In summertime, cows wait under a canopy to be milked at Mark McAfee\u2019s farm in Fresno, California. From his Cessna 210 Centurion propeller plane, the 63-year-old can view grazing lands of the dairy company he runs that produces products such as unpasteurized milk and cheese for almost 2,000 stores.<\/p>\n
Federal regulators<\/a> say it\u2019s risky business. Samples of raw milk can contain bird flu virus and other pathogens linked to kidney disease, miscarriages, and death.<\/p>\n McAfee, founder and CEO<\/a> of the Raw Farm, who also leads the Raw Milk Institute<\/a>, says he plans to soon be in a position to change that message.<\/p>\n Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist President Donald Trump has tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services, recruited McAfee to apply for a job as the FDA\u2019s raw milk standards and policy adviser, McAfee said. McAfee has already written draft proposals for possible federal certification of raw dairy farms, he said.<\/p>\n Virologists are alarmed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against unpasteurized dairy<\/a> that hasn\u2019t been heated to kill pathogens such as bird flu. Interstate raw milk sales for human consumption are banned by the FDA. A Trump administration that weakens the ban or extols raw milk, the scientists say, could lead to more foodborne illness<\/a>. It could also, they say, raise the risk of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus evolving to spread more efficiently, including between people, possibly fueling a pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the FDA says raw milk is now legal and the CDC comes through and says it advises drinking raw milk, that\u2019s a recipe for mass infection,\u201d said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and co-editor-in-chief of the medical journal Vaccine and an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University in New York.<\/p>\n The raw milk controversy reflects the broader tensions President Donald Trump will confront when pursuing his second-administration agenda of rolling back regulations and injecting more consumer choice into health care.<\/p>\n Many policies Kennedy has said he wants to revisit \u2014 from the fluoridation of tap water to nutrition guidance to childhood vaccine requirements \u2014 are backed by scientific research and were established to protect public health. Some physician groups and Democrats are gearing up to fight initiatives they say would put people at risk.<\/p>\n Raw milk has gained a following among anti-regulatory conservatives who are part of a burgeoning health freedom movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe health freedom movement was adopted by the tea party, and conspiracy websites gave it momentum,\u201d said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has studied the history of the anti-vaccine movement.<\/p>\n Once-fringe ideas are edging into the mainstream. Vaccine hesitancy<\/a> is growing.<\/p>\n Arkansas, Utah, and Kentucky are weighing legislation that would relax or end requirements for fluoride in public water. And 30 states now allow for the sale of raw milk<\/a> in some form within their borders.<\/p>\n While only an estimated 3% of the U.S. population<\/a> consumes raw milk or cheese, efforts to try to restrict its sales have riled Republicans and provided grist for conservative podcasts.<\/p>\n Many conservatives denounced last year\u2019s execution of a search warrant when Pennsylvania agriculture officials and state troopers arrived at an organic farm<\/a> tucked off a two-lane road on Jan. 4, 2024. State inspectors were investigating cases of two children sickened by E. coli<\/em> bacteria and sales of raw dairy from the operation owned by Amish farmer Amos Miller, according to a complaint filed by the state\u2019s agricultural department<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bundled in flannel shirts and winter jackets, the inspectors put orange stickers on products detaining them from sale, and they left toting product samples in large blue-and-white coolers<\/a>, online videos show. The 2024 complaint against Miller alleged that he and his wife sold dairy products in violation of state law.<\/p>\n The farm was well known to regulators. They say in the complaint that a Florida consumer died after being sickened in 2014 with listeria bacteria found in raw dairy from Miller\u2019s farm. The FDA said a raw milk sample from the farm indicates it was the \u201clikely source\u201d of the infection, based on the complaint.<\/p>\n Neither Miller\u2019s farm nor his lawyer returned calls seeking comment.