By xamtiw @ Adobe Stock and Richardcyoung.com
Americans are beset by rules and regulations (laws) governing nearly every aspect of their lives. Some of the most onerous regulations come in the form of rules about what foods you can and can’t consume. Raw milk is a great example. Raw milk from animals is something humanity has enjoyed for thousands of years since domestication. As mammals, all humans are born consuming raw milk. But the sale of raw milk across state lines is banned by the federal government, and even some states prohibit its sale. In The Wall Street Journal, Sara Ashley O’Brien discusses the push for “food freedom,” writing:
Dairy farms have been in decline for decades, but you wouldn’t know it looking at Mark McAfee’s. Based in Fresno, Calif., his business has grown substantially since 2020, he said, and is on track to hit $30 million in sales this year.
His company, Raw Farm, is the largest supplier of unpasteurized milk in California. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan of the brand, whose products can be found at the specialty grocers Erewhon and Sprouts. Podcast hosts and social-media personalities have fueled demand, claiming that raw milk is creamier, more nutritious and easier to digest than pasteurized dairy.
“Influencers have really driven us in the last four years to new levels we never imagined,” McAfee said in an interview.
The Food and Drug Administration has long warned Americans against drinking unpasteurized milk, which can expose consumers to salmonella, listeria and E. coli, and has the potential to cause rare and serious disorders. The FDA has said raw milk is not healthier than pasteurized and, in fact, raises the risk for harm. Selling raw milk is legal in California and more than half of U.S. states, but its sale across state lines has long been banned by the FDA, which warns that drinking unpasteurized milk can cause bacterial outbreaks that have resulted in miscarriages, stillbirths, kidney failure and death. It can be particularly unsafe for children, the elderly, immunocompromised people and pregnant women, the agency says. This year, the FDA warned about the risk of bird-flu contamination amid an outbreak that has infected dairy cows. Twenty states have laws on the books prohibiting raw milk in some form.
But in many corners of the internet, raw milk is presented as healthy, wholesome and cool. Some people brag about obtaining it in states where retail sales are illegal. “I have a dealer,” said Texas-based influencer Lauryn Bosstick on her popular podcast, “The Skinny Confidential Him & Her.” In an email, Bosstick said “I love raw milk.” As a guest on the show, Paltrow, who lives in raw-milk-friendly California, said she drinks raw cream in her morning coffee and that Raw Farm is her favorite.
Others have turned their preference into a political stance, a way of rallying against what they see as government overreach. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voiced support for “food freedom”—a term that has come to encompass everything from intuitive eating to diets that the FDA has deemed dangerous. He has expressed solidarity with Amos Miller, a Pennsylvania-based Amish farmer whose business has run afoul of raw-milk regulations and faced consequences as a result. Kennedy said he “only drank raw milk” while on a 2022 panel at a conference for antivaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which he chairs. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, recently posted a photo on Instagram in which she smiles while hugging two people at a farmers’ market selling raw milk.
“Mr. Kennedy believes that consumers should be able to decide for themselves what foods to put into their bodies,” a spokesperson for Team Kennedy said in an emailed statement.
Trust in the U.S. government and American media are at near-record lows, driving people to seek alternative authorities and information sources. For many, influencers and self-styled experts have filled the void. As a growing number of them tout products that could cause harm, people across the country are drinking it up.
The federal government set its first safety standards for dairies in 1924, introducing regulations that states could adopt on a voluntary basis. This followed many disease outbreaks linked to milk, including typhoid fever, scarlet fever and tuberculosis. Pasteurization, a heating process that kills harmful bacteria such as E. coli, listeria and salmonella, became the norm as dairy farmers and sellers sought to prevent foodborne illnesses.
But soon a group of dissenters emerged, arguing that pasteurization stripped milk of its nutrients. That cohort included the owner of the Monrovia, Calif.-based farm Alta Dena, which would become a major supplier of raw milk.
Unpasteurized milk appealed to the counterculture and became linked with the growing natural and organic food movement of the 1970s. But following various outbreaks, legal challenges and a 1987 FDA ban on interstate raw milk sales that remains in effect today, Alta Dena stopped selling unpasteurized products and sold its farm. The Alta Dena brand exists today but sells pasteurized milk and other dairy products. McAfee’s farm, founded in 1998 as Organic Pastures, stepped up to grab its market share.
Read more here.
