One day in November 1936, my grandfather, Julius Joseph, was surprised by a group of food safety inspectors and police at his tallow factory in Darmstadt, Germany, a small city about a half hour south of Frankfurt. The inspectors berated him for accepting shipments of filthy meat and carcass remnants that were to be melted into tallow. He protested that many of the remnants were for “technical tallow,” which would be turned into shoe polish or soap and thus wouldn’t be consumed. He also pointed out that his company, which had been started by his father nearly 50 years earlier, had never had a problem with food safety. The protests fell on deaf ears and police placed him under arrest.
The major newspaper in Darmstadt published what can only be characterized as a hysterical and hateful account about my grandfather’s arrest, referring to the “vile smell” and “tuberculosis parts” that were included in the meat remnants he was using. Throwing out the term “tuberculosis” during the 1930s, a time before the development of antibiotics, was akin to accusing my grandfather of trying to start an epidemic. And the article hadn’t even gotten to the “good part” yet: Even though my grandfather had served in the German army during World War I, he was called out for “the incredible impertinence with which the Jew still abuses the hospitality of his German guest country…” The logic behind that? Germany had a year before the raid on my grandfather’s factory, passed the Nuremberg Laws, which reduced Jews to second class citizens with few rights, not much different from migrants in today’s U.S.
It all came back to food safety and the inherent dishonesty of Jews, the article concluded: “The nearly unbelievable conditions in this genuine Jewish factory are so scandalous that the strictest measures are barely sufficient in order to prevent such cases in future.” The judge in the case clearly read the article, because my grandfather was held without bail, put on trial, convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison.
For a time after I discovered the newspaper article, I wondered if perhaps my grandfather was guilty—that possibly he was under so much financial pressure from harassment that most Jewish businesses experienced in the three years after Adolf Hitler took power in early 1933 that he cut corners and took unnecessary risks. But as I read through other documents related to his arrest and trial, I realized that the term “tuberculosis” was never brought up again and that no illnesses were reported in connection with his tallow. I also realized that tallow production includes a “kill step,” whereby the fat is heated to about 250 degrees. In addition, other Jewish food owners around Germany were being similarly accused and jailed for alleged food safety violations.
What does all this have to do with food safety today? For me, it shows how easily food safety, among other issues, can be used to foment fear and hysteria, especially when problems are associated with a minority group that is being scapegoated, like Jews were in 1930s Germany. As I thought more about the hysteria fomented via the newspaper report about my grandfather, my mind jumped to the hysteria created during the 2024 presidential campaign against Haitian immigrants in Ohio who were accused of killing and eating pets. “They’re eating the pets,” then-candidate Donald Trump nearly shrieked in a debate with Kamala Harris that September. And I cringe when I read comments from Mark McAfee of Raw Farm that suggest his company is being unfairly singled out by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the likely source of dozens of illnesses from tainted cheese and milk. As I documented here over the years, raw dairy producers and sellers were unfairly targeted by the FDA and a number of state regulator agencies during the 2006-2020 period. But that action has receded as regulators have become more accepting of consumer demands for raw dairy products, and with the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The unfair targeting has moved on to other minorities, and the rationale has shifted.
For autocrats, the issue is pretty straightforward: How do you choose to terrorize those you’ve decided to scapegoat. In 1930s Germany, Jews were blamed for everything from producing substandard food to corrupting science and banking. In 2020s America, it’s immigrants who have been targeted for special enforcement attention for being a major source of violent crime.
Immigrants are being rounded up by the thousands and deported for being criminals, even if they’ve lived in the U.S. for years without ever having been in trouble with the law, as I described in a recent article. “Crime” is as good an accusation today as “tuberculosis” was 90 years ago.
In the photo above, I’m standing outside the huge prison in Bruchsal, Germany, where my grandfather was imprisoned between 1936 and 1939. The sign on the right warns not to get any closer than where I am standing.
I’m currently in Germany on business and had occasion to visit a prison where my grandfather was held, actually one of at least three prisons where he was held. It’s a huge structure that opened in 1848 and based on an American prison model in Pennsylvania, where prisoners were held in individual cells and prohibited from speaking and socializing. It’s apparently not like that any more, though the place looks very grim from the outside (see photo). As I walked around this awful place, I couldn’t help but conclude that the people targeted and the rationales for targeting them shift over time, but the need for political scapegoats never seems to vanish for those in power seeking to distract us.
David
The NASA Artemus Astronauts saw the vision we should all hold dearly and share.
One Earth. One humanity living on the crust of this green and blue miracle spinning through time and space with 8 billion souls on board. No chosen people greater than any others. All souls are equal and precious.
