I never thought that I would spend half a year of my life researching raw milk. But I did.
In early June, ProPublica published an article I reported on that featured Mark McAfee, who runs America’s largest raw milk dairy industry. This story comes after months of reporting on how federal health agencies are being reorganized by Trump administration policies. My colleagues and I spoke to dozens of civil servants, many of whom described a frightening situation in which everyday science had suddenly become politicized.
One notable example they gave me was raw milk, which most scientists and health experts agree has no significant nutritional benefit over pasteurized and exposes consumers to more than 100 times the risk of foodborne illness.
But under the leadership of Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the federal government’s approach to raw milk is changing to align with his priorities, current and former government officials told me. President Kennedy said he was “advocating” for that in his new role, celebrating the release of a federal report to make America healthy again with a toast from the milk shooters at the White House.
McAfee, who counts Kennedy among his clients, has been an advocate of raw dairy products for more than 20 years. However, it is only in recent years that raw milk, once a fringe product, has been pushed into the mainstream. Currently, more than 10 million Americans drink it. National weekly sales increased by 65% from 2023 to 2024 alone.
McAfee’s farm brings in about $30 million a year. This matter is also attracting a lot of attention. Federal and state regulators have linked his business to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of people.
The success of raw milk puzzled me. How did raw milk gain such a foothold in this country despite regular outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli?
Talking to McAfee seemed like a good place to start. Please read the story I reported about my extended tour of his farm. Below are some highlights of my conversations and interactions with McAfee, and I’ll compare them to my report.
“Please say this: ‘This is not anti-science. This is very pro-science. … It’s taking advantage of science that isn’t yet conveniently accepted.’
Dairy executive Mark McAfee on the claimed benefits of raw milk
If you trust 150 years of basic science, there is little reason to consume raw milk. By definition, milk is not pasteurized, a simple process of heating milk to kill harmful bacteria. A century before this practice was widely adopted, thousands of infants died each year from illnesses related to contaminated dairy products.
Most scientists and health experts now agree that raw milk has no proven significant nutritional benefits over sanitized milk, cannot treat or cure disease, exposes consumers to more than 100 times the risk of foodborne illness, and is especially dangerous for young children. Despite strict hygiene controls, unpasteurized dairy products still carry an inherent risk of contamination with deadly bacteria.
A thorough review of the published science on raw milk has largely failed to substantiate claims of raw milk’s benefits, and most experts agree that consuming raw milk is neither healthy nor safe. But McAfee said customers know better. For him, the stories of families who believe raw milk transformed their health are their own forms of evidence that reveal truths that the system has eluded. “If raw milk is a fad or a lie, why do people repeatedly buy raw milk and tell the world how much they love it?” he says. “Our consumers read their gut and watch their children grow.”
He also said the government was not investing enough in research to assess its effectiveness.
Laboratory technicians prepare cultures to test for pathogens in the Raw Farm laboratory. ProPublica’s Sarabeth Many
“I sent some kids to the hospital, and they were sick, but they recovered. … But the point is, I’m a pioneer. And I’m going against common sense here. I’m climbing a mountain that they say they can’t climb.”
Mr. McAfee on his experience as a milk producer
The first outbreak linked to the McAfee farm in 2006 left six people infected with E. coli, according to federal regulators. Their median age was 8 years. Although the specific strain of E. coli at the time of the outbreak was not detected in the products, some samples collected by investigators had high bacterial counts, indicating contamination.
One of the children affected was 7-year-old Chris Martin. About a month after I started drinking raw milk, I became seriously ill with a dangerous strain of E. coli known as O157:H7. Chris suffered permanent kidney damage. Now 27, he cannot drink alcohol and will spend the rest of his life under the care of a nephrologist as he is at high risk for chronic kidney disease.
Mary McGonigle Martin’s seven-year-old son Chris became seriously ill after consuming raw milk produced on Mark McAfee’s farm. Haley Clark/ProPublica
McAfee said the 2006 outbreak opened his eyes to the risks of his products, which was part of the reason he created standards for unpasteurized dairy products. However, increased awareness and better practices did not stop McAfee customers from continuing to get sick, and the company had to issue recalls more than six times in 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2016 after pathogens were detected in its products.
And from 2023 to 2024, regulators linked the farm to one of the largest publicly known raw dairy outbreaks in decades, resulting in more than 170 people becoming ill with Salmonella. McAfee has disputed any connection between his farm and many of the outbreaks, including this one. He argued that the regulatory agency’s disease tracking practices were not conclusive evidence that his farm directly caused the outbreak.
