How did egg prices jump from a dozen for a dollar to as expensive as ground beef? Corporations would have us blame bird flu, but they’re not telling the whole story. 

Since 2022, avian influenza H5N1, or bird flu, has spread to poultry and egg hens across the country. It’s now impacting dairy herds and farmworkers as well as million-bird flocks. And while it has slightly reduced U.S. egg production, corporate greed has also played a major role in higher prices.

Our recent research shows how egg corporation Cal-Maine has pushed prices way higher than its growing costs, leading to $1 billion in windfall profits in a single year. Worse, factory farms — where Cal-Maine and other corporations raise up to a million or more chickens in crowded conditions — are hotbeds for disease. Under the status quo, the factory farm model could create the next pandemic.

Cal-Maine Rakes in Massive Profits Thanks to Bird Flu

Cal-Maine produces more than 1 in 5 of the eggs we eat in the United States and is the country’s leading egg producer. It owns 43 egg production facilities, which stuff an average of 1 million hens into each operation. 

It’s also one of the few publicly traded egg corporations, which means some of its financial data is public. We looked at the company’s reports to the Securities Exchange Commission and USDA data on egg production and bird flu.¹Learn about our sourcing and methodology in the full report, “The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy.”

Despite narratives blaming bird flu shortages for price hikes, Cal-Maine factory farms remained free of bird flu until December 2023. In fact, during the company’s fiscal year (FY) 2023, June 2022 through May 2023, it sold 7% more eggs compared to FY 2021. That same year, its profits soared more than seven-fold. 

How did this happen? Cal-Maine commanded prices from its buyers that were much higher than needed to cover rising costs, at a time when national egg prices were skyrocketing. In FY 2021, the company pocketed $0.15 per dozen eggs produced and sold. Then, in FY 2023, it pocketed $1.14 per dozen, earning $1 extra in profit per dozen. 

With its sale of over 1 billion eggs in FY 2023, Cal-Maine fleeced $1 billion in additional profits from its customers — mainly retailers who often pass along price spikes to families. 

Cal-Maine’s shareholders especially benefited. The company’s stock is roughly three times as valuable today as it was at the start of the bird flu outbreak. Over that same timeframe (January 2022 to January 2025) the portfolio of the company’s board chair alone grew by more than $9 million, even though he controlled slightly fewer shares.

This is outrageous at a time when food costs are skyrocketing and more families than ever can’t put food on the table.

The Role of Corporate Power in Higher Prices

Cal-Maine is not alone in profiting from catastrophes. Across the food system, from seeds to supermarkets, corporations are taking advantage of crises to pocket more profits. How can they get away with it? Highly concentrated industries empower them.

The fewer and bigger the corporations in an industry, the more power these corporations have to sway things like labor conditions, farming practices, and prices. By selling one-fifth of all eggs in the U.S., Cal-Maine has outsized control over the prices it sets for its egg buyers. 

This isn’t the first time Cal-Maine has allegedly used this power to profit from disaster. According to a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, during the 2015 bird flu outbreak, the company saw no outbreaks at its facilities. Yet, it still sold eggs at elevated prices.

The lawsuit alleges that Cal-Maine made an estimated $143 million in windfall profits in a single quarter. Moreover, it accuses Cal-Maine of price gouging at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas’s attorney general claimed that the company tripled prices without experiencing any shortage or supply chain disruptions.

And it’s not just Cal-Maine burning an egg-shaped hole in our wallets. The grocery industry, which buys Cal-Maine’s eggs and sells them to us, is also highly concentrated and has used its power to raise prices higher than overall inflation. Grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons admitted to just that in a recent court case, which struck down a proposed merger between the two corporations.

With less competition and greater size, food giants can use their power to seize more profits — at the expense of everyone else.

Factory Farms Throw Fuel Onto a Blazing Pandemic

Corporations aren’t just profiting from the bird flu pandemic — they’re worsening it. The factory farm model creates hotbeds of disease by stuffing millions of animals in small spaces. Moreover, the industry moves workers, materials, and equipment between factory farms, and the biggest bird flu risk factor for farms is being located near others already infected.

With the size of factory farms, each outbreak is devastating, as bird flu is fatal in chickens. Workers cull entire flocks to prevent further spread. Today’s average factory egg farm confines over 800,000 birds, with some operations confining several million.

This magnifies the scale of animal suffering and death, as well as the enormous environmental and safety risks of disposing of a million or more infected bird carcasses.

Bird flu is also rapidly spreading in massive dairy farms, and the industry’s prioritization of profits has worsened the outbreak. For fear of losing milk sales, farms have been reluctant to test their milk and farmworkers and even to report active infections. This has helped let bird flu run amok.

Right now, farmworkers are most at risk, and the industry’s exploitation of them further heightens that risk. Many are low-wage workers, undocumented, and uninsured. These folks can’t afford to stop coming to work to avoid contracting or spreading bird flu and may be unable to afford treatment.

So far, most human cases of bird flu have been mild, and we’re not seeing it move human-to-human. But this could easily change. As more cows and people come into contact with bird flu, the virus may mutate and even swap genes with the seasonal flu we’re more familiar with. Without action, bird flu could become the next global pandemic.

Tackling Bird Flu = Tackling Corporate Power and Factory Farms

Bird flu is a major threat to food affordability and human health. Our corporate-run food system both worsens disease outbreaks and creates price-gouging opportunities. We saw the consequences of this as the price of a dozen eggs breezed past $5 and beyond. 

State and federal officials must proactively fight the spread of bird flu with public health interventions, including vaccines for farmworkers and protective equipment like masks and goggles. But to fight the risk of this and future pandemics at the root, we need to break corporations’ stranglehold on our food system and end the factory farm model.

We need to enforce our nation’s antitrust laws to go after corporate price fixing and collusion. We also need a national ban on new and expanding factory farms, and fair wages and healthcare access for workers. 

With policies that do this — like the Farm System Reform Act and the Price Gouging Prevention Act — we can stop rising food prices and tackle bird flu at the same time.

Right now, our food system is incredibly fragile, as bird flu shows. It’s a sprawling web dominated by a few giant corporations and factory farms. One single outbreak of bird flu can take out millions of birds at a time. These corporations aren’t prioritizing safety, health, affordability, or our shared environment. Their main focus is profit.

We can’t afford to let this continue. Instead, our leaders must invest in a food system of many small farms connected at the regional level. That’s how we grow safe, sustainable, and affordable food for all.