Kristine Villarroel 

Mar 7, 2025, 7:33 AM PTShareSave

• The current outbreak of bird flu has contributed to an egg shortage, driving up egg prices.
• Most consumer products are safe from contamination due to their production processes.
• Raw milk poses the biggest consumer threat.

As bird flu continues to impact egg availability and push up prices, you might be wondering which other everyday products could be affected by the recent outbreaks.

The H5N1 virus, which has affected 166 million birds since 2022 and infected 70 humans, has been detected in poultry, dairy cattle, and mammals like seals and cats.

It can spread through direct contact with contaminated animals, water sources, or surfaces, putting poultry industry workers at greatest risk of infection.

Most recently, a raw chicken cat food recall notice was issued for suspected contamination with the virus.

Experts told Business Insider that most consumer products won’t present dangers due to the close inspection required for mass production for consumers, and guidance for farmers — such as culling flocks of birds when an infection is identified — aims to prevent contaminated products from entering the market.

Another factor contributing to safety in the food supply is the processing of dairy products, like milk and cheese.

Keep an eye out at the farmers market.

After shopping at farmers’ markets, properly clean and cook your food according to food safety standards.

Local and small vendors can lack the structured oversight that major farms and grocery stores enforce for their providers, but most animal products — other than raw, unpasteurized milk — remain safe from contamination from the bird flu.

https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-public-forests-private-logging.html

By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

Published: March 5, 2025

 Edited by Chris McDermott

Protesters against the Trump administration’s layoffs of federal workers at Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, California on March 1, 2025. Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

 Why you can trust us

A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump over the weekend could have a disastrous effect on endangered species, climate change and local economies, warned conservation groups.

The order encouraging the “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” seeks to erode Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection rules in favor of the expansion of tree felling across 280 million acres of United States national forests, as well as other public lands, for timber, reported The Guardian.

“This Trump executive order is the most blatant attempt in American history by a president to hand over federal public lands to the logging industry,” said wildfire scientist Chad Hanson with the John Muir Project. “What’s worse, the executive order is built on a lie, as Trump falsely claims that more logging will curb wildfires and protect communities, while the overwhelming weight of evidence shows exactly the opposite.”

The order goes as far as setting an annual target for the amount of timber offered for sale, along with other measures, which could lead to widespread clear-cutting, a press release from Earthjustice said.

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The announcement follows last week’s appointment of Tom Schultz as the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Schultz is a former executive of timber company Idaho Forest Group.

“Naming a corporate lobbyist to run the agency tasked with overseeing the last old growth left in the U.S. makes it clear that the Trump administration’s goal isn’t to preserve our national forests, but to sell them off to billionaires and corporate polluters,” said Anna Medema, Sierra Club’s associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for forests and public lands, as The Guardian reported.

The action is similar to a recent move by Trump that used an obscure committee to advance fossil fuel projects that put threatened species at risk. According to experts, this disregard for ESA rules is likely illegal.

The order says it is “vital” to reverse what it calls “heavy-handed federal policies” and “increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security.”

“This executive order sets in motion a chainsaw free-for-all on our federal forests. Americans treasure our forests for all the benefits they provide, such as recreation, clean air, and clean drinking water. But this order ignores these values and opens the door for wild lands to be plundered, for nothing more than corporate gain. In the long run, this will worsen the effects of climate change, while also destroying critical wildlife habitat,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, senior legislative representative of the Earthjustice policy and legislation team, in the press release.

Trump’s latest executive order specifies that logging projects can be expedited if they are purportedly intended to reduce wildfire risk by “thinning” vegetation, reported The Guardian. However, the razing of forests, especially those with established, fire-resistant trees, has been said by scientists to actually increase the risk of fast-moving wildfires.

Hanson explained that logging creates drier and hotter conditions that alter a forest’s microclimate, helping wildfires to spread faster.

“People deserve smart, science-driven solutions that truly protect their forests and communities, but don’t let it fool you – President Trump’s forest executive order isn’t the solution. It’s a short-sighted giveaway for extractive industries,” said Josh Hicks, director of conservation campaigns for The Wilderness Society.

The ESA laws that Trump is attempting to circumvent protect roughly 400 species that live in national forests, including threatened and near-threatened species such as grizzly bears, wild salmon and spotted owls.

Environmental groups warned that increased logging could also pollute millions of people’s water supply.

“Trump’s order will unleash the chainsaws and bulldozers on our federal forests. Clearcutting these beautiful places will increase fire risk, drive species to extinction, pollute our rivers and streams, and destroy world-class recreation sites,” said Randi Spivak, the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands policy director. “This is a particularly horrific move by Trump to loot our public lands by handing the keys to big business.”

Mar 07, 20250

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(Photo/Courtesy of BFC)

Yellowstone National Park’s Senior Bison Biologist, Chris Geremia, informed Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) Campaign Coordinator, Mike Mease, that Yellowstone has trapped a group of 200–210 buffalo at Stephens Creek near Gardiner, Montana. The buffalo began their annual migration into the Gardiner Basin last week, and the park started capturing groups of approximately 60 on Tuesday, March 4th, continuing through the morning of March 6th (58). These are the first buffalo to migrate into the basin this season.

This practice goes back years. Last year, BFC Board Member James Holt commented: “Luring and trapping Buffalo inside Yellowstone Park is a decades-long practice that continues because of Montana’s stance to not permit a self-sustaining wild Buffalo population in the state. Wild Buffalo herds should be thriving on millions of acres of National public trust lands but for the capitulation of the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to Montana’s plan of managing wild buffalo for extinction.”

BFC Board Vice President and Tribal Sovereignty & Indigenous Lifeways Program Director, Dallas Gudgell (Yankton Dakota) states that BFC is looking for solutions as the current and decades old Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) continues to fail the Buffalo, tribal people, and community members.