{"id":2690,"date":"2026-06-14T10:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2690"},"modified":"2026-06-14T10:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:36:12","slug":"he-profits-off-raw-milk-thats-making-people-sick-the-government-isnt-stopping-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2690","title":{"rendered":"He profits off raw milk that\u2019s making people sick. The government isn\u2019t stopping him."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nThis story was originally published by <\/em>ProPublica<\/em>, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive <\/em>their biggest stories<\/em> as soon as they\u2019re published.<\/em>\n<\/p>

Read more On the brink: Black lawmakers could lose decades of gains in one year<\/a><\/p>\n

\n A white Ford pickup truck broke through a thick curtain of fog one morning in February, winding its way down a muddy farm road in California\u2019s Central Valley. From it emerged a 64-year-old dairyman, burly and tan, who left the engine running as he lumbered toward me with open arms.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou must be Mark,\u201d I said, warning him I wasn\u2019t one for hugging.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m a hugger,\u201d he said, pulling me in anyway. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve known you for a lifetime.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n I had spent the past couple of weeks corresponding with Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee, who\u2019d filled my inbox with messages and PowerPoints extolling the virtues of his most important, and controversial, product:\n <\/p>\n

\nIt is delicious.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nIt makes you feel good (the gut-brain serotonin and dopamine cycle).<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nIt\u2019s great for asthma and literally saves lives.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n He was talking about raw milk, which, if you trust 150 years of bedrock science, offers little reason to consume. By definition, it has not been pasteurized, the simple process of heating milk to kill off harmful bacteria. Before the practice was widely adopted a century ago, thousands of babies died each year from illnesses linked to contaminated dairy. Today, most scientists and health experts agree that raw milk has no significant, proven nutritional benefits over its sanitized counterpart, cannot treat or cure disease and subjects its consumers to over 100 times the risk of foodborne illness, which can be especially dangerous for young children.\n <\/p>\n

\n And yet, McAfee\u2019s farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, is pulling in about $30 million a year, meeting a growing demand from customers who say they want food that hasn\u2019t been robbed of health benefits by industrial processing. Once drawing a fringe crowd, raw milk has been thrust into the mainstream in recent years by a potent mix of politics, wellness culture and a wave of suspicion that health institutions have been compromised by Big Pharma and Big Food. Its proponents have turned it into a symbol of freedom and defiance. More than 10 million Americans now drink it; national weekly sales rose by 65% from 2023 to 2024 alone.\n <\/p>\n

\n Raw milk\u2019s success confounded me: How had it gained such a foothold in this country, despite regular outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli, and even the discovery of bird flu in Raw Farm\u2019s milk? More pressing still, what was the government doing to protect the public amid demands for products that scientists warn are risky, even deadly? Speaking with McAfee seemed like a good place to start; federal and state regulators had linked his business to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that had left hundreds of people ill.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve put a couple kids in the hospital, and they have been sick, but they recovered,\u201d McAfee acknowledged before my visit. \u201cBut here\u2019s the thing: I\u2019m a pioneer. And I\u2019m going against the grain here. I\u2019m climbing a mountain they say you can\u2019t climb.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nRaw milk sits in a tank before being eventually pasteurized at Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mary Conlon)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mary Conlon\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nPush for raw milk intensifies across the US, despite illness outbreaks and scientists\u2019 warnings<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

9 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n McAfee isn\u2019t any ordinary farmer. He is a raw-milk zealot who has escaped serious sanctions despite two decades of skirmishes with the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice, which have repeatedly accused him of breaking federal laws and regulations. The Biden administration was on the verge of a crackdown against his farm when President Donald Trump assumed office and turned over leadership of the nation\u2019s health agencies to one of McAfee\u2019s most notable customers.\n <\/p>\n

\n The year before he was confirmed as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president, using his campaign platform to decry the government\u2019s \u201caggressive suppression\u201d of raw milk. In his new role, he said he was \u201cadvocating\u201d for it and celebrated the release of a federal report to Make America Healthy Again with a toast of raw-milk shooters in the White House.\n <\/p>\n

\n For his part, McAfee isn\u2019t just selling Kennedy\u2019s favored milk. He is selling the notion that his dairy products are safe and healthy \u2014 for you, your kids, your grandparents \u2014 because his farm thoroughly screens its milk for bacteria.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey think we\u2019re some kind of a fringe, weird trend, and we are dead serious here,\u201d McAfee said after he greeted me at his farm, which he runs with his adult son and daughter, 20 miles southwest of Fresno. \u201cAnd you\u2019ll see that in what we\u2019re doing today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He led me into a cream-colored bungalow he called his pathogen laboratory, where two workers in lab coats prepared milk samples.\n <\/p>\n

\n The farm screens each batch for four types of bacteria: salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter and listeria, all of which thrive in the intestines of cattle and can contaminate milk through microscopic flecks of infected feces. The microbes can cause a constellation of symptoms in humans, from vomiting and diarrhea to sepsis, kidney failure and even death.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe catch these things and divert the milk immediately,\u201d McAfee said of the pathogens.\n <\/p>\n

