New York’s AG Lays a Rotten Egg, by Richard J. Sexton and Daniel A. Sumner
A bright spot during the pandemic has been the resilience of the food supply, which kept staples on shelves. But now state attorneys general in New York, Texas and West Virginia are taking aim at farmers—and the market forces—that helped keep eggs on Americans’ plates.
What did the farmers do to run allegedly afoul of the law? They responded to an unprecedented increase in demand for retail groceries, including eggs, by selling eggs at prevailing market prices, which rose in New York from about $1 for a dozen large eggs from January through early March to about $3 on April 1. During normal times, our economy relies on price adjustments to avoid shortages.