NEW YORK — The recall of more than half a billion commercially produced eggs originating from the Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms in Iowa appears to have caused a spike in sales of locally produced eggs, according to dozens of news reports from regional newspapers and television stations throughout the country.
“We first promised [Whole Foods Market] 20 dozen a week. Now we're up to 80 dozen a week, and we can't keep them supplied,” independent egg producer Donna Putney told WYFF News 4, a Greenville, S.C.-based NBC affiliate, last week.
Similarly, the Bloomington [Ill.] Pantagraph last week reported that managers at several central Illinois stores had put up signs notifying customers that their eggs were sourced from local producers and were not affected by the recall.
“I won't buy eggs anywhere but [Milwaukee's South Shore Farmers Market] for at least a couple months while there's so much uncertainty about what caused the salmonella, and how many farms and brands are involved,” Judith Jopke of St. Francis, Wis., told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
And, Shelley Parks, director of public affairs for H.E. Butt Grocery's Gulf Coast and border region, told the Victoria (Texas) Advocate that none of H-E-B's stores were affected by the recall.
“We're lucky in that we get most of our products from Texas,” she said.
Food activist Michael Pollan also argued on CNN that commercial farming practices were responsible for the scale of the recall.