A journalism student recently wanted to interview me about regulation of raw dairy. She was especially interested in the efforts of Amish dairy farmers to ship and sell raw milk across state lines, which is illegal under U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules. Might the farmers be arrested? Might they go to jail?
I tried to break news of the new raw dairy regulatory realities as gently as I could: The farmers need not worry, because no agency under the purview of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going after raw dairy producers…..unless people start getting sick. Which brings me very quickly to Mark McAfee and Raw Farm LLC (formerly Organic Pastures) of Fresno, CA, the largest raw milk producer in the country.
Raw Farm has been under regulatory pressure from the FDA and California public health regulators for the last several weeks because of illnesses linked to its raw cheddar cheeses and illnesses of seven people, at least three including children.
It’s all part of a bad streak on the food safety front for Raw Farm; two years ago, 11 people were sickened by raw cheddar from Raw Farm.
What makes these illnesses especially concerning is that the pathogen causing all the problems has been E.coli O157:H7, generally regarded as the most dangerous pathogen, especially for children, who can suffer kidney failure and death. Another source of concern is that the illnesses came from raw cheese, which has been legal in the U.S. since the late 1940s, so long as it is aged at least 60 days. There’s really no excuse for producers of raw milk cheese selling tainted product.
But raw dairy illnesses for Raw Farm have been a nearly regular occurrence over the last several years. In 2023 and 2024, at least 171 people were sickened by salmonella associated with its raw milk. All this data is from a recent NYTimes article.
Raw Farm finally announced a voluntary recall in the last few days, “under protest,” it said, because it hasn’t found any pathogens in its testing of cheese and milk; pathogens are known to appear only episodically at contaminated dairies.
You’ll find a more complete history of Raw Farm’s association with illnesses from pathogens in its raw dairy at Food Safety News. It’s not a pretty picture.
The denials by Raw Farm are sadly ironic, because Mark McAfee, founder of the dairy, has headed up a long-term effort by the raw dairy industry to improve safety and establish safety and education standards, via the Raw Milk Institute.
Why is Raw Farm having so many illnesses? No one knows for sure, but I have a simple theory that I feel confident explains the problem: Raw Farm is too big. It has many hundreds of cows at its Fresno dairy. Raw milk is most safely produced in small batches, 100 cows or less. Raw Farm won’t hear of this simple solution since slimming the operation down so much would take all the huge profits out of the business for Raw Farm.
How long can Raw Farm continue operating this way, making people sick periodically? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that it’s not a sustainable business or marketing approach—in an industry where sustainability counts for so much.
I have learned well how food safety regulations can be twisted to harass food producers; we saw a number of examples during the period of 2006 to the early 2020s, when farms were shut down and even put out of business over the discovery of pathogens in milk or cheese, without any illnesses.
And I’ve learned in research I’ve done on my family’s tallow business in Germany that the Nazis used food safety to not only shutter businesses, but to throw Jewish owners into jail for years. That’s food for another post.
Any chance the pathogens were planted?
Sure, there is always a chance. But who would have planted the pathogens? And why?
I agree with you on the size of the dairy being very important. I get my dairy now through a cow share,and the young man who milks for me has 2 cows that are hand milked. The milk is very high quality and he pays careful attention to each cow. Not possible when you need to milk a string of 100!
My theory is simple as well David… Raw Farm’s over aggressive emphasis on attempting to exclude perceived harmful microorganisms to placate narrow minded food safety directives that have little to do with food safety and are all about control of the food industry is where the problem exists. Indeed, directives that are based on a fear driven notion that ubiquitous microbes are the primary cause of illness and disease while ignoring their essential role with respect to an overall healthy, competitive and exclusionary ecosystem. As usual society’s attempt to control that which is beyond its control ends up causing/stimulating more harm then any so-called perceived good. I agree with you that the size of an operation plays a direct proportional role when it comes to overall quality of product, but that of course goes against the bigger is better industrial narrative/mindset that has been preached in the business of agriculture these last sixty years.