<\/p>\n The Millers\u2019 attorney filed a preliminary objection<\/a> that said \u201cshutting down Defendants would cause inequitable harm, exceed the authority of the agency, constitute an excessive fine as well as disparate, discriminatory punishment, and contravene every essential Constitutional protection and powers reserved to the people of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulators in Pennsylvania said in a press release they must protect the public, and especially children, from harm. \u201cWe cannot ignore the illnesses and further potential harm posed by distribution of these unregulated products,\u201d the Pennsylvania agricultural department and attorney general said in a joint statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unpasteurized dairy products are responsible for almost all the estimated 761 illnesses and 22 hospitalizations<\/a> in the U.S. that occur annually because of dairy-related illness, according to a study published in the June 2017 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n But conservatives say raiding an Amish farm is government overreach. They\u2019re \u201charassing him and trying to make an example of him. Our government is really out of control,\u201d Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano said in a video he posted to Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Videos show protesters<\/a> at a February 2024 hearing on Miller\u2019s case included Amish men dressed in black with straw hats and locals waving homemade signs with slogans such as \u201cFDA Go Away.\u201d A court in March issued a preliminary injunction that barred Miller from marketing and selling raw dairy products within the commonwealth pending appeal, but the order did not preclude sales of raw milk to customers out of state. The case is ongoing.<\/p>\n With Kennedy, the raw milk debate is poised to go national. Kennedy wrote on X<\/a> in October that the \u201cFDA\u2019s war on public health is about to end.\u201d In the post, he pointed to the agency\u2019s \u201caggressive suppression\u201d of raw milk, as one example.<\/p>\n McAfee is ready. He wants to see a national raw milk ordinance, similar to one that exists for pasteurized milk<\/a>, that would set minimal national standards. Farmers could attain certification through training, continuing education, and on-site pathogen testing, with one standard for farms that sell to consumers and another for retail sales.<\/p>\n The Trump administration didn\u2019t return emails seeking comment.<\/p>\n McAfee has <\/a>detailed the system<\/a> he developed to ensure his raw dairy products are safe. He confirmed the process for KFF Health News: cows with yellow-tagged ears graze on grass pastures and are cleansed in washing pens before milking. The raw dairy is held back from consumer sale until it\u2019s been tested and found clear of pathogens.<\/p>\n His raw dairy products, such as cheese and milk, are sold by a variety of stores, including health, organic, and natural grocery chains, according to the company website<\/a>, as well as raw dairy pet products, which are not for human consumption.<\/p>\n He said he doesn\u2019t believe the raw milk he sells could contain or transmit viable bird flu virus. He also said he doesn\u2019t believe regulators\u2019 warnings about raw milk and the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pharmaceutical industry is trying to create a new pandemic<\/a> from bird flu to get their stock back up,\u201d said McAfee, who says he counts Kennedy as a customer. His view is not shared<\/a> by leading virologists.<\/p>\n In December, the state of California secured a voluntary recall<\/a> of all his company\u2019s raw milk and cream products due to possible bird flu contamination.<\/p>\n Five indoor cats in the same household died or were euthanized in December after drinking raw milk from McAfee\u2019s farm, and tests on four of the animals found they were infected with bird flu, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an unrelated case, Joseph Journell, 56, said three of his four indoor cats drank McAfee\u2019s raw milk. Two fell sick and died, he said. His third cat, a large tabby rescue named Big Boy, temporarily lost the use of his hind legs and had to use a specialized wheelchair device, he said. Urine samples from Big Boy were positive for bird flu, according to a copy of the results<\/a> from Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n McAfee dismissed connections between the cats\u2019 illnesses and his products, saying any potential bird flu virus would no longer be viable by the time his raw milk gets to stores. He also said he believes that any sick cats got bird flu from recalled pet food.<\/p>\n Journell said he has hired a lawyer to try to recover his veterinary costs<\/a> but remains a staunch proponent of raw milk.<\/p>\n \u201cRaw milk is good for you, just not if it has bird flu in it,\u201d he said. \u201cI do believe in its healing powers.\u201d<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n