Since 2006, eight outbreaks that federal and state regulators have linked to McAfee farms have sickened at least 233 people, with at least 40 of them hospitalized. Experts and regulators said the count was almost certainly an undercount. Many people recover from food poisoning at home and do not want to get tested.
Old newspaper articles and documents from about 20 years ago show that Chris Martin, now 27, contracted an E. coli infection after consuming unpasteurized milk. ProPublica’s Sarabeth Many
“We have a red flag system here, so if there’s something really wrong, we can immediately tag the milk. It doesn’t target anything but cheese…because cheese is resistant to pathogens.”
McAfee talks about cheese making practices
Research has shown that raw cheese is actually not resistant to pathogens. Although aging reduces some of the risk, harmful bacteria can survive the normal 60-day ripening process.
So I was surprised when McAfee told me about his cheese-making practices. What did the farm do with the milk? I asked him about it again.
McAfee acknowledged that milk containing the pathogen was used to make the cheese, except for the batch that contained salmonella, which he said was either thrown away or sent for pasteurization.
I later found out that the federal government knew his farm was doing this. In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration found that his farm had a “standard practice” of producing cheese from milk suspected or known to contain pathogens, according to court documents. Farms were told to stop selling cheese made with contaminated milk and to throw it away. That was two years ago.
The farm pushed back. The company said it complies with federal regulations by aging its cheese and inspects all cheese before selling. The government needed a judge’s ruling to force farms to comply with the order and end the practice. However, due to court backlogs, the case was postponed until 2025.
By then, the political winds had changed. The Trump administration took office, and Kennedy took the reins at the Department of Health and Human Services. (McAfee said the farm no longer diverts the problematic milk to cheese production.)
Bottles of raw milk are saved for testing.
Sarahbeth Money for ProPublica Raw Farm makes cheese products from raw milk. ProPublica’s Sarabeth Many
“They’ve got the guns and the money. I’ve got the truth and the mothers.”
Mr. McAfee on the federal government
While federal authorities gathered evidence against the farm, McAfee focused on “educating” consumers. Online influencers were spreading his message to millions of viewers.
In January, the government suspended efforts to take action against the farms. A former federal official familiar with the case told me that because of President Kennedy’s stance, raw milk cases became a lower priority in the new administration.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to my questions about the decision, but said in an email that the administration is “always concerned about the risks to public health and will continue to take appropriate enforcement actions to protect American consumers.”
The Department of Health and the FDA did not respond to my requests for comment. President Kennedy also did not respond to my questions through his department.
McAfee called the withdrawal a “huge victory.” Drawing on the teachings of the ancient Chinese military leader and philosopher Sun Tzu, he told me that he learned to fight his own wars rather than “their wars.”
Alyssa Wolfer, 42, of Bakersfield, Calif., a raw milk advocate and raw farm supporter, will be attending the event, Camping with the Cows. ProPublica’s Sarabeth Many
“Our sales are at an all-time high, and the feedback from online influencers is, ‘If the FDA says something, do the opposite. It’s safer. They don’t trust the FDA at all.'”
McAfee, as regulators link another outbreak to farm
Just weeks after my visit to Law Farms, federal regulators publicly announced that they had linked the cheese to yet another E. coli outbreak. Nine people have been infected in three states. More than half were under 5 years old. It took 18 days for the farm to announce the recall, but when it did, it said it was doing so “in response to an outcry.” McAfee said Law Farm tested its products and found no pathogens and was not at fault.
I asked McAfee if his illness might be related to his habit of making cheese with questionable milk. But now he told me a different story. “I used to turn to cheese making,” he says. “I don’t do it anymore.”
I brought up the fact that he had made a similar disclosure on his podcast last year and had made a similar disclosure to me just a few weeks ago. But he doubled down.
“I think you’ve put me in a position where there’s a problem between practice and what I say,” he said. “If I said that, I believed it to be true at the time, but now I know that I don’t use any questionable milk.”
On April 30, the FDA closed its investigation into a recent E. coli outbreak in cheese without taking any enforcement action. McAfee said raw cheese products are back in stores. Sprouts and HEB, the two major retail chains that carry his cheese, did not respond to my emailed questions about the outbreak.
McAfee leaves the hangar where the planes are stored at Law Farm Sarabeth Manny for ProPublica.
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