As I have stated on many occasions antibiotics, drugs, vaccines, toxic chemicals and genetically altered biologicals etc. are the primary cause and predictable result of illness, disease and their corresponding complications. Microbes serve to free us from all those invasive interventions if we can simply establish a mindset to let them do so.
The 100 cow limit is not a strong argument on food safety.
Joseph, what is your explanation for all the illnesses from Raw Farm?
I find it interesting that the labels on the Raw Farm milk and cheese indicate A2. This means all the A1 cows would have needed to be replaced. Raw Farm still claims to have 1200 cows. I’m also curious how so much butter and cheese can be produced with the same amount of cows the dairy claims to have for at least a decade.
David I think you are exactly right – any farm milking hundreds of cows is not going to be able to maintain the same quality and attention to detail necessary to produce safe raw milk. They will rely on hired labor to do most of the milking and the focus will be speed and efficiency. We milk about 24 cows with 2 milkers and it takes us at least 2 hours because we are extremely particular about cleanliness. That is the key to safe raw milk.
Dear David,
I truly wish that you had called me for my comment and input prior to posting this divisive and inflammatory story. It did not feel very fair or very good…..old friend.
You have really missed the point, and you have not collected all the facts.
Raw Farm is under an ongoing FDA Federal Court Ordered Decree. This Decree allows the FDA to basically do pretty much anything they want with Raw Farm (far beyond regulatory authority levels and standards). The Decree came about in 2009 because of interstate commerce of Raw Milk labeled as Pet Food. The FDA did not like the labels, even though Raw Milk as Pet Food is legal. The Decree also found that we had posted NIH PUBMED links to EU based raw milk studies at our website. The FDA claimed that this amounted to production of an illegal unauthorized new FDA drug, because only FDA authorized drugs are allowed to make medical claims.
Right now, truckloads of illegal raw milk are flowing into California from other states. The FDA refuses to investigate these illegal shipments stating that the FDA has Sovereign Immunity and Discretion to not investigate. Some of the 7 reported illnesses on the FDA raw cheese outbreak list include people that said that they drank unknown brands of raw milk! yet the FDA listed them as liked sickened six months ago by Raw Farm cheese. This is wrong! Raw Milk is not a part of the recall or illnesses!
Here is the real story:
Raw Farm has helped the Amish and all farmers with no charge or cost, in addition; the Raw Milk Institute has been a driving force for progress for all raw dairies operating both in the USA and all countries at no cost.
The FDA has clearly stated that their goal at Raw Farm is to stop our production of Truly Raw Cheese. The FDA has told us on several occasions over the last 18 months ( and again in person 10 days ago ) that:
“Raw Farm is the last retail raw cheese regulated by the FDA that does not pasteurize the cheese and label it as raw!!” They demand that we do the same!!
We have told them NO.
We believe that this request amounts to consumer fraud and is very misleading and CONSTITUTES misbranding. We refuse!
We are the only Raw Dairy in world that operates an on-farm pathogen lab. We performed 14,000 pathogen tests from September 2025 to March 2026. All negative. The FDA hates this. They don’t like pioneers and they have never come across a brand that had the test data to back up our claims of safety ( negative test results on all products ).
There is no RFK protection effect for raw milk. We feel that quite to the contrary, the FDA now is aggressively attacking truly raw bioactive rich unheated cheese. They demand that we comply and become a part of their big consumer food lie!
As a pioneer and as a science-based producer of tested raw dairy products that are pathogen free, we are disrupting the commercial market forces. We serve humanity and not the FDA.
This is the real story. We stand with all producers of raw milk that are trying their best. That includes the three cows in a cow share or larger operations with 100-200 cows ( there are plenty of them ).
As a pioneer we know that forces will try and divide our movement as we grow and we become a true delicious living threat to dirty bioactively dead allergenic milk.
We stand in unity with all raw dairies, micro, small, medium and larger as we all serve our consumers and as we endure the slings and arrows of leading our movement in producing safe clean raw milk as nourishment to our communities.
