A Word From Our Food Hub Manager
As spring approaches, the world of agriculture is blossoming! Here at Feast Down East, we are excited to be kicking off our Spring CSA, celebrating our women-owned & operated farms for International Women’s Day, and preparing for our March 21st farmer education workshop at the historic train depot in Burgaw. With all the happenings, it’s hard to pick a topic for this blog, but I would like to take this time to discuss a topic that has been all over the news recently: avian influenza and egg shortages.
Recently, when you go to the store, you have likely seen limits imposed on the amount of eggs you are able to purchase per day, increased egg prices, or perhaps no eggs left on the shelves at all. In the past, we have seen avian influenza come and go, but since 2022 it has lingered in many states. Previously, the main transmitters of the virus were waterfowl and migratory birds; however, in recent years, the virus has mutated and is infecting local wildlife, causing the virus to stick around.
”Avian flu outbreaks may be associated with migratory patterns in birds, but now the virus seems to be established in wild birds that live in the U.S., including North Carolina. There were reports just last week of a great horned owl in Wake County found dead with bird flu. There’s a greater risk year-round that it’s going to end up in a poultry house because it’s in wild birds locally, not just birds that happen to be transiting through during migration season.”
D’Lyn Ford / Matt Koci : NC State Prestage Dept. of Poultry Science 2/26/2025
https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/avian-flu-how-scientists-and-farmers-are-working-to-adapt/
The persistence of this strain has been consequential to poultry farmers and the economy as a whole. In North Carolina alone, over 3.3 million laying birds have been exposed and depopulated in 2025 and over 18 million nationwide. This has caused a shortage of supply, and in turn an increase in egg prices that is speculated to continue. The USDA is currently investing upwards of $1 billion dollars in an effort to combat these shortfalls in demand. While these funds should help alleviate the crisis, it will take months for consumers to feel any relief. Repopulation of laying chickens takes at a minimum two to three months (~20 weeks) to reach maturity for egg production, putting major retailers behind on egg production/stock for the rest of spring and well into summer.
In the meantime, if you don’t already purchase your eggs locally, now is a great time to support small-scale farmers. At Feast Down East, a majority of our farmers that sell eggs have pasture-raised chickens with a few of our farms also having AWA (animal welfare approved) certifications. Check out our “Meet Your Producers” page on our online marketplace to learn more about each farm's practices.
Buying local eggs allows you to discover different egg varieties than you may be used to! Different varieties of chickens lay different colors of eggs such as green, blue, speckled, brown, white, and tan. Other than being visually pleasing, these eggs also have more nutritional content including higher levels of vitamin A, D, & E and omega-3 fatty acids. They are more delicious because of the diet they have been fed, and the animal husbandry practices used to raise them, along with decreased transportation time which also equates to increased freshness.
Our eggs are available to purchase wholesale in flats or cartons for restaurants, retailers, and grocers with delivery from the food hub. We also sell eggs retail from our Spring CSA box, Local Motive, and Food as Medicine routes. See our website for our March schedule and stop by to support local farms!
Written by JT Crawford, Food Hub Operations Manager at Feast Down East.
Sources:
https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/avian-flu-how-scientists-and-farmers-are-working-to-adapt/
https://www.ncagr.gov/divisions/veterinary/AvianInfluenza#FoodSafety-6689