As a bird flu outbreak has caused the loss of 14 million egg-laying hens nationwide, local egg farmers are navigating through a difficult time.
The outbreak has caused sporadic egg shortages and increased prices at grocery stores.
One option to keep birds safe is to bring them inside, but for eggs to be branded as 'pasture-raised,' they need outdoor grazing access.
An Illinois farm is doing what they can to keep their flock safe while keeping their pasture-raised status.
"We pray to God every night that he blesses this farm," said Joe Wanda, who owns Wanda Farms in Harvard Illinois with his wife Hannah.
The first-generation farmers produce pasture-raised beef, pork, turkey, chickens and eggs. The hens have access to an outdoor pasture, but the bird flu can pose a risk to business.
"A lot of these brands that are calling themselves pasture-raised, they’re actually shutting the doors on their barns in fear of the bird flu," Wanda said. "We’re not changing our standards or anything, we’re continuing to keep our birds out on pasture and give them access to outside... It produces a higher quality egg, it’s more humane for the chickens."
His flock of 2,000 egg-laying hens produce 130 dozen eggs each day. Wanda believes the flu, which is wiping out mega farms with millions of birds, shows a need for change in the egg industry.
"Because there are fewer and fewer egg producers now and there are large mega factory farms, when one of them goes down, it dramatically affects the whole supply chain," he said. "It just shows you how fragile the food system has become as everything is industrialized over the last hundred years."
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As for empty egg shelves at the grocery store, the American Egg Board said there will need to be a sustained time period with no bird flu detection to stabilize supply.
The CDC said the risk for bird flu in humans is low. The FDA and USDA say there is no evidence any human in the U.S. has contracted bird flu through properly prepared chicken or eggs.