\n I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later that day, I learned otherwise.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have a red-flag system here, where if there\u2019s anything that gets really out of whack, they can immediately tag the milk, and it doesn\u2019t go to anything but cheese,\u201d McAfee told me. \u201cBecause, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Research has shown that raw cheese is not, in fact, resistant to pathogens; while aging can mitigate some risk, harmful bacteria can still survive the usual 60-day maturation process.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hearing about the practice took me by surprise \u2014 the farm did what with that milk?<\/em> \u2014 so I asked about it again.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee confirmed that milk with pathogens was used to make cheese, except for batches with salmonella, which he said were dumped or sent out for pasteurization. (I later learned the FDA knew he was doing this and had told him to stop two years ago. But no one had alerted the public.)\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur cheese is just wildly successful across America,\u201d McAfee said, noting it was sold in hundreds of stores from natural food shops to chains like Sprouts Farmers Market. \u201cH-E-B down in Texas sells 50,000 bucks a week.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n I wondered how long it might take for the cheese to be linked to another outbreak.\n <\/p>\n

\n Unbeknownst to me, one was already underway.\n <\/p>\n

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\nLaboratory technician Jonathan Robles prepares broth to test for a specific pathogen at Raw Farm.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Chapter 1: The pioneer\n<\/h3>\n

\n In the early 2000s, McAfee was producing pasteurized milk for the dairy group Organic Valley when a raw-milk enthusiast named James Stewart made an unusual request.\n <\/p>\n

\n Stewart had founded a private food club in Venice, Los Angeles. Its members included movie stars, \u201ccrystal worshippers\u201d and other \u201cfanatical people,\u201d McAfee recalled. They were looking for a steady source of raw milk at a time when consumers were waking up to the risks of food contaminated by additives, fertilizers and pesticides.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHow fast can you drive down here with as much milk as you can?\u201d McAfee recalled Stewart asking.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee, not fully grasping why people would want to drink milk that was unpasteurized, nonetheless went to his silo, filled half-gallon containers and packed them in ice chests. Then, with his wife, he made the long drive south to the L.A. coast.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dozens of people were waiting for them, McAfee said, launching into a scene that unfolded with a Hollywood sheen. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even get out of the car,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re beating on the windows and opening up the back. \u2026 Just mayhem, cheering, excitement, crying.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As their $20 bills started flying at him, so did their stories, about how raw milk had healed their health issues, including asthma. The moment transformed him, he said: He realized that he was selling more than just milk \u2014 it was \u201cfood as medicine.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Twenty-odd years later, Stewart, too, recalls the moment. \u201cI saw the light go off in his head,\u201d Stewart told me. \u201cHe was looking for a way to expand what he was doing and not just be a commercial, pasteurized, homogenized milk provider.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee, a third-generation California farmer, was born into a family that had charted an unconventional course. His father, whom McAfee described as both a humanitarian and a rebel, founded multiple farm cooperatives and made national news in 1972, when he helped post bail for activist Angela Davis by putting his land up as collateral.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee didn\u2019t initially follow in his father\u2019s footsteps. He worked for 16 years as a paramedic before taking the helm of family farmland that his grandparents left behind. The farm grew apples, almonds and alfalfa, and, by 2001, McAfee had expanded into commercial dairy. But his days of producing milk for pasteurization were short-lived; within a few months of meeting Stewart, McAfee converted his dairy to sell only raw milk.\n <\/p>\n

\n He entered a market on the verge of extraordinary growth.\n <\/p>\n

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\"Machinery<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nMachinery is used to process milk during the start of testing production at Raw Farm.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n California had always permitted raw milk to be sold in stores, but Los Angeles County\u2019s more had, in effect, curbed its retail sales. In 2001, food-freedom advocates, including Stewart, successfully petitioned the county to weaken regulations, providing McAfee access to a new pool of customers. That would happen again and again, in state and local governments across America, as the internet, and then social media influencers, drew exponentially more people to the cause.\n <\/p>\n

\n Around the time McAfee converted his dairy to raw milk, only 27 states allowed its sale.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one way or another, nearly all of them ultimately would.\n <\/p>\n

\n One thing stood between McAfee and all of that business: a federal regulation restricting the sale of raw milk from one state to another. The 1987 ban had the effect of keeping outbreaks contained, making it easier for local officials to address them.\n <\/p>\n

