It costs an arm and a leg to make an omelet these days.
Finding an affordable replacement requires drastic action.
And a Florida man came up with a scary solution to soaring egg prices.
Florida man turns to iguana eggs for breakfast
The price of eggs has gone through the roof over the last four years.
Former President Joe Biden created the worst inflation in 40 years, which sent their prices soaring.
An outbreak of bird flu last year sent prices to record levels after the Biden administration slaughtered more than 100 million egg-laying hens.
Egg prices have begun to drop after the Trump Agriculture Department instituted its plan to combat flu, and hen populations began to rebound.
One Florida man came up with a creative solution to rising egg prices.
John Johnson, who owns a business called Down Goes Iguana, removes green iguanas from homes in the Marco Island, Florida area.
Green iguanas are an invasive species that were released into the wild by pet owners who no longer wanted to care for them.
They have become a nuisance species that damage seawalls, tear up landscapes, and destroy pools.
Johnson figured he might as well collect iguana eggs as he removed these reptiles as part of his day job.
“That’s where this was born,” Johnson said. “I have the tools to help, and after I’m done, I might as well do something different.”
He began to use them in omelets the same way he would use chicken eggs.
“It doesn’t get more Florida than this,” Johnson stated.
A single iguana can produce dozens of eggs.
The Florida iguana egg omelet
Johnson uses a splash of milk and seasons the iguana eggs with salt, pepper, and fajita seasoning.
The eggs are mixed with diced ham, peppers, and onions to make a classic omelet.
“They’re eggs. So I treat them like eggs,” Johnson explained. “We’re going to have ham. We’re going to have peppers. We’re going to have onions. We’re going to have all these things because that’s how I cook my regular eggs.”
Johnson claimed that no one would know the eggs came from an iguana in a taste test.
“It tastes like eggs because they are eggs,” Johnson said. “If I put this in front of you and didn’t tell you what it was, you’d have no clue.”
Getting creative with iguana eggs came with the territory of living in Florida, according to Johnson.
“This is life in Florida, OK? There’s a thing called ‘The Florida Man.’ This touches the edges of Florida man,” Johnson explained.
“A lot cheaper, OK?” Johnson added. “This is great, and these are local, so there’s no tariffs.”
Gulf Coast News Ryan Arbogast tried one of the omelets that Johnson made with iguana eggs and said that it tasted like a typical omelet.
He noted that it did not smell any different from chicken eggs before he tried it.
“It doesn’t taste like anything, just tastes like a regular omelet,” Arbogast said.
John Johnson came up with a uniquely Florida solution to deal with high egg prices.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
