Washington, D.C. — In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece this week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlined the Trump administration’s plan to address rising egg prices and shortages. Rather than tackling the root causes of high prices—corporate price gouging and industry consolidation—her plan consists of handing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to massive agribusinesses and cutting regulations that protect fair competition. In response, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement urging the administration to pursue real solutions outlined in a recent letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other members of Congress.

“While families struggle with soaring grocery bills, USDA is proposing to send taxpayer money straight to the companies that jacked up prices in the first place.” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “If this administration is serious about lowering egg prices, it must first stop big ag’s anti-competitive tactics. That means banning exclusionary contracting that lets big retailers shut out small suppliers, enforcing laws like the Robinson-Patman Act to crack down on illegal pricing schemes, and blocking harmful mergers that entrench monopoly power in our food system. These solutions, which use existing antitrust laws and enforcement authority, would be effective at not just lowering egg prices, but ensuring that the government supports consumers, independent farmers, and small businesses—not the same corporate giants responsible for driving up costs.”

As Senator Elizabeth Warren and a bicameral coalition of lawmakers recently laid out in a letter to President Trump, a real plan to lower prices must focus on promoting competition and accountability. The administration should:

• Prevent big retailers from using exclusionary contracts that lock out smaller suppliers and drive up costs for consumers.
• Enforce laws like the Robinson-Patman Act against large grocery chains that use their power to secure unfairly low prices from suppliers while charging consumers more.
• Prevent further consolidation in the agriculture sector that reduces competition and gives a few firms too much control over food prices.
• Increase government contracts for small and mid-sized food producers, ensuring fair competition in the marketplace.
• Investigate and prosecute price-fixing and monopolistic behavior in the food industry.
• Increase oversight of the agriculture sector to prevent dominant firms from restricting production to keep prices high.

Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, has also called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate monopolization and collusion in the egg industry. Their research has shown that major egg producers like Cal-Maine Foods have used avian flu as an excuse to artificially inflate prices, restrict supply, and generate record-breaking profits. Rather than investing in increasing production, dominant firms have focused on acquiring smaller competitors, consolidating market power, and maintaining high prices at consumers’ expense. Secretary Rollins’ plan ignores this fundamental issue.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.