\n But there was a loophole: Raw milk could be sold across state lines if labeled as pet food.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee saw an opportunity, and he wasn\u2019t subtle about it on the website for his farm, which at the time was called Organic Pastures. The farm \u201ccreatively labeled its products for sale outside of California in such a way that it is not illegal,\u201d the site said, and it assured people they could still consume them. Justifying the strategy to an Oregon newspaper, McAfee said in 2005, \u201cI am a revolutionist in this, and I won\u2019t overlook any loophole that will get the milk out there.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As his raw dairy grew, McAfee portrayed himself as an underdog waging a war against industrialized food. \u201cThe giants of the marketplace have processed our food to death to extend shelf life and expand distribution,\u201d he said in a 2006 interview. \u201cThe raw milk revolution grows right out of this disorder.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Two decades later, he still talks about raw milk with the passion of a convert. He answered even simple questions with lengthy explanations, speaking in a quick, torrential style and snapping his fingers or pinching the air for emphasis. Only later did I realize that much of what sounded spontaneous was a pitch he had been refining in years of promotional interviews and farm tours.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee has professed the benefits of unpasteurized milk in public libraries and chiropractor offices. Raw dairy, his farm has claimed, could cure, treat or prevent myriad diseases and ailments, from diabetes and ear infections to allergies, eczema and arthritis. The farm developed the website icanbreathe.org to promote the so-called Milk Cure for asthma. \u201cOnly raw milk works in this natural treatment,\u201d the dairy stated. \u201cPasteurizing milk kills or changes the natural enzymes, antibodies, and fatty acids that are critical to the physiology of how this works in your body.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee founded a nonprofit, Raw Milk Institute, in 2011, broadcasting similar claims alongside studies he said support them. While a few European studies he cited observed a correlation between drinking raw milk and lower rates of asthma and allergies, they did not prove raw milk directly led to reduced illness, nor did they recommend its consumption due to pathogenic risk. Experts have suggested the association could likely be explained by the \u201cfarm effect,\u201d in which children growing up around animals and agriculture have been shown to have stronger immune systems.\n <\/p>\n

\nExhaustive reviews of the published science on raw milk have broadly been unable to substantiate claims of its benefits, and most experts agree that it is neither healthy nor safe to consume. But McAfee said his customers know better. To him, the stories of families who believe raw milk has transformed their health are their own form of evidence, revealing truths that institutions have failed to capture. \u201cIf raw milk was a fad or a lie, then why would people repeatedly buy raw milk and then tell the world how they love it,\u201d he said. \u201cOur consumers read their gut and watch their kids thrive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He also said the government hasn\u2019t invested enough in research to assess its benefits.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m begging you to say: \u2018This is not anti-science, this is extremely pro-science,\u2019\u201d he told me. \u201cIt\u2019s using science that is not conveniently accepted yet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And for many health-conscious people, this possibility that raw milk may help them \u2014 or their loved ones \u2014 is often enough for them to try it.\n <\/p>\n

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\nMary McGonigle-Martin looks through old articles and documents she has saved. Nearly 20 years ago, her son, Chris, contracted an E. coli infection after consuming unpasteurized milk.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Chapter 2: The first\n<\/h3>\n

\n Mary McGonigle-Martin was shopping in a Southern California grocery store in 2006 when she spotted ads suggesting McAfee\u2019s milk could treat allergies and digestive problems. She thought of her 7-year-old son, Chris, who she suspected was dealing with dairy sensitivity, and later visited McAfee\u2019s website to learn more. She knew the risks of forgoing pasteurization, but the site eased her concerns: It said the farm tested its milk and had never found a single pathogen.\n <\/p>\n

\n So she started buying it, and her son started drinking it. And about a month later, he fell gravely ill. What began as a trip to the nearest hospital for bloody diarrhea turned into a race to save his life as his kidneys started to fail. Airlifted to a children\u2019s hospital in Loma Linda, Chris was put in a medically induced coma. He spent nine days on a ventilator and 18 days on dialysis, during which time doctors gave him blood, platelet and plasma transfusions. \u201cHe was on the verge of death,\u201d Martin told me. \u201cI had flashes of him being in a casket and being at his funeral.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Chris had a dangerous strain of E. coli, known as O157:H7, which led to hemolytic uremic syndrome. This rare condition, which mostly impacts children, occurs when bacterial toxins spread throughout the body and damage red blood cells, causing clots in the organs, primarily the kidneys. With quick intervention, most people survive. But it can cause lifelong complications.\n <\/p>\n

\n While sitting in the intensive care unit, Martin overheard another mother mention her daughter had the same condition. It turned out the young girl had also drank milk from McAfee\u2019s farm. Hoping to intervene before others got sick, the families reported the illnesses to the dairy and the state, which quickly issued a recall and quarantine order, suspending distribution of the farm\u2019s products.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee told me that when he learned of the two sick children, he \u201cwanted to know the truth.\u201d So he took his wife\u2019s Volvo and drove four hours to the hospital. Then, somehow, he found a way into the ICU. \u201cI knew how to get back past security,\u201d he said. \u201cA paramedic can get anywhere, and I sucked up to the nurses.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Martin told me she was surprised when McAfee introduced himself in the waiting area, but nonetheless she shared details of her son\u2019s ordeal. \u201cI listened to her as compassionately as I could,\u201d McAfee told me. But in his recollection, he observed that Martin\u2019s son was not as critically ill as he\u2019d been led to believe. \u201cHe\u2019s eating McDonald\u2019s, watching cartoons, doing just great, and they\u2019re telling the story to the world that he\u2019s ready to die,\u201d claimed McAfee. \u201cI was really upset about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee\u2019s version of events was impossible, Martin told me: When he appeared at the hospital, Chris had just been taken off the ventilator and still struggled to breathe on his own; reams of her contemporaneous notes confirm this. Even after being extubated, he couldn\u2019t have solid food for weeks due to severe pancreatitis. \u201cI was so hungry,\u201d Chris told me. \u201cI started crying because I couldn\u2019t eat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When I asked Martin why she thought McAfee gave such a different account of their meeting, her response was simple: \u201cMark is the master of spin.\u201d (McAfee maintained that his recollection was accurate: \u201cThis is not spinning; this is simple truth.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