Mark McAfee
Chairman RAWMI
CEO Raw Farm
I normally would have called you, Mark. But you and others from Raw Farm have been putting out denial statements on Facebook and local CA television stations. The statements all appeared to be essentially the same–you were saying that no pathogens turned up in your own extensive testing and thus the illnesses weren’t your fault. I assumed your statements were lawyer approved, so I didn’t want to put you in a position of going beyond what you wanted to say. Now, you seem to be adding to the statements with claims that your cheese is the only true raw milk cheese and the FDA is coming down on you because of that. I could possibly appreciate all these claims and excuses for one outbreak, but outbreaks associated with your prodcuts have been going on for some years.
I theorized in my post that Raw Farm is just too large to be producing raw milk and raw dairy products, which can easily be contaminated with pathogens. You’re running the largest raw dairy by far in the entire country. The only dairy that begins to come close to what you produce was another raw California days from years ago that I know you remember–it was Alta Dena Dairy, which grew in the post-war years to become even larger than Raw Farm is today. By the 1980s, it was producing raw milk being shipped around the country. But with its huge growth came ever-more-frequent outbreaks of illness, and by the 1990s it got out of the raw milk business. Your dairy started up in the late 1990s to fill the raw milk production void, and you had support from old time raw dairy proponents like Aajonos Vonderplanitz and James Stewart. Alas, it seems as if we are seeing history repeat itself. Raw milk just doesn’t seem to work in a large factory-style conventional-dairy setting, sorry to say.
On Mark’s concern about fraud and misbranding… said in my best Linda Richman / SNL impersonation: “Organic Pastures is neither organic nor involves pastures….discuss!!!”
Hi Amanda! 20 years later and not much has changed at the McAfee dairy, except the name change to RAW FARM. Pathogens are still in the products and Mark continues to deny outbreaks.
Amanda,
Drawing off Mary’s response to you that “not much has changed” is certainly correct when applied alternatively to the world of germaphobes and those who attempt to accommodate that world with respect to raw milk. Unfortunately, the controlling nature of that world breeds deceit on both side of the fence. In Mark’s case he is attempting to satisfy both of those sides, and that puts him a unique situation where you are often times damned if you do and damned if you don’t and one that would appear is subject to interpretation(s) that only his conscience can answer to.
RIZO cheese recall /outbreak caused two deaths and many illnesses. It was pasteurized.
Isn’t pasteurized cheese supposed to be safe…guaranteed safe!! according to the FDA?
https://elevenflo.com/blog/rizo-lopez-foods-bankruptcy
mark
Mark,
Looks like they did find E.coli O157:H7 in RAW FARM cheese linked to a 2025 outbreak. Hmmm. For some reason your on farm testing is not catching pathogens. Or are you getting milk for your cheese from somewhere else and are not worried about pathogens since the cheese has to age or 60 days? Which is it? On farm testing is not accurate or are you getting your milk for cheese from another source?
Current Update
April 16, 2026
The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and local partners, continue to investigate a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to RAW FARM-brand raw dairy products.
As part of this investigation, FDA, in coordination with state partners, has completed onsite inspections and sample collections at RAW FARM, LLC retail and processing facilities. FDA has collected and analyzed 19 samples of RAW FARM-brand raw cheddar cheese products. One sample of RAW FARM-brand Cheddar Cheese tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
FDA conducted further testing and analysis through whole genome sequencing (WGS), or DNA fingerprinting. This showed that the strain of E. coli found in the cheese is a different strain than the E. coli in the current outbreak. Instead, this strain matches illnesses from a different 2025 outbreak investigated by CDC. The 2025 outbreak is not ongoing, but CDC and states are following up to determine if there is any epidemiologic information from that 2025 outbreak that shows if those sick individuals consumed any RAW FARM-brand products.
The raw cheddar cheese that tested positive for E. coli was not shipped to stores and is not available for sale. Sample testing and analyses by state partners are ongoing. Any additional positive test results will be reported if they become available.
