Michigan’s cage-free law: Why eggs are more expensive – and harder to find

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    Michigan’s cage-free law requires stores to sell eggs from hens that live in a cage-free environment.
    
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    The law only applies to farms of 3,000 hens or more.
    
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    Factors like avian flu and inflation are leading to the shortage.
    

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  Michigan’s cage-free law requires stores to sell eggs from hens that live in a cage-free environment.
  
• 
  The law only applies to farms of 3,000 hens or more.
  
• 
  Factors like avian flu and inflation are leading to the shortage.
  

DETROIT (FOX 2):As if a winter was approaching and people were stockpiling, eggs in Michigan appeared to vanish from the shelves as the calendar turned. Meanwhile, the cost appeared to have skyrocketed.

What, then, led to the eggs and your money disappearing? Like everything else, there is no easy solution; rather, a confluence of circumstances resulted in what is presumably a brief shortage.

Based on the figures:

In the United States, the average cost of a dozen eggs is $3.65 countrywide, a 38% increase over the previous year. A dozen was $4.82 in January 2023, so this is a little lower, but they are rising again.

Both of them have a dozen store-label eggs listed for $3.99 here in Michigan. Additionally, things can grow worse before they get better.

The cost of eggs in wholesale outlets may differ significantly from the cost of eggs at grocery stores.

Grocery costs increased by half a percent in November, according to the Consumer Price Index. Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 1.7% collectively. Eggs alone, however, increased 8.2%.

The issue includes elements such as the availability of eggs and bird flu. However, in Michigan,

On October 14, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, a Kroger grocery displays dairy goods and eggs. The Federal Reserve stated in a study released in October that economic prospects in the United States are become “more pessimistic” due to mounting concerns about declining demand.

The backstory

A bill approved by the Michigan legislature in 2019 mandated that all shell eggs sold in the state must originate from farms with more than 3,000 egg-laying hens housed in cage-free conditions.

This implies that the regulation does not apply to small-scale farms that sell eggs. Nonetheless, the laws must be followed by the big businesses who supply our food stores.

According to the law, any company that sells eggs must make sure the product satisfies state standards.

Timetable:

In March 2019, Republican Senator Kevin Daley introduced the law as Senate Bill 174 to the Michigan legislature.

It passed the Republican-controlled legislature over the course of the following few months, and on November 19, 2019, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer finally signed it.

However, the law took effect on January 1, 2025, and provided business owners five years to comply.

Look more closely:

Finding eggs is difficult for reasons other than Michigan’s cage-free law.

said he thinks the shortages and price hikes have nothing to do with the cage-free regulations. Rather, he cites the confluence of inflation and bird flu.

In November, Kevin Bergquist, the sector manager for the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, stated that the combination of seasonal price rises around the holidays and disruptions in the supply of eggs due to avian flu had resulted in high egg prices since 2023.

“Flock numbers were at a level that supported lower egg prices prior to the large bird flu outbreak in March 2022,” Bergquist said. Less than $1.50 per dozen was the wholesale price, he said.

What is meant by cage-free?

Free-range does not equate to cage-free.

Hens are required by law to be allowed to roam freely. The hens, however, may still be kept indoors. Chickens raised on the free range are free to roam about.

According to Michigan law, hens that are laying eggs cannot be kept in cages that contain the following:

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  Battery cages
  
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  Colony cages
  
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  Enriches cages
  
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  Enriched colony cages
  
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  Or any cage system similar
  

Furthermore, operators are not allowed to tether or confine hens in a way that restricts their ability to stand, lie down, extend their limbs, or turn around.

The Source: For information on this topic, FOX 2 looked to the Consumer Price Index, MIRS, Michigan’s 2019 statute, and FOX News.