Secretary Rollins Hosts a Roundtable with Farmers to Discuss Avian Flu and Other Critical Issues

President Trump is committed to supporting our great American farmers.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 20, 2025 — Today, Secretary Brooke Rollins hosted a roundtable with two dozen farmers to hear their perspective on the best approaches to combat avian flu and ultimately lower egg prices. They also discussed other issues facing farmers, including the importance of disaster relief, expanding markets, reducing input costs, and decreasing regulation.

“President Trump is committed to supporting our great American farmers,” said Secretary Rollins. “He understands that rural communities were crippled by Biden’s disastrous inflationary policies, and he is taking swift action to restore opportunity across our country—especially in rural communities. The era of Biden inflation is over. We will create a new era of prosperity for American farmers. We will also work to reduce grocery costs for families, especially egg prices. This problem wasn’t created overnight, and it will take us a little time to tackle this issue, but we will take aggressive action to help our poultry farmers combat avian flu and to make eggs affordable again.”

As Secretary Rollins discussed, the Biden administration failed to lead on this issue. The data reveals that over the past 40 years, egg prices were the highest during the Biden years. See the chart below.

Secretary Rollins is working with the White House on a comprehensive strategy to aggressively combat Avian flu and to give poultry farmers the support and tools they need to protect their farms and to recover from outbreaks.

In addition to discussing avian flu, participants shared thoughts about expanding access to capital for young farmers, lowering input costs, and disaster relief.

Secretary Rollins pledged to work with her team to address these challenges, and she also reassured them that she would honor financial commitments that have been made to farmers.

The farmers present were from seven different states: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Iowa, Arkansas and West Virginia. They included egg layers, dairy, beef, and row crop farmers, among others.

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