The holiday season is a time for sugar plums, Christmas cookies, and festive meals.
Eggs are a key ingredient in many of the season's special recipes, which could be a problem this year. Egg shortages are affecting various parts of the country, causing empty grocery store shelves and rising consumer prices.
The ongoing bird flu outbreak is being blamed.
Egg shelves in some stores have become increasingly bare, with signs warning customers about the severe shortage. Experts say the ongoing bird flu epidemic is significantly affecting egg production, leaving stores struggling to meet demand.
"Right now, it is at a tipping point," said Aziz Bellarbi-Salah, owner of Brasserie Du Monde, a restaurant in downtown Sacramento. Bellarbi-Salah, who also owns several other local establishments, expressed concern about the rising costs of eggs, which are a key ingredient in many popular dishes, such as eggs benedict, deviled eggs, and omelets.
"We have already started working hard to diversify our sourcing when it comes to the eggs that we are using," said Bellarbi-Salah. "Costco had organic eggs, and they were 3 and change a dozen rather than $9 or $10 a dozen."
Legal Insurrection readers know that I keep my cooking and baking to a minimum. However, my son is coming home for the holidays, so I had planned to make eggs for breakfast. Fortunately, I could buy the last dozen from my store...for $8.
And, as I have been following this particular crisis for 2 years, I wasn't complaining.
The current shortages are the result of poultry infections that began in the fall when the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza/H5N1 virus returned to regions that had been free from the disease for a few months.
"After two months of no outbreaks, we had them recently in Utah, Oregon, California and Washington, and three of those states are exclusively cage-free," Emily Metz, chief executive and president of the American Egg Board, told CBS MoneyWatch. "Where we are hearing reports of shortages it's at stores like a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's."
After a brief respite from bird flu among commercial-egg producers, HPAI struck again starting in mid-October, resulting in the loss of 2.8 million birds. The nation's egg production fell 2.6% last month from a year ago and is projected to be down 1% this year versus 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service recently said in a monthly report.
The outbreaks, which began in January of 2022, have affected nearly 110 million chickens, turkeys and other birds, including wild, commercial and backyard flocks in 49 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was the first time HPAI, also known as H5N1, had been detected in the U.S. since 2016.
The shortages are hitting urban pockets particularly hard.
Reports of empty shelves have surfaced in Denver, Miami and New York as recently as this weekend, NBC News reported. In some cases, signs asked shoppers to limit their egg purchases due to "difficulty sourcing."
Eggless shelves were also reported at some stores in the Chicago area, though the shortages don't appear to be widespread.
States with mandates for cage-free eggs are being significantly impacted.
A few states, including California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon, have laws requiring all eggs sold in the state to be cage-free. Therefore, the egg shortage is hitting these states particularly hard as grocery stores scramble to source eggs that comply with state laws.
As I live in California, I have plenty to worry about.
Poultry industry experts assure consumers the shortages should be localized and short-lived.
Hopefully, all of my Legal Insurrection fans will be able to get every ingredient they need for their holiday meals -- including eggs.