The Bill Gates egg shortage conspiracy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates has found himself at the center of yet another online conspiracy theory. Some social media users are claiming recent national chicken and egg supply shortages are the culmination of a decadelong plot by Gates.

The timeline of events leading to the shortages, claim multiple Instagram posts, goes like this:

• "2013: Bill Gates invests (in) plant-based eggs, poultry, and meat"

• "2021: Bill Gates becomes the largest private farmland owner in the U.S."

• "2021-2023: Mass chicken and egg shortages hit American farms"

The Gateway Pundit, a conservative website, shared a similar claim. These posts were flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

In the past, Gates has invested in companies developing artificial or plant-based alternatives to meat, and he is currently the country’s largest private farmland owner, according to The Land Report, a magazine that surveys the country’s largest landowners annually.

But there is no evidence these investments are linked to a nationwide shortage in chicken and egg products. Gates’ private office, Gates Ventures, told PolitiFact this claim is false.

Eggs have become expensive and scarce in some parts of the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest update shows egg prices rose 60% over the last year.

The cost of chicken has also gone up, although not as drastically. The Consumer Price Index shows chicken prices, including fresh whole chicken and fresh or frozen chicken parts, have increased 11% over the last year.

The main factor driving the nationwide price hikes and supply shortages, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is a U.S. avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak. This, combined with holiday demand and continued coronavirus pandemic-related supply-chain pressures, have affected the market.

More than 58 million birds in hundreds of commercial and backyard flocks have been affected since the bird flu outbreak began in February 2022, the Agriculture Department estimated.

Avian flu is highly infectious, can spread rapidly from flock to flock, and can often kill chickens. Infected flocks are culled to prevent the flu from spreading. By Dec. 31, 2022, the Agriculture Department reported 43 million egg-laying hens had died because of the disease or depopulation.

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Lower-than-usual egg inventories near the end of the year, when demand is up from holiday baking, resulted in several successive weeks of record-high egg prices, the department said. Costs are expected to fall in the coming weeks as egg-laying flocks are restored.

News reports from the last several years suggest that Gates has at different times invested in start-ups focused on developing artificial or plant-based alternatives to meat, such as Nature’s Fynd, Hampton Creek, Memphis Meats, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

He has also written on his personal blog about the future of food, the increasing demand for meat as the global population rises and the environmental effects of livestock farming.

Alongside his investments, Gates has also purchased farmland in at least 19 states, according to The Land Report. It reported that as of 2022, Gates owned about 248,000 acres of farmland. The publication named Gates the country’s largest private farmland owner in 2020, 2021 and 2022. But these land holdings account for only a tiny share of the country’s total farmland. The Agriculture Department estimates there are more than 895 million acres of farmland in the U.S., making Gates’ share 0.028%.

In a March 2021 "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, Gates was asked why he had purchased so much farmland. He responded that it was a decision his investment group made.

"It is not connected to climate. The agriculture sector is important," Gates wrote. "With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions."

Gates appears to be pro-chicken farming. In 2016, he wrote on his blog about the benefits of raising chickens, particularly for people living in poverty. He’s also written about the need for more ways to produce meat without depleting environmental resources.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is focused partly on agricultural development to support farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. And many of the American farms Gates owns specialize in produce, such as onions, carrots and potatoes, NBC News reported in 2021.

Social media posts blame Gates’ investments in plant-based meat alternatives and his status as the nation’s largest private farmland owner for triggering the country’s current chicken and egg shortages.

Gates owns less than 1% of the nation’s farmland. He has invested in multiple companies developing artificial or plant-based alternatives to meat, but he supports chicken farming and agricultural development.

The current chicken and egg shortages trace mainly to an avian flu outbreak in the U.S. that began in early 2022 and was exacerbated by holiday demand and supply chain problems, the Agriculture Department reported.

We rate this claim False.

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