Donations are being accepted to support research and further education in the U.S. egg industry. The call for donations is led by Iowa State University’s (ISU) research organization Egg Industry Center (EIC) and industry association Iowa Egg Council (IEC).
To further strengthen the EIC’s mission, the IEC is issuing a dollar-for-dollar match of donated funds up to US$100,000 through the end of 2024.
According to the EIC, the motivation for the call for donations was the increasing requests received annually by its Egg Research Grant Program. Its fund requests were US$3.2 million in 2023. The EIC’s grant program has awarded over US$2.9M to egg researchers since it was formed in 2013.
"Egg farmers have supported EIC's research for years, and so the Iowa Egg Council is issuing a challenge to the greater network of state, regional, and national associations; allied industry, and egg buyers who have not supported the center to help the egg farmers fund the research they need," said Kevin Stiles, Executive Director of the Iowa Egg Council.
Donations can be made to the ISU Foundation.
Where are the donations used?
To date, EIC has been able to fund researchers at 14 institutions throughout North America to improve on-farm egg production and processing. Specifically, the EIC is working to support the industry in sustainability, disease outbreaks, biosecurity, animal welfare and housing.
"EIC has many great projects submitted each year where the industry needs the resulting scientific information," stated EIC Board Chairman Jeff Henning. "But the resources we currently have are limiting our ability to make the impact the board would like to make for the industry, and we are working to change that."
Stiles added, "Since EIC makes funding available to institutions within North America, and the Center’s work benefits egg farmers across the country, I wonder if everyone would consider sharing the research cost."
