The Great Egg Crisis

By: Elián Zidán

If you can find them, they’re ridiculously expensive. If you can’t, good luck—because getting your hands on a carton of eggs has become a full-blown ordeal. What was once just another grocery store staple has turned into a hot commodity, sparking fights, thefts, and even a black market.

It sounds absurd, but it’s happening: people arguing in supermarket aisles, thieves hijacking delivery trucks, and even breaking into restaurant kitchens—not for cash, but for eggs.

For families already struggling to make ends meet, eggs have either become a luxury or something they’ve had to replace with alternatives. Restaurants are adjusting too—some, like Waffle House, are now charging extra per egg. And for bakeries, the impact has been even harsher, with skyrocketing costs threatening their businesses.

But as with any crisis, some people are finding creative solutions. One of the most unexpected? Renting laying hens. Yes, for those with enough space, backyard chickens have become a way to guarantee a steady supply of eggs without being at the mercy of soaring prices.

So what’s behind all this? And why are experts warning that prices could jump another 20% soon? The answer is avian flu. The outbreak has led to the mass culling of millions of birds, including laying hens, sending egg production into a tailspin.

In places like New York, some store owners have resorted to a workaround common in Latin America: selling eggs in plastic bags, since a dozen can cost as much as $15 in some areas. And the worst part? This crisis isn’t ending anytime soon. Bird flu cases are still rising, and now there are even reports of human infections.

One expert told me that it takes at least six months for a new hen to start laying eggs, meaning prices won’t stabilize overnight. And because eggs are heavily regulated, importing them isn’t really an option—so we’re entirely dependent on domestic production.

For low-income families, this is an especially hard hit. Eggs used to be an affordable source of protein, but with inflation driving up the cost of everything, even the basics are becoming out of reach.

At the end of the day, this whole situation is a reality check: we take so many things for granted until they suddenly disappear or become outrageously expensive. Who would’ve thought that something as simple as eggs could remind us of how fragile our food supply really is?