On April 2, 2026, RAW FARM, LLC initiated a voluntary recall of certain RAW FARM-brand cheeses. On April 7, 2026, RAW FARM, LLC updated the language and product names on its recall announcement for certain RAW FARM-brand cheeses.
FDA’s investigation is ongoing, and this advisory will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
https://www.marlerblog.com/
Quite the list of outbreaks and recalls. Bill missed that 2 young children developed HUS in the 2024 RAW FARM cheese outbreak. Mark, your cheese is contaminated. Stop trying to spin it.
As of March 26, 2024, CDC announced that the outbreak is over. CDC reports a total of 11 illnesses in five states. There has been a total of five hospitalizations; two developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can lead to kidney failure. No deaths were reported. The last illness onset date was February 5, 2024. FDA’s outbreak investigation is closed.
…the never-ending story continues.
Dr Thomas Cowan sums it up well… “When health officials assume that nature is imperfect and dangerous, we end up with all kinds of inappropriate procedures—from pasteurization to routine antibiotics to vaccinations. Unfortunately, these are not minor mistakes, but strategies that have led us to the greatest health crisis in the history of the world, and one that has disproportionally impacted our children in tragic ways.”
Mary
That cheese was being aged and had not been tested for release. It was not yet consumed. It was not even packaged. It was in block form in cold storage.
The FDA found three people in their massive database that did not closely match that strain. They did not report eating our cheese on their intake reports. The matches were distant. Not closely connected. They did not include that data in their release. It shows the disingenuous nature of this attack.
It is not an outbreak. It is the FDA stretching with all its might to create an outbreak when it does not exist.
The FDA can not find one positive piece of cheese that matches their set of seven illnesses. Not one.
We doubled the size and capacity of our Thermo fisher lab today. We can now perform 200 samples each day or more. We use this technology as a live-step . As apposed to a kill-step. This allows the survival of bioactives that are only found in truly raw cheese.
One more piece of data. Allergies to pasteurized dairy products kill at least 4 people each year and sicken hundreds. Pasteurization is structurally defective. Raw dairy is not allergenic.
I stand corrected. The correct number of pasteurized dairy “deaths” reported in the National Allergic Foods Registry is 15 and not 4.
Wake up America…we can do better than a filth solution with circa 1893 engineering. The PhD researchers that know this area of science are quoted as saying:
“Pasteurization is an 18th century solution to an 18th century problem. We can do so much better”
Mark, looks like the outbreak for the cheese you mention may not use pasteurized milk.
Listeria risk profile. Listeria monocytogenes causes approximately 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths annually in the United States, with a fatality rate of 20-30%. High-risk populations include pregnant women (for whom listeria can cause miscarriages and stillbirths), newborns, elderly individuals, and immunocompromised persons. High-moisture fresh cheeses like queso fresco are particularly susceptible to contamination because listeria can grow at refrigeration temperatures, and traditional production methods may not include pasteurization. Food safety research has identified Hispanic-style fresh cheeses as higher-risk products for listeria contamination. The FDA cited Current Good Manufacturing Practice violations and stated that Rizo-Lopez’s corrective actions were inadequate.
Rizo was a pasteurized cheese. And part of the pasteurized milk FDA PMO community and standards!
It’s very uncomfortable to accept this. Pasteurized cheeses and pasteurized milks allow filthy milk to be produced and utilized.
That’s exactly why there have been so many listeria deaths with pasteurized dairy products !
And…. When pasteurization is not perfect people get sick and die!! The FDA always blames the producers and processors. They never look at their own standards that allow filth!
Mark, your filthy milk and cheese has caused 10 cases of HUS. This is the focus of this blog post; the pathogen contamination of OPDC/RAW FARM products. I do enjoy watching how you spin and divert from the topic. I am curious how for the last 3 years E.coli O157:H7 has contaminated your cheese, but not your milk, especially considering the cheese is aged for 60 days, and yet the STEC still survives. Logically if the same cows produce the milk used for both your cheese and milk products, your milk should have been contaminated and multiple outbreaks should have occurred from milk. Hmmm……
Dan Flynn of FSN does a good analysis of King Raw.