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\nThis colorized electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2024 shows avian influenza A virus (bird flu) particles, red\/yellow, grown in cultured cells. (CDC, NIAID via AP)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\nH5N1 bird flu virus is infectious in raw milk cheese for months, posing risk to public health, study shows<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

5 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n Six people contracted E. coli during the first outbreak connected to McAfee\u2019s farm, according to federal regulators; their median age was 8. While the outbreak\u2019s specific strain of E. coli was not found in the products, some samples taken by investigators had high bacterial counts, indicating contamination.\n <\/p>\n

\n Chris suffered permanent kidney damage. Now 27, he can\u2019t drink alcohol and will spend the rest of his life under a nephrologist\u2019s care because of his elevated risk of chronic kidney disease.\n <\/p>\n

\n The illness lingered in other ways, too. \u201cI would have random flashbacks and panic attacks from anything,\u201d he told me. The smell of hospital soap. The sticky feeling of Band-Aids or tape on his skin. His mother found him a trauma counselor, which was \u201clife-changing,\u201d he said, except he still held onto a knot of resentment. Not toward his parents; he views them as victims like him. \u201cJust so much anger towards Mark,\u201d he recently told me. When he later saw McAfee\u2019s milk being sold at a Sprouts, \u201cI wanted to take a bat and smash the entire aisle.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Martin couldn\u2019t let go either. She hired Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in food safety litigation. Alongside the family she met in the hospital, she sued McAfee\u2019s farm in 2008, and the dairy settled for an undisclosed sum. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t find the pathogen in our milk,\u201d McAfee told me. \u201cShe claims she had it in her milk with her child, and that\u2019s what the insurance company took to settle, and we weren\u2019t going to litigate it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Emboldened, Martin, who was a high school guidance counselor, found her second calling as a food safety advocate, testifying against raw-milk-access bills across the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following the settlement, McAfee wrote to Martin to apologize, but also begged her to move on.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMary, please appreciate that so many children thrive and grow very strong on raw milk,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe very remote theoretical risk of illness from tested, retail, approved raw milk is far outweighed by the health and recovery from the illness that children that drink raw milk enjoy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Martin appreciated the note, but recognized that even in his seemingly heartfelt apology, McAfee could not adapt his belief system to fit her experience. \u201cHe really believed this was like a fluke. It\u2019s not going to happen again,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

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\nTony Martin, left; Chris Martin; and Mary McGonigle-Martin, at their home in Murrieta, California, on March 26.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Chapter 3: The pathogens\n<\/h3>\n

\n Eager to keep showing me his farm\u2019s serious approach to pathogens, McAfee ushered me into his truck to see the milking of his cows. Raw Farm keeps about 1,400 of them, which produce up to 8,000 gallons a day, each priced at $19. The smell of sweet milk hung in the air, mixed with the earthy musk of manure.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see what kind of music they\u2019re playing this morning up in the milk barn,\u201d he mused.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou play music for the milking?\u201d I asked.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMexican music,\u201d he said, as he got behind the wheel. \u201cIt\u2019s very Pavlovian. \u2026 You start seeing milk coming out of their teats.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the open-sided barn, workers sprayed a small herd of cows with a fire hose, removing flies and flecks of manure from their bellies, which were then inspected, coated with iodine and wiped with a towel. The steady pulsing of milking machines mingled with a thumping musical beat as McAfee marched down the rows, pointing to their light pink udders. \u201cSuper clean,\u201d he said with pride.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hygiene appeared to be a clear priority everywhere we went, from the thick binders of safety plans \u2014 \u201cnot one of those documents collects dust,\u201d he told me \u2014 to the sterile, full-body moon suits workers wear to package milk.\n <\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s UFC 80th birthday bash looks to rescue his tarnished macho image<\/a><\/p>\n

\n McAfee said the 2006 outbreak opened his eyes to the risk of his product and was part of the reason he developed standards for unpasteurized dairies.\n <\/p>\n

\n But more awareness and better practices didn\u2019t stop McAfee\u2019s customers from continuing to get sick \u2014 in 2007, and 2011, and 2012, and \u2014 and the farm had to issue recalls more than half a dozen times after pathogens were found in its products.\n <\/p>\n