As a humanitarian my heart aches for peace. I am hurting down in side seeing Lebanon and GAZA and not able to act. My patriot soul compels me to act to help stop this madness. What constructive individual act would effect good change ?
So many Americans feel this way. I just got home from three weeks in the EU myself. I know how the world feels. I heard it all over. I feel and sense the purpose and passion of the Spanish moral leadership. The cost of waiting is massive for our country, mankind and our collective humanity. What does a conscious American do? Vote? That’s years from now. What do we do now that’s constructive?
Mark, following up on what you observed in Europe, I’ll add that I’ve sensed a deep sense of disappointment in America’s shift from being pro-democracy to nearly anti-democracy. Beyond the disappointment, there’s a sense of fear. After the horrors of World War II, America insisted on Germany and Japan being nearly disarmed. Germany has re-armed to an extent, but not nearly enough to withstand an invasion from Russia. In the past, Germany (and other European countries) could count on the U.S. standing with them against Russia. Now, with our anti-democracy attitude, many Germans fear America might just stand aside and let an invasion go forward.
Thank you for this up close and personal look and your story, David. As I get older, I see the wisdom of keeping the stories alive. THIS is history. I hope you’re writing another book.
Even though we are miles apart politically (although as you point out “my” President has gone rogue), I am grateful for our friendship and to be part of your circle. So many of mine literally dropped me mid-sentence. Including a friend for whom I was her maid of honor at TWO weddings!
Speaking of the “authorities”, the local state departments are not stepping down. They are now enforcing a “ban” on raw milk sold as pet milk which is completely legal in KY. But they are visiting stores — starting with the Amish and Mennonite, easy targets for authorities — and threatening to confiscate the milk, all of which is properly labeled, labeling being the only requirement to sell raw milk as pet milk. F2C is on the job but, of course, the state is dragging its feet in proving it has the authority to do this.
Can’t wait for more stories!
Thank you, Sally. And thanks for the alert about KY cracking down on raw milk sales there. I think what you are seeing is that the pro-raw-milk message from RFK Jr. hasn’t yet filtered down to all the regulator troops on the front lines. After a century of government hostility to raw milk, a segment of them are going to continue to behave as they have always behaved. I’d encourage the stores being hit with violations or being threatened with confiscation of milk to let their KY legislators know, and also to let RFK Jr.’s office know what’s going on. You may get some action. Keep me up on what happens.
Excellent reporting David. Thank you so much for sharing your family stories. We wre more alike than different.
For sure! Thanks, Lee.
https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-e-coli-o157h7-raw-cheddar-cheese-march-2026?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
The madness is over. The FDA announced this morning that their So-called Investigation of the Raw Farm Raw Cheese Outbreak is over.
You have to read down to the last part of the report to see that there was NO Causation links to illness reported for any patients!! All patients in their so-called Secondary Outbreak were related only by weak and loose WGS, and All denied consuming raw cheese from Raw Farm. Hundreds of tests of fully-aged 60 day aged and cured raw cheese revealed no pathogens. There was no second outbreak…that was made up BS.
Remember that Raw Farm reluctantly recalled its cheese under protest because we had 14,000 pathogen tests for all the cheese and milk that was produced from Sept 2025 to February 2026. All Negative. We were right and the FDA was dead wrong. They used WGS epidemiologic data improperly. EPi data is not causation data!! They were so upset with that our test data and information that they were confounded. They had never seen a raw brand ( or anyone else for that matter ) with a Thermo- Fisher PCR pathogen lab on farm testing, all the milk every day, and all the cheese before release. That is why we did NOT agree to an immediate recall. We wanted to see their facts, and they refused to provide all the data to us, because they had no links to causation…none! At one point they said we had to many questions and stopped responding to emails. We had to get our lawyer to talk to their lawyer to compel the data flow. They refused to provide our food safety team with all of the WGS for all 9 patients! Some of the nine said that they consumed “unbranded raw milk” and not raw cheese. Some said that they had bought our raw cheese at wholefoods. We don’t sell our raw cheese in Wholefoods! Yet the FDA blames Raw Farm. At present there are truckloads of untested, unregulated illegal raw milk, cheese, and other raw dairy products flowing into California from out of state and the FDA tells us that they don’t care. Their exact words in an email to Raw Farm were… “The FDA has discretion on who they choose to investigate!” They don’t even care when people claim illness!!!! Protection of public is not the goal. Destruction of raw milk and raw dairy is their stated objective. Look at the first paragraph of the link above. They absolutely hate raw dairy and they don’t care about consumer fraud either. In fact, they encourage it!