TODAY’S TOPIC: King Raw
The food safety step known as pasteurization was widely employed after Louis Pasteur patented the process in 1865 to first fight the “diseases” of wine. It was also soon applied to beer and milk.
Pasteur, the famous French chemist, is also known for his breakthrough discoveries in vaccination and microbial fermentation. He did research showing that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk.
He found that heating liquids such as milk to 60-100 degrees C killed harmful bacteria and molds already present in them. The discovery in the years since has likely saved millions of lives.
But change came slowly, especially in the United States, where most people grew up on farms, drank milk that was not pasteurized, also known as raw milk
Early in the 20th Century, some big cities began experiencing raw milk outbreaks that sickened hundreds of people and killed dozens.
“The lesson drawn from the outbreak is that even a most carefully supervised milk supply is open to the danger of grave infection from carrier or unrecognized cases of disease,” wrote Boston biology professor C.E.A. Winslow. “The only real safeguard against such catastrophes lies in pasteurization, carried out by the holding system and preferably in the final packages.”
Professor Winslow wrote his conclusions more than 100 years ago in the Journal of Infectious Diseases about the infected milk supply that killed 48 Bostonians in 1911. He said Bean Town doctors were “loath to believe” that Dearfoot Farms could possibly be involved.”
The company that had been supplying Boston and its suburbs with raw milk for 28 years, and “had been universally regarded as a pioneer in the work of dairy inspection and in the marketing of clean milk…”
After one of the most significant public health events in U.S. history, pasteurized milk became almost universally adopted. But there are hold-outs, and raw milk and raw milk products are responsible for human illnesses and deaths 161 years after pasteurization became available.
Public health agencies today uniformly warn the public about the dangers of raw milk. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not permit the transport of raw milk across state lines. States, however, are free to decide what comes off the farm, where it can be sold, and to whom.
In Washington D.C. Representatives Thomas Massie, R-KY, and Chellie Pingree, D-ME, have again introduced a bill prohibiting federal interference in the interstate transport of unpasteurized milk and raw milk products packaged for direct human consumption.
H.R. 7880, the Interstate Milk Freedom Act, would end the FDA’s ban on the interstate sale of raw milk in some instances.
While a perennial bill, this issue may be heating up in the Making America Healthy Again era. The Massie-Pingree Act makes these points:
The bill makes arguments for lifting the ban, saying:
(1) such prohibition, interference, regulation, or restriction is based on a determination that, solely because such milk or milk product is unpasteurized, such milk or milk product is adulterated, misbranded, or otherwise in violation of Federal law;
(2) the milk or milk product’s State of origin allows – by law, regulation, or policy – unpasteurized milk or unpasteurized milk products to be distributed for direct human consumption by any means, including any form of retail sale, direct farm to consumer distribution, or cowshare;
(3) the milk or milk product is produced, packaged, and moved in compliance with the laws of such State of origin, including any such laws relating to labeling, warning, and packaging requirements; and
(4) the milk or milk product is moved from the State of origin with the intent to transport the milk or milk product to another state, which allows the distribution of unpasteurized milk or unpasteurized milk products for direct human consumption, as described in paragraph two, irrespective of whether the applicable laws of such other State are identical to the laws of the State of origin.
Raw milk accounts for only a tiny percentage of total fluid milk consumption in the United States — perhaps only 0.5 to 1 percent. That translates into 105 to 200 million gallons that today cannot legally cross from one state into another.
If crossing borders with raw milk becomes legal, who benefits?
The FDA isn’t equipped to enforce its ban, and smuggling mostly small quantities of raw milk across state borders is already routine.
The ban does, however, keep the Fresno, CA ,raw milk production of Mark McAfee’s RAW FARM LLC, formerly known as Organic Pastures Dairy, confined to the Golden State. California has an estimated 60,000 raw milk consumers, with most RAW FARM customers served at retail grocery stores.