\n And then between 2023 and 2024, regulators linked the farm to one of the largest publicly known raw-dairy outbreaks in decades, with more than 170 people falling ill from salmonella. McAfee disputed his farm\u2019s connection to many of the outbreaks, including this one.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI call complete crap,\u201d McAfee said, claiming that his farm was not responsible for all the cases. \u201cIt was 25, maybe 30.\u201d He also disagreed that the majority of patients were children, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had detailed in a report published last year. \u201cI challenge that data at the fundamental level.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nConnor Brondes, 31, who lives nomadically, sings to a group of cows during Camping with the Cows, an annual event at Raw Farm.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n It was a typical McAfee defense. Throughout our conversation, he never lost his composure, even when discussing outbreaks. Instead, he calmly dismissed the government\u2019s methodology, explaining that it was counting cases of \u201cstandard diarrhea,\u201d which he said have \u201cno claims for illness,\u201d as they could be managed with \u201cgood hydration and plenty of good bone broths and electrolytes and stuff.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He also seized on instances when the government could not identify an outbreak strain in his products, but instead found it in samples of farm water and cow feces or drew ties to his farm using genetic sequencing or interviews with patients \u2014 practices epidemiologists routinely rely upon. McAfee held that none of this was smoking-gun proof that his farm directly caused outbreaks. Instead, such episodes seemed to reinforce his perception that he was climbing a mountain alone, battling institutions that were already biased against raw milk before hearing his case.\n <\/p>\n

\n When mandated quarantines ended, he would declare victory.\n <\/p>\n

\n After his dairy reopened following an outbreak that sickened five children in 2011, he revealed how much people were suffering without his product in a celebratory video. McAfee shook the hand of a young man who was wearing a sideways cap. \u201cThis guy came all the way from Alaska to get raw milk!\u201d McAfee said. The young man described a kind of withdrawal: \u201cMy immune system broke down. I lost a lot of lean body mass.\u201d When a gray-haired woman said she was driving four half-gallons to her grandbabies in Texas \u2014 \u201cthat\u2019s how desperate I am for them to be healthy\u201d \u2014 McAfee kissed her on the head and called her a \u201craw-milk freedom rider.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At least 233 people have been sickened in eight outbreaks that federal and state regulators have connected to McAfee\u2019s farm since 2006, and at least 40 of them have been hospitalized.\n <\/p>\n

\n The tally is almost certainly an undercount, experts and regulators told me. Many recover at home from foodborne illness and do not seek out testing.\n <\/p>\n

\n The outbreaks raised an obvious question: Why hadn\u2019t regulators shut down the farm? America\u2019s food safety system aims to balance public health with people\u2019s freedom to eat foods that can harm them, like raw oysters and sushi. Regulators expect some will inevitably get sick, and so they focus on ensuring consumers, at the very least, are aware of the risk.\n <\/p>\n

\n State regulators are responsible for overseeing raw milk sold legally within their borders. In California, they require it to be sampled and tested monthly for pathogens. Raw Farm is in good standing, according to the Department of Food and Agriculture, consistently meeting standards for sanitation and cow health. But spokespeople for that agency and the state Department of Public Health emphasized that the best way to prevent illness is to drink milk that has been pasteurized. Otherwise, they wrote in an email, \u201cthere will always be some risk of contamination.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Many people who turn to raw milk don\u2019t have a full understanding of that risk, John Lucey told me. A professor of food science who directs the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lucey grew up on a farm and has studied dairy products for three decades. \u201cCows poop all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cFarms are just a reservoir of bacteria: The soil has got bacteria, the walls have got bacteria, the cows are carrying bacteria.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the draws of raw milk is a deeper connection to its source; by knowing a farmer personally, people assume their food will be more safe, Lucey said. But what raw-milk consumers often don\u2019t realize is that many dairy farmers are in a relentless battle to produce clean milk.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSometimes you lose because the cow kicked off the milking machine. Something just happens,\u201d he said. \u201cFarmers do the best they can and they are super hardworking people, but just because Daisy is a nice cow and the farmer is a nice guy doesn\u2019t guarantee that things are sanitary and that they can prevent things 100% of the time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nUnpasteurized ewe”u2019s milk cheese from France, stands in this arranged photograph in the U.K. Photographer: Jason Alden\/Bloomberg<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jason Alden\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nRaw milk cheese is tied to E. coli outbreak: What to know, according to a doctor<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

5 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n Over the past two years alone, nine states have experienced outbreaks that regulators linked to raw dairy, not including those connected to McAfee\u2019s farm. In Washington state, about 10 people fell ill with E. coli connected to raw-cheese consumption, and in Florida, where raw milk can be sold only as pet food, about 20 people got sick. Among them was a pregnant mother whose toddler was hospitalized; she said she caught his bacterial infection and had a miscarriage at 20 weeks. (The Florida farm said its products had not tested positive for pathogens and that it informed customers its raw milk was not for human consumption; the Washington creamery voluntarily recalled its cheese.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Just last week, Idaho\u2019s health officials announced that nearly 60 people had become ill after consuming raw milk.\n <\/p>\n

