{"id":105100,"date":"2025-03-19T18:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T23:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=105100"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:05:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:05:50","slug":"why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Why are egg prices so high right now?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Claire Murphy<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Host Intro:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bird flu continues to spread across the U.S. Last month, over 18 million chickens were slaughtered and \u201cegg flation\u201d is forcing some shoppers to stop buying eggs altogether.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are Chicagoans navigating this ongoing egg crisis? Claire Murphy of Medill Reports has the story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Why are egg prices so high right now? by MedillReports\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F2057511176&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;maxwidth=800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Grocery store sounds, people shopping ]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s Sunday afternoon in the South Loop. Bridget Banister is at Jewel-Osco getting groceries. She\u2019s buying the usual \u2013 milk, chicken, broccoli and shrimp. But there\u2019s one thing she won\u2019t be buying today: eggs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BANISTER: \u201cJust too expensive. Me, myself, want to buy some because I need them for my brownies, my egg salad, and I just, I&#8217;ve been holding off. The few ladies that I&#8217;ve been talking to that cook, they&#8217;ve been holding off just hoping and praying that they&#8217;ll go down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s several options for eggs: grade A, pasture-raised, certified organic and cage-free. Some are $6.50. Others are $9.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BANISTER: \u201cI&#8217;ve been noticing a lot of times that the stuff that just goes crazy, sometimes they do eventually come down in the prices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other shoppers like Riley Kulakowski are here because they haven\u2019t had much luck finding eggs somewhere else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KULAKOWSKI: \u201cI normally buy them at Trader Joe&#8217;s, but every single time I\u2019ve been going they haven\u2019t had any.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Continued grocery sounds]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I visited Trader Joe&#8217;s on Thursday afternoon to find out if their eggs were cheaper. But the shelves were clear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Employees told me their eggs are the only ones on the market right now priced around $4. They usually sell out within an hour.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is because they buy eggs directly from suppliers and have a smaller product selection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But shoppers are limited to buying one carton at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bird flu has impacted egg supply across the country, infecting millions of birds and cattle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far, the only identified human cases of the bird flu came from people working on dairy farms, interacting with infected animals, says Dr. Robert Murphy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s the executive director of the Heavy Institute of Global Health and professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MURPHY: \u201cIn commercial poultry farms, when bird flu spreads in those settings, I mean, it&#8217;s just a perfect setup for spreading influenza. And, you know, they have to basically stop the thing, they have to call all the birds in the setting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He says that when an outbreak happens, farmers are forced to wipe out their entire flock to stop the spread. This has put several farms out of business, like Kakadoodle Farm, in Madison, Illinois.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MURPHY:\u00a0 \u201cOne day, the lady who owns a farm, it\u2019s a couple, noticed like a dozen or so birds were dead. But the next day was like 50. And so she called the authorities. They came out and the birds had, the birds died from avian flu, and they had to cull all 3,000 chickens. So basically, shut down her business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Altogether, over 100 million commercial birds have been slaughtered in the U.S. since the initial outbreak in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a strain on chickens, there\u2019s a low supply of eggs, making the ones that are available, a hot commodity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He says that shoppers should be more worried about high costs than contracting the bird flu from eating contaminated eggs. The virus doesn\u2019t last long in the open air, and commercially sold eggs are washed and boxed before they\u2019re distributed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Murphy says in terms of egg prices, it\u2019s not looking good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MURPHY: \u201cWell, you know, those chickens have to grow, and then start laying eggs again. So, the process is not overnight. It takes a while. As long as this bird flu is circulating here, there&#8217;s going to be a very difficult time keeping enough chickens laying eggs that can be safely, commercially sold.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Grocery store sounds, people shopping ]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back at Jewel, Bridget Banister says shoppers must be creative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BANISTER: \u201cI just talked to a lady, she said, \u2018No, I&#8217;m going old school. I&#8217;m gonna learn how to make my recipes without eggs.\u2019 I don&#8217;t know what she&#8217;s gonna use, but she&#8217;s just gonna bag up for a moment and just go old school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Banister says she\u2019s hopeful prices will go back down soon, but in the meantime, she\u2019ll be making her brownies without eggs. It\u2019s definitely going to be a challenge, she says. But she\u2019s up for the task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Claire Murphy, Medill Reports\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Claire Murphy is a freelance reporter and graduate journalism student in the investigative specialization at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medill.northwestern.edu\/\">Northwestern\u2019s Medill School<\/a>. Claire lives in Chicago. You can follow her on X at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/clairemurphy22\">@clairemurphy22<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Claire Murphy Medill Reports Host Intro:\u00a0 The bird flu continues to spread across the U.S. Last month, over 18 million chickens were slaughtered and \u201cegg flation\u201d is forcing some shoppers to stop buying eggs altogether.\u00a0 How are Chicagoans navigating this ongoing egg crisis? Claire Murphy of Medill Reports has the story.\u00a0 &nbsp; [Grocery store [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":983,"featured_media":105107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5251,29,5542,5487],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-chicago","category-health-and-science","category-msj25","category-winter-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LISTEN: Why are egg prices so high right now? - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The bird flu continues to spread across the U.S. Last month, over 18 million chickens were slaughtered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LISTEN: Why are egg prices so high right now? - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The bird flu continues to spread across the U.S. Last month, over 18 million chickens were slaughtered.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T23:23:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-01T22:05:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/eggs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"886\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"clairemurphy2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"clairemurphy2025\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/\",\"name\":\"LISTEN: Why are egg prices so high right now? - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/eggs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-19T23:23:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-01T22:05:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/25527f25618f1c60bfbf0c5976cc6360\"},\"description\":\"The bird flu continues to spread across the U.S. Last month, over 18 million chickens were slaughtered.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/why-are-egg-prices-so-high-right-now\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/eggs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/eggs.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":886,\"caption\":\"Empty egg shelves at Trader Joe's on Roosevelt Street in late February. 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