In the 28 years since he founded the family-owned Organic Pastures Dairy Farm, McAfee has positioned himself as the kingpin of California’s $50 million raw milk industry.
His renamed RAW FARM LLC pairs well with the McAfee-founded Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI), which has almost 50 raw milk dairies in the U.S. and Canada enrolled in a self-regulation program that uses RAWMI Common Standards or Test-and-Hold.
RAWMI-listed dairy farms submit test data monthly to show that they are in compliance with the standards, which target a rolling three-month average of less than 5,000 standard plate count (SPC) and less than 10 coliforms per ml of raw milk. The Test and Hold program involves pre-screening milk and allows only milk that meets certain standards to be used for human consumption.
RAWMI is also a web-based directory of raw milk outlets.
For the former paramedic, the Institute is a door-opener that has even put him on stage at medical schools to deliver his message challenging federal authority, emphasizing farmlevel testing, and asserting that regulators misinterpret or misuse scientific evidence.
He’s often critical of federal public health, including the FDA and CDC.
McAfee’s criticisms of the federal government, however, stop at the USDA’s cash window for farm subsidies. According to the Environmental Working Group’s farm subsidy database, McAfee’s farm has received $814,410 in federal handouts in the last 20 years.
This help from Uncle Sam has made RAW FARM one of the largest and most visible raw milk producers in the U.S.
His Raw Milk Institute, a 501(c) (3) non-profit, is also based in Fresno, CA, and filed an IRS Form 990 for 2025, showing $60,419 in total revenues and $51,612 in total expenses, with net assets reported at $106,541.
Formed in 2011, the non-profit corporation boasts raw milk “to improve human health and immune system strength by training and mentoring farmers, educating consumers, and regulators.”
Since 2006, raw milk and raw milk products from RAW FARM, including those from the previous Organic Pastures, have been linked to at least 16 outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella and bird flu, also known as H5N1.
That’s a record of at least 248 food poisonings, including eight devastating cases of the kidney-damaging Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)
In this year’s E.coli outbreak linked to RAW FARM cheese sold nationally without pasteurization, Mark and his son, Arron, did not recall the product until April 2, 2026. The Illness onset dates ranged from Sept. 1, 2025, to Feb. 13, 2026. Late recalls aren’t usually as effective as prompt action.
Last year, before Marty Makary was confirmed as FDA Commissioner, there were media reports that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) had been in contact with McAfee about a role in raw milk policy in the new administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, is said to be a raw milk devotee. McAfee reportedly claims he’s not had any further communication with Kennedy. By last Fall, RFK Jr. was promoting pasteurized whole milk, which was included in the new dietary guidelines.
The U.S. District Court for Eastern California had had McAfee under a federal Consent Decree since 2010. The Civil Order was renewed in 2023 after the Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys pressed civil contempt allegations against Mark and Arron McAfee and RAW FARM.
The DOJ found RAW FARM misbranded raw milk in interstate commerce, violating the 2010 Consent Decree. Before an evidentiary hearing was held, the federal court approved a renewed order agreed to by the DOJ and McAfee.
Under penalty of law, McAfee must:
Abide by the decision of the FDA.
Grant the FDA “the power of inspections without prior notice.”
In the 2010 Consent Agreement, McAfee acknowledged violating federal food safety law by introducing and/or distributing raw milk in interstate commerce. After 50 months, McAfee can petition the FDA for relief from the decree.
Here’s what Mark McAfee says in defense of raw milk:
The FDA and CDC are “premature,” and their conclusions are false when no pathogen is found in the product. He calls it “denying science.”
The FDA uses “backdoor tactics” to pressure retail stores, create panic, and issue “under-protect” recalls.
The Raw Milk Institute’s alternative certification standards enable the safe production of raw milk through proper farm-level controls.
A large percentage of the public disagrees with the FDA.
Here’s what public health experts say in response:
Even when bacteria are not found in available retail samples, the pathogen can be linked to a specific product through epidemiological evidence and genomic sequencing.