\n Discussing the risk of raw milk with McAfee was a challenge.\n <\/p>\n

\n As we rode in his truck to the next stop on the tour, I brought up the prevalence of pathogens, as well as his farm\u2019s pattern of outbreaks. He acknowledged that some risk exists, but stressed that it was \u201cvery, very, very small\u201d and was \u201cfantastically\u201d outweighed by raw milk\u2019s therapeutic value. And then, he insisted one should disentangle the benefits from the risk, as if that\u2019s even possible.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShow me the criticism of raw milk if it\u2019s safe,\u201d he told me, one hand on the wheel, the other punctuating his points in the air. \u201cNone.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWell, the critics would argue that there\u2019s risk\u2014\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNo, if it\u2019s safe<\/em>,\u201d he said, cutting me off. \u201cIf it\u2019s safe, how could you criticize it?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut they would argue that it\u2019s not<\/em> safe,\u201d I said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShow me the risk,\u201d he repeated. \u201cI\u2019ve yet to see it. We found it. We immediately diverted it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nEmployees spray water to clean stations where cows are hooked up to milking machines at Raw Farm.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Chapter 4: The art of war\n<\/h3>\n

\n We\u2019d seen nearly every stage of production \u2014 from \u201cgrass to glass,\u201d as McAfee called it \u2014 when he parked his truck next to the hangar that houses his Cessna 210 Centurion propeller plane. Next to it, steps from his hacienda-style home, is a bungalow he uses as an office.\n <\/p>\n

\n He showed me his replica medieval broadsword, his podcasting setup and one of his favored books, Sun Tzu\u2019s \u201cThe Art of War.\u201d He said the ancient Chinese military treatise had informed his longstanding feud with the federal government.\n <\/p>\n

\n Two decades ago, his use of the pet food loophole to ship across state lines attracted scrutiny almost immediately. In 2005, an undercover investigator from the FDA called the farm and was told the milk was safe for human consumption. Two years later, according to court records, the farm sent an email to consumers saying, \u201cRaw milk can be shipped via UPS to all US states,\u201d and \u201cTell everyone who has asthma that they will be cured by raw milk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2008, the DOJ pursued criminal charges and a civil suit. McAfee resolved the charges, promising that the farm wouldn\u2019t sell raw milk across state lines again. But prosecutors wanted a court order that would force McAfee and the farm to comply, citing their \u201cunabashed efforts to manipulate the law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n To illustrate McAfee\u2019s ongoing defiance, the government pointed to statements he had made online that year and the next. In one post on a blog, he said, \u201cIf we ever get raided it will be grand theater. \u2026 There will probably be some riots.\u201d In another, he said he would not use guns \u201cuntil the tipping point\u201d and mentioned \u201canother Wounded Knee, Ruby Ridge or Waco.\u201d Prosecutors argued his conduct demonstrated a \u201ccognizable danger\u201d that he would violate the law again.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2010, the judge granted a permanent injunction, requiring, among other things, that the farm stop selling raw milk beyond California and take down any statements promoting its health benefits. McAfee told me the directive was an attack on his right to free speech. \u201cI deeply and passionately believe in the truth, and they were telling me I could not speak the truth,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had to have therapy over that, you know. I didn\u2019t want to do something stupid.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A violation of the order could have led to an enforcement action, but in the years that followed, officials pulled their punches. (McAfee insisted they had no punches to throw.)\n <\/p>\n

\n The FDA and the DOJ kept finding evidence of violations, in 2016, and 2019, and 2021, according to court records. Though federal prosecutors initially pushed for strong penalties, including holding Raw Farm and McAfee in contempt, they agreed to a consent decree in 2023, which required the farm to undergo independent audits to ensure it was complying with the law.\n <\/p>\n

\n Then, in early 2024, FDA inspectors discovered the farm had a \u201cstandard practice\u201d of producing cheese from milk suspected or known to contain pathogens, according to court documents; lab records showed its cheese had also tested positive even after the mandated aging period.\n <\/p>\n

\n That February, federal regulators publicly linked Raw Farm\u2019s cheese to a monthslong E. coli outbreak. Nearly a dozen people across five states fell ill.\n <\/p>\n

\n Among them was Paul Panelli, who went to his grocery store in Newport Beach, California, looking for Tillamook cheese to make tacos. Finding it was sold out, he reached for Raw Farm\u2019s cheddar, drawn in by packaging that made it seem organic and all-natural. He told me he didn\u2019t realize the cheese was made with unpasteurized milk.\n <\/p>\n

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\nA cow during the Camping with the Cows event.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\n Both Panelli and his wife, Julie, came down with food poisoning. She was diagnosed with an E. coli infection that left her needing several kidney surgeries. \u201cShe literally is afraid to eat things,\u201d her husband told me. The family\u2019s lawsuit against Raw Farm is ongoing; in court records, the farm denied responsibility for their illnesses.\n <\/p>\n

