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A Donald Trump campaign promise was to lower the price of groceries. This matters for most of us, as we don’t begin to have the financial security of the billionaires who currently surround the president. It didn’t take Trump long to announce that this was a promise he couldn’t keep. But that doesn’t mean that the millions of people who voted for — and didn’t vote for — him aren’t caught figuring out how to best spend limited resources.
Let’s look at eggs — a staple in nearly every household. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that wholesale prices increased in every market in the country except California. A major reason for this price increase is outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial flocks. Millions of birds have been killed, and flock culling continues.
Avian flu is not just about the price of eggs. It’s about the health of domesticated and wild animals. And about the health of humans. To date, nearly all human cases have been linked to animals, but influenza mutates, sometimes quickly and the possibility of a strain where the illness is transmitted from humans to humans is entirely possible. Health care experts are paying close attention to this. If it occurs, the response matters.
The world is a complicated place. We can’t expect to lower the price of eggs and reduce the potential for avian flu with magical pronouncements. Good governance can be tedious and expensive. But I’ll take honesty and transparency for a more secure economic and healthy future.
Ellen Baum
Bowdoinham