FDA and CDC maintain that recalls are necessary once a likely source is indicated by epidemiological evidence and genomic sequencing, especially when children are affected;
Raw milk is inherently higher risk because pasteurization kills pathogens. Outbreaks repeatedly prove this fact;
Public health obligation is to tell the truth; and
Compared with consumers of pasteurized dairy products, people who consumer raw milk are 840 times more likely to experience an illness and 45 times more likely to be hospitalized.
OUR TAKE
We’ve had this figured out, but we’ve been wrong.
Oh, Mark McAfee is the king of raw milk. He gets the title for the California market, the nonprofit Institute with its own standards set outside government regulations, and is the nation’s most persuasive raw milk advocate.
What we’ve been wrong about is our thinking that outbreaks and recalls of raw milk and milk products hurt raw milk producers. Now we realize that the old adage that any publicity is good publicity also applies to raw milk.
RAW FARM’s recalls and outbreaks have kept it in the news almost nonstop for the past two decades. When the federal court steps in to keep McAfee between the white lines, or when he opts to take on the FDA’s guidance, the small raw milk community cheers him on for taking on the man.
Along with others in the media, we are guilty of feeding this beast. It cannot be helped. Just as the FDA and CDC have a responsibility to warn the public about dangerous products, the media also has its role.
At this point, it’s not a player, but it sure is a nuisance.
Raw milk is a niche market. Were it not for the outbreaks and recalls it generates, it might even be a trivial market that most people would never hear about.
Consuming raw milk can expose one to Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Listeria, and Brucella – and, potentially, H5N1 bird flu.
People know that:
56 percent of U.S. adults know that drinking raw milk from cows, sheep, or goats is less safe than drinking pasteurized milk;
25 percent think raw milk is “just as safe to drink” as pasteurized milk;
32 percent know that drinking raw milk increases a person’s risk of foodborne illness, though 14 percent think it has no effect; and
51 percent are not sure.
The numbers are from the 2025 survey. by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.
By the numbers
225.9 billion pounds is the projected total U.S. milk production in 2026.
6,611 is the number of all dairy farms in the United States as of 2025. No estimate is available for the number of raw milk dairy farms in the U.S., but based on production, it may be less than 200.
0.9 to 1.7 billion pounds per year is from raw milk production.
0.75 percent is the maximum share for U.S. raw milk.
9.335 million as of September 2024 this is the number of milk cows in the U.S.
24,200 pounds is the projected average milk production per cow in 2024:
$4.3 billion is the total dairy exports value (Jan-Jun 2024):
141 pounds is the annual per capita consumption of fluid milk (2022, latest available):
60,000 is the estimated number of raw milk consumers in California.
0.15 percent is raw milk’s share of California’s 39.6 million customer base
Raw milk consumers are a small subgroup. There is some evidence of a higher per-capita intake. However, consumption is highly uneven due to existing state restrictions.
What it means
The legal status of raw milk sales varies by state. Legislatures enact laws annually. If their state does not permit retail sales of raw milk and raw milk products, raw milk advocates push to change.
Often, they will settle for direct-to-consumer sales, such as on-the-farm or at a farmer’s market.
While raw milk bills are often sold as economic development legislation, more liberal regulations do not appear to increase raw milk production or consumer demand.
Lifting the federal ban on transportation has not caught on with Congress in the past. His keeping McAfee at arm’s length seems to indicate that RFK Jr. does not wants to get into raw milk policy.
I agree, we can surely do “much better” but what was in fact that 18th century problem Mark?
At the time pasteurization focused on eliminating microbes, a clear failure to recognize and acknowledge the root problem, namely, better animal and human nutrition and living conditions. Indeed, it was the latter scenario that brought about meaningful change. Ubiquitous microbes were not the issue their increased presence was a mere response to the conditions that nurtured poor health and compromised immune systems in animals and humans. Singling the microbe and eliminating its presence via pasteurization is not what fundamentally solved the problem of illnesses at the time.