\n Raw Farm pushed back against the government, maintaining that it followed federal regulations by aging its cheese and claiming to have tested all of it before sale, so no contaminated product reached the market, according to court records. Federal law allows the interstate sale of unpasteurized cheese as long as it\u2019s aged for at least 60 days, though this doesn\u2019t fully eliminate the risk \u2014 or account for a farm using pathogenic milk to make it. The FDA told the farm to destroy any cheese made with contaminated milk, arguing that it was violating the law, according to court documents. The farm\u2019s lawyer said it was in compliance, and insisted there was no \u201cbad cheese\u201d to throw out.\n <\/p>\n

\n To force the farm to follow the government\u2019s orders, it needed a judge\u2019s ruling, but a backlog in the under-resourced Eastern District of California left the case on pause well into 2025. The arrival of the Trump administration that year created a political opening for McAfee.\n <\/p>\n

\n By the time Kennedy took the helm of the health department, McAfee had already developed close ties to his inner circle. \u201cI go way back with him,\u201d McAfee told me. Kennedy\u2019s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, had made a stop at Raw Farm during his presidential campaign, creating multiple videos featuring McAfee. (She did not respond to my emailed questions.) He was even asked to become an adviser to the FDA, McAfee told me. The position never materialized, but McAfee still benefited from the change in administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n Without publicly stating a reason, this past January the government dropped its efforts to take action against the farm. A former federal employee with knowledge of the suit told me that cases involving raw milk were deprioritized in the new administration because of Kennedy\u2019s stance on it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Natalie Baldassarre, a DOJ spokesperson, didn\u2019t respond to my questions about the decision, but said in an email that the administration will \u201calways be concerned about risks to public health and will continue to take enforcement action as appropriate to protect American consumers.\u201d The health department and the FDA did not respond to my attempts to seek comment. Kennedy, through his department, also did not respond to my questions.\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee called the withdrawal a \u201cbig win.\u201d Drawing on Sun Tzu\u2019s teachings, he told me that he had learned not to engage in \u201ctheir war,\u201d but his own.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou win the war they don\u2019t expect you to fight,\u201d he said. While officials were gathering evidence, he was focused on the \u201ceducation\u201d of consumers. He once delivered his message to dozens at a time. Now online influencers spread it to audiences of millions. \u201cThey have the guns and the money,\u201d he said of the government. \u201cI got the truth and the moms.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n His work could soon pay off. A month after I shook McAfee\u2019s hand and left his farm, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, reintroduced the Interstate Milk Freedom Act, which would prohibit \u201cfederal interference\u201d with the interstate sale of raw dairy in states where raw milk is already legal.\n <\/p>\n

\n Massie, who served raw milk at his recent wedding, has a farm with 50 cattle, and Pingree, a former dairy farmer and the only Democratic sponsor of the bill, raises her own grass-fed beef. \u201cThe Interstate Milk Freedom Act would make it easier for families to buy the milk of their choice,\u201d Massie said when he announced the bill, \u201cby reversing the criminalization of specific dairy farmers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When asked if she was concerned the bill may increase access to a product that puts people at risk, Pingree told me that the bill was not about marketing raw milk or making any health claims. \u201cI trust state departments of agriculture and health to monitor compliance, assess health risks, and enforce the rules in place to protect consumers,\u201d she said in an emailed statement. Massie did not respond to my questions.\n <\/p>\n

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\nMcAfee exits the hangar where his airplane is stored at Raw Farm.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Chapter 5: The devoted\n<\/h3>\n

\n Six weeks after I left Raw Farm, it happened.\n <\/p>\n

\n On March 15, federal regulators publicly linked its cheese to yet another E. coli outbreak.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nine people were infected across three states; more than half were younger than 5. Of the three people who had to be hospitalized, according to regulators, one developed the same severe kidney condition that Martin\u2019s son had battled two decades earlier.\n <\/p>\n

\n Initially, federal health agencies didn\u2019t urge the public to avoid the cheese or throw it away, as they had under previous administrations. Instead, a CDC notice said consumers should \u201cconsider\u201d not eating it; the FDA gave no consumption guidance at all. Three federal health employees later told me political appointees had watered down the original language. (The agencies\u2019 advisories have since been updated. Neither the CDC nor the FDA responded to my questions.)\n <\/p>\n

\n The fact that the agency was under Kennedy\u2019s leadership didn\u2019t make Raw Farm any more compliant when regulators asked it to recall its products. It refused. \u201cIf there was ever a question about whether there was a pathogen in our products,\u201d McAfee later told me, \u201cI\u2019d be the first one to recall immediately, voluntarily.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He said he texted Kennedy to \u201ccall off the dogs,\u201d but got no response.\n <\/p>\n

