U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Wednesday rolled out a 1-billion-dollar plan to tackle the outbreaks of bird flu and bring down egg prices, which have soared to unprecedented levels.
According to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA), Rollins outlined a five-pronged approach, which includes an additional 500 million U.S. dollars for biosecurity measures, 400 million dollars in financial relief for affected farmers, and 100 million dollars for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens, and exploring temporary import options.
Continuing outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have devastated American poultry farmers and slashed the egg supply over the past two years. The epidemic has killed more than 140 million egg-laying birds in the country since 2022.
According to the USDA's Chickens and Eggs report released Monday, the nation's egg-laying hen flock dropped to 363 million birds in January, down 3.8 percent from a year ago and the lowest level since 2016.
USDA data showed that January egg production totaled 8.86 billion ones, a 4.2-percent drop from January 2024 and the lowest monthly production since the previous major outbreak of bird flu in 2016.
Data released by the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this month showed that egg prices shot up by 15.2 percent month on month in January, the largest increase since June 2015.
US agriculture department plans to curb bird flu, lower egg prices
US agriculture department plans to curb bird flu, lower egg prices
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