Prior to the 18th century milk was considered an all-important food, especially for children. Raw milk and its by-products were believed to be the most healthful foods known to man. Today there is this knee jerk response that suggests that every health problem and illness from acute and chronic ear infections, constipation, asthma, eczema, and so on in children is believed to be related to the consumption of milk… Of course and apart from this gross failure to distinguish between pasteurized and raw milk why not go a step further and lay the blame on a natural living food ignoring the fact that most children in the first 3 years of their life are subjected via mandate to a vast array of invasive immune disrupting medical procedures that in my mind clearly serves as the main reason why children experience all of the above and more health problems that they claim raw milk is responsible for.
Today, all of the CDC and FDA data and evidence has been reported to Raw Farm.
There were zero causation links found to the initial outbreak. In fact, several of the ill people reported not eating Raw Farm raw cheese! No pathogens found matching any illnesses. Hundreds of samples taken. Nothing found anywhere!
There was no secondary outbreak. The three additional illnesses that the CDC tried to link to Raw Farm turn out to be completely unrelated. These were loose fitting WGS that they said were part of a second outbreak. When the FDA interviewed the patients ( from November 2025 ) they said that they had not consumed raw dairy!! Yet the FDA press release said that they were investigating a secondary outbreak. It was big media drama…now it is time for an apology.
Loose WGS data is a loose canon. It is not causation, but the FDA treats it like it is a cause when it’s not. Now we have hard evidence that WGS is a horrible tool for making conclusionary statements.
We won’t get an apology.
That’s how Sovereign Immunity works to protect the government. They just don’t care and all they want is to apply pressure and cause injury. It is deeply unjust.
Diamonds are made from lumps of coal after extreme heat and pressure are applied.
I am extremely proud of our food safety team. Our team is like an Intellectual Sponge, and they absorb any information that they can gather to become better. They take “heat and pressure” and eat it as brain food.
We would like to thank the FDA for sending their very best and brightest investigators to our operations. They shared some little pearls with us and now our FSMA FDA HACCP PCQI compliant Preventative Controls and Food Safety Plan are that much better. We are tight! Thank you FDA!
Dan Flynn…
Calling you out. Your 10 count of HUS cases is incorrect. In the last 27 years there have been ecoli illnesses. Very few became HUS. Nationally, there are about 750 food related ecoli cases every day in America ( 265,000 year CDC ) . There are only a few hundred actual food related HUS cases every year ( CDC ). A high percentage of ecoli cases are resolved at home with hydration and not in the hospital and not with antibiotics.
Dan, remember this, there have been 82 deaths from pasteurized dairy SINCE 1970 and at least 15 deaths ( YEARLY ) from allergies to pasteurized milk! 13 kids die from asthma every day in the USA. Raw milk makes asthma get better!! Pasteurized milk is inflammatory and can trigger allergies and asthma. Raw milk makes allergies and asthma better. ( PUBMED is clear on this with at least 20 studies from the EU ).
Attacks on raw milk just increase sales. The gut is the center of the immune system and raw milk is superfood for the gut.
Mark, You are a victim of raw milk derangement syndrome by those who exabit an intense dislike for raw milk and a knee jerk response to blame it for almost everything.
Ken,
Tend to agree. This syndrome is a result of successfully building a national raw milk market and awareness that threatens the established cultures and beliefs at CDC, NIH and FDA among others in Government.
Industry is scared… really scared. Social media has exposed the real problems with pasteurization and homogenization. Consumer dollar voting is really impacting the pasteurized markets and sending a message with a slow prolonged decline in interest and sales.
Instead of adapting by using HPP or some other non-heat kill steps to try and be resilient ( ie UV, Ultra Sound plus Electricity etc developed in EU ) , these markets double down on: bad flavor, difficult digestion, allergenicity and inactive bioactives. That is the signature of a dinosaur, and it does not turn out well. The signs are clear with the loss of more and more pasteurized milk dairies across America. 5% will be lost this year alone, that is more than 3 per day!