\n When FDA inspectors showed up unannounced at the farm, it complied with an investigation. And when the agency threatened to force a recall, the company reluctantly issued its own, 18 days after the outbreak was announced.\n <\/p>\n

\n The farm appended several unusual statements to its April 2 advisory:\n <\/p>\n

\nThis Voluntary Recall is being performed under protest<\/em>.\n <\/p>\n

\nThis Voluntary Recall is performed as a path forward.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n The farm retracted those statements five days later, but continued to dispute the cause of the outbreak and contest the agency\u2019s findings. It had tested its products, found no pathogens and wasn\u2019t at fault, McAfee said.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, during its investigation, the FDA also sampled and tested the company\u2019s cheese. While it didn\u2019t find the recent outbreak strain, one sample tested positive for E. coli. In their inspection, agency officials also found the farm\u2019s cheese had recently tested presumptively positive for pathogens even after 60 days, showing the limitations of its aging process. The farm destroyed these contaminated batches.\n <\/p>\n

\n I reached out to McAfee and asked him whether the illnesses might be connected to his practice of using problematic milk to make cheese. But now, he told a different story.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe would in the past divert to cheesemaking,\u201d he told me. \u201cWe no longer do.\u201d He didn\u2019t pinpoint exactly when the farm made the change, throwing out dates from two years ago to last summer. \u201cIt\u2019s been quite some time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n I brought up the fact that he\u2019d made similar disclosures in podcasts in the last year and to me just weeks earlier. But he doubled down.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think you have caught me in something where there\u2019s an issue between practice and what I\u2019m saying,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I said it, I believed that at the time to be true, but I do know that now we do not use any questionable milk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In almost the same breath, McAfee noted that his farm would not have violated any laws if it had done so. \u201cIt\u2019s not illegal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the FDA dropped their thing.\u201d (California regulators told me such a practice was \u201cconcerning.\u201d The FDA refused to respond to questions about it.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Speaking to a congressional subcommittee on April 16 about the outbreak, Kennedy noted that companies usually comply with recalls right away. \u201cBut there was foot-dragging,\u201d he said. \u201cThis company was intransigent.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked Kennedy whether in the face of these new, serious illnesses, it wasn\u2019t time for a shift in his messaging: \u201cYou are the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Is there not some moral responsibility or compunction to say, \u2018Don\u2019t drink raw milk\u2019?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEvery product can contain contaminants,\u201d Kennedy replied. \u201cWhat we do is inform the public, and we let people make the choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n On April 30, the FDA closed its investigation without taking any enforcement action. McAfee told me his raw-cheese products were back in stores. Sprouts and H-E-B, two major retail chains that have carried his cheese, did not respond to my emailed questions about the outbreak.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe don\u2019t feel bad at all,\u201d McAfee told me about the entire episode. \u201cOur sales are highest they\u2019ve ever been, and feedback online with influencers is: If the FDA says something, do the opposite. It\u2019s safer. They don\u2019t trust them at all.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nAlyssa Wolfer, 42, of Bakersfield attends Camping with the Cows.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n On a sunny weekend in early May, hundreds congregated at Raw Farm for its annual Camping With the Cows event. Blue skies extended to the horizon, and a small colony of tents, camper vans and motorhomes sprawled out across the lush alfalfa fields. Influencers in cowboy hats chugged cartons of milk. Matt James, the leading man on Season 25 of \u201cThe Bachelor,\u201d ambled around with his mother in a T-shirt that read, \u201cRaw Milk Club.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Many attendees were unbothered by the recent illnesses. They said they consumed raw dairy because they wanted to reduce their inflammation, and avoid additives, and prevent lactose intolerance, and clear their skin, and bring their hormones into balance. They wanted nutrients that didn\u2019t exist in \u201cboiled to death\u201d milk. They wanted to drink it \u201cthe natural way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Alyssa Wolfer, a 42-year-old mother of two from Bakersfield, viewed raw milk as a symbol of \u201ctrue American freedom,\u201d she said. \u201cI very much lean on the side of freedom of people to choose what they consume and less regulation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m seven months pregnant, and I drink raw milk because that\u2019s how God has created it to be,\u201d said Lindsay Espinoza, 34, reclining on a bale of hay with her husband and young son. \u201cThere\u2019s so much fear behind raw milk, but it makes sense to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Some, like 58-year-old Melanie Copeland from Huntington Beach, questioned whether the outbreak had occurred at all. \u201cThe odds of it being true are slim to none,\u201d she said, \u201cand people need to do their research.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n McAfee mingled among his flock. Some stopped him for pictures as he beamed down the camera and flashed a thumbs-up.\n <\/p>

Read more Nara Organics recalls baby formula sold at Target after multistate infant botulism outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSarahbeth Maney<\/em> contributed reporting.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unpasteurized milk has moved from a fringe obsession to a widespread movement rooted in institutional distrust. Despite stringent hygiene efforts, contamination from deadly bacteria like E. coli and salmonella remains an inherent risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nHe profits off raw milk that\u2019s making people sick. 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