56 • URNER BARRY'S REPORTER / VOL. 19, NO. 1 / WINTER 2024
From the White House to the hen house...
FLOTUS egg farm visit a
Article contributed by Emily Metz,
President & CEO, American Egg Board
World Egg Day this year marked an historic moment
for America's egg farmers and an important
milestone in AEB's relationship with the White
House. On October 13, First Lady of the United
States Jill Biden celebrated U.S. egg producers by
visiting and touring the facilities at Outward Farms,
a family-owned egg farm in Raymond, Ohio, where
she learned firsthand from founder, CEO and thirdgeneration egg farmer Sandra Lausecker
about the
hard work, expertise and dedication required to
produce the tens of billions of high-quality, nutritious
eggs that Americans love and count on each year.
The significance of this visit cannot be understated
for our egg industry and for agriculture. The White
House told us that with the exception of one
campaign stop many years ago, Dr. Biden had never
had the opportunity to visit a farm-any farm-and
that they viewed this visit to an egg farm as an
introduction and a beginning to much needed
further conversations about egg farming and
American agriculture.
The visit also marked an achievement in our journey
at AEB to educate the nation about the importance
of eggs and the farmers who produce them,
generating tremendous positive coverage for egg
farming. In an extended coverage cycle that started
days before the actual visit, more than 84 segments
aired across major broadcast outlets including NBC,
ABC, CBS, and Fox, generating an estimated 85
million views in markets across the country.
The tour offered the First Lady and guests an indepth look at Outward Farms'
operations-from
spending time with the hens and understanding
what goes into keeping them strong and healthy,
to learning about the stringent on-farm measures
taken to ensure food safety, to seeing how
eggs are washed and inspected before being
delivered fresh to stores. Importantly, the tour also
acquainted Dr. Biden and guests with the rigorous
and comprehensive biosecurity protocols egg
Top: Sandra Lausecker, along with Emily Metz, greets First Lady Jill Biden. Bottom: Daniel
Lausecker shows the First Lady plant operations. Photos provided by AEB.
breakthrough
for eggs