Trump Ag Secretary: Just Put A Bunch Of Chickens In Your Yard If You Don't Want To Pay $76 An Egg
Because who doesn't want to get bird flu?
Are you concerned about the ever-increasing cost of eggs? Or the lack of any eggs in your supermarket whatsoever? Well, Trump Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has a solution for you. Sort of.
During an appearance on Fox News over the weekend, former “Real World” cast-member Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Rollins if perhaps backyard chicken flocks could be a savvy economic solution for US consumers.
“I have chickens in my backyard, and Sean started that, and yesterday I went out, they just started laying, and yesterday I got five eggs,” Campos-Duffy said, referring to her husband the former “Real World” cast member who is unaccountably the new secretary of Transportation. “Is part of the solution more small farms, because when avian flu hits, and you have these giant industrial farms, and these chickens which — I don't think the eggs are as good anyway. Is part of it just investing in smaller farms, encouraging that?”
“Smaller farms” vs. “giant corporate industrial monstrosities” is actually not stupid. Giant corporate industrial monstrosities breed bird flu like … well, like something that used to be easy, cheap and plentiful.
But backyard farms are different from “smaller farms” — particularly if the issue is saving money and/or not getting bird flu your own self.
“I think the silver lining in all of this is, how do we, in our backyards — we've got chickens too in our backyard — how do we solve for something like this?” Rollins responded. “And people are sort of looking around thinking, ‘Wow, well maybe I could get a chicken in my backyard,’ and it's awesome, I agree with you.”
This would be a pretty clever solution indeed, except for the fact that having a backyard flock is just about the swiftest way to Bird Flu Town. As the CDC explains, “infected birds shed avian influenza A viruses in their saliva, mucus and feces,” so regular contact with chickens and their saliva, mucus and feces is probably something one might want to avoid whenever possible.
The CDC has also issued repeated warnings over the last several years to owners of backyard flocks to not snuggle or kiss their pet chickens (to avoid salmonella, but it’s probably good bird flu advice as well) and it’s probably super hard to not snuggle with any pet you own and love. I’m terrified of birds and even I have hugged a chicken before (a fancy and super fluffy show chicken that was like, the Beyoncé of chickens, and honestly I’m still a little anxious about it even though it was several months ago).
It’s also not actually any kind of way to save money.
According to the r/BackYardChickens subreddit, the cost of getting to one’s first egg, on average, is about $750, which is still a little bit more than eggs from the grocery store cost. “If you actually care for your chickens, shelter them and treat them well, you're not going to save money on eggs versus buying them,” said one user.
It would be super great if the person in charge of Agriculture in this country had some idea about how avian flu is spread or even just how much a backyard flock of chickens costs in comparison to the eggs at Mariano’s. But this is the Trump era and it seems that the best way to prove one’s qualifications is to not have any at all.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
My parents and sister have chickens. They have built coops, buy fancy food for them, and love having them around for the fresh eggs and entertainment. But no, they are not saving any money by not buying the eggs from somewhere else. And my retired mom takes care of them, not something that people working multiple jobs would have time to do.
Also, their cat thinks having birds around is weird.
The whole egg thing fascinates me. It's the perfect example of the right-wing propaganda machine at work, and how fucking easy it is to lead gullible MAGA followers wherever they want.
Before the election: Egg prices are directly the fault of the president and a major issue in the election. Wherever you turned, some Trump supporter was shouting about how they couldn't afford eggs. It didn't how much you tried to explain price gouging and bird flu to them; expensive eggs were Biden's fault.
During the transition: Conversation about eggs absolutely fell off the map. Suddenly it's like it was never a problem to begin with. What even is an egg?
The minute, THE MINUTE, Trump took office every single person in the US--or at least close to it--was completely educated on how egg prices were primarily impacted by bird flu and not who's in the Oval Office. Because that narrative was no longer convenient.