They claimed to have a secondary Outbreak with an additional 3 patients…when those patients were contacted, they had never heard of and denied consuming Raw Farm or raw cheese! That was a big lie and something that the FDA and CDC made-up with very loose and weak WGS data to hurt Raw Farms brand. If they did not have Sovereign Government immunity, they would be getting sued for millions. Shoot first and ask questions later is the tactic being used to attack Raw Farm.
Here is the big one. One of the FDA investigators told us that we were the last raw cheese producer in the USA that does not pasteurize or thermalize their cheese and then… label it as raw.
We told the FDA that we would not follow their demand and pasteurize our cheese and label it as raw. We believe that is consumer fraud and mislabeling. The FDA insisted that we pasteurize our raw cheese and label it as raw.
That is what is driving the FDA to madness!
We refuse to follow them and industry. We are pioneers driven by humanity and we are ethical and moral people and know that pasteurization destroys the bioactives found in raw cheese. The health benefits come from these powerful heat sensitive functional proteins. Our Raw Farm Raw Cheeses are now, one of the last ( per FDA ) or perhaps the last retail available Truly Raw Cheese on store shelves in America. We only used pathogen free raw milk to make our Truly Raw 60 Day aged raw cheeses.
Now we have a challenge. We need to educate the FDA, CDC and others about Bioactives and other raw milk benefits. We need to educate the FDA, NIH and CDC about clean and tested raw milk standards. Big task. Perhaps the best way to educate them is to build markets so big and powerful ( and safe and healthy ) that they can no longer deny the facts as they serve pharma and not humanity.
That is exactly what I was going to do with Bobby, but somehow, we never got the call to constructively serve. That was a bridge to far.
As a freedom loving, pioneering, science embracing, humanitarian, IMGC attending ( UC Davis Milk Genomics trained student ), target range shooting, pilot, grandpa, ex-paramedic, raw milk producing democrat, I guess they don’t know what to do with me. I don’t fit any of their boxes.
Our goal…
Love All
Serve All
Feed All…
And do it safely with tested bioactive rich raw dairy products and other whole foods.
Whatever that takes.
We are all celebrating our 6th Epic “Camping with the Cows” event held at Raw Farm over the weekend. 1400 people from all over CA, USA, from England, Australia, Washington state, Texas really created a culture of unity, sharing and deep warmth. It was a community.
It looked much more like a “MOVEMENT coming together” than a Raw Farm Brand event!
Their was a deep conection made between all walks of life. It was not left or right…it was shared health from deep in the gut. Raw milk was the shared message. Music with a band from Texas, dancing, drones taking pictures and video even into the night. 40 bon fire burning near the campers sites. Community was built and unity was shared.
We had a big walking tour to watch the cows being milked and observe firsthand our food safety DOING DAIRY DIFFERENT in Action!! Some even got an exclusive and special visit of our on farm Thermo- Fisher PCR food safety lab that does 150 tests every day!
We had 85 influencers at our VIP area eating steak and raw milk ( with plenty of other awesome wholefoods) . Each had 100,000 to 2 million followers each!! I spoke to every one of them. I hands or hugged the majority of everyone that attended. I tried to get connected to each and every person…I think I came pretty close. If I didn’t, my family and or the Raw Farm sure did!
We also had venders that wanted to be connected to our brand including our HPP cold pressed juice makers ( Youngs Town from Reedley ) and our Raw Soap makers from Texas. Local raw honey producers ( Blares Honey ). We had Hillory Boyton and the 6 chefs from School of Lunch in LA at the event cooking, grilling and sharing along with at least 6 taco trucks and other special event food makers. All with fresh fruit and vegetables!
We had the Fresno County Sheriff and their mounted deputies on horses. The kids loved that!! The deputies mingled and became a warm and welcomed part of our big-huge international community and also a very local family event.
So many stories of real people that used to suffer from lactose intolerance, IBS, Celiac, Crohnse, and Lupus in remission, healed and no longer a part of their lives! Allergies and asthma gone. Kids with strong immune systems! and kids that don’t get sick when others do. We had athletes and some movie stars….they will stay anonymous for now.
The amount of content created is starting to be gathered. Tens of millions of connections and stories from real people. An international impact of huge importance.
So much teaching and sharing about raw milk and the high standards used to produce it.
We had a RAWMI QR code that was scanned hundreds of times to collect data on the digestive experience of raw milk of consumers. Huge research opportunity!
What a great weekend!
Mark
Congratulations, Mark. Sounds like a truly inspiring event. Thanks for sharing these highlights with us.