-term soil carbon stores.”
The Complex Effects of Pesticide Exposure on Bumble Bee Health (Morning Ag Clips). “The effects of pesticide exposure on pollinator health may be more complicated than originally thought, according to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences who recently published an article on the topic in Biology Letters. In the study, the researchers examined the effects of imidacloprid, a common insecticide, on bumble bees. They found that while exposure to the insecticide was associated with shorter lifespans and reduced reproduction, low doses also were associated with new queens surviving longer in diapause.”
Everyone Loves Regenerative Agriculture — But No One Agrees on What It Is (Ambrook Research). “California just released a statewide draft definition for regenerative ag. Stakeholder reactions are mixed on whether this is the best way forward.”
Can America Make Produce Safe Again? (Ambrook Research). “Every year we read about numerous outbreaks of foodborne illness from leafy greens and other produce. The industry has gotten more vigilant, but significant challenges remain.”
What did we miss? Drop a link to your favorite story of the week (or month, or year) in the comments. Tell us why it resonated with you!
What we’re reading
A list of sources the editors at The Aggregate check regularly for our agroecology+ news.