Raw milk farm’s ties to federal health shifts

A California dairyman, Mark McAfee, has built a multidecade raw-milk business despite federal and state scrutiny. Over outbreaks tied to his farm and a rare E. coli case that left a child with permanent kidney damage, federal enforcement has ebbed—while the ne

A white Ford pickup truck broke through a thick February fog and rolled into California’s Central Valley. down a muddy farm road that didn’t look built for headlines. From the driver’s seat stepped Mark McAfee—tan. burly. 64—and with a grin that made it feel like the day had started on familiar ground. he walked toward a visitor with open arms.

“I’m a hugger,” McAfee said, pulling in anyway.

The hug was only the first moment that didn’t fit the story most Americans think they already know about raw milk. Over the last few weeks. McAfee had been writing emails and sending PowerPoints about his “most important. and controversial. product. ” insisting it’s “delicious. ” “makes you feel good. ” and can help with asthma—claims he ties to a gut-brain “serotonin and dopamine cycle.” He runs what he describes as the largest raw-milk dairy in the country. and his business brings in about $30 million a year. fueled by a demand he says is mainstreaming fast. More than 10 million Americans drink raw milk, and national weekly sales rose by 65% from 2023 to 2024.

But raw milk is unpasteurized. By definition it isn’t heated to kill off harmful bacteria, the process that helped make modern dairy safer. Before pasteurization was widely adopted, the article notes, thousands of babies died each year from illnesses tied to contaminated dairy. Today. most scientists and health experts say raw milk has no significant. proven nutritional benefits over pasteurized milk. cannot treat or cure disease. and can expose consumers to “over 100 times the risk of foodborne illness. ” which is especially dangerous for young children.

That contradiction—money and demand on one side. repeated illness on the other—sits at the center of why the government’s posture has become a flashpoint. Regulators have linked McAfee’s farm to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that left hundreds ill. And in early 2024, federal regulators publicly linked Raw Farm’s cheese to a monthslong E. coli outbreak.

Standing in his cream-colored “pathogen laboratory,” McAfee showed sample-prep tables and described a testing regime meant to prove his farm can manage the risk that critics say is inherent.

“The farm screens each batch for four types of bacteria: salmonella, E. coli. campylobacter and listeria. ” McAfee said. listing microbes that can contaminate milk through microscopic flecks of infected feces and cause symptoms ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to sepsis. kidney failure and even death. “We catch these things and divert the milk immediately,” he said.

But later in the day, the visitor learned that diversion didn’t always mean disposal.

“We have a red-flag system here, where if there’s anything that gets really out of whack, they can immediately tag the milk, and it doesn’t go to anything but cheese,” McAfee said. “Because, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.”

The account says that claim does not hold up: research has found raw cheese is not resistant to pathogens, and while aging can mitigate risk, harmful bacteria can still survive the usual 60-day maturation process.

McAfee confirmed that milk with pathogens was used to make cheese—except that he said batches with salmonella were dumped or sent out for pasteurization. The visitor adds that the FDA “knew he was doing this and had told him to stop two years ago,” yet the public had not been alerted.

It is easy for supporters to treat that kind of detail as a matter of interpretation. It’s harder to ignore what happened to families who say they didn’t have that luxury.

In 2006. Mary McGonigle-Martin was shopping in a Southern California grocery store when she saw ads suggesting McAfee’s milk could treat allergies and digestive problems. She worried about her 7-year-old son, Chris, whom she suspected had dairy sensitivity. She went to McAfee’s website. which. she says. eased her concerns by telling her the farm tested its milk and had “never found a single pathogen.”.

Martin began buying the milk. About a month later. her son fell gravely ill—bloody diarrhea followed by a race to save his life as his kidneys failed. Chris was airlifted to a children’s hospital in Loma Linda. put into a medically induced coma. spent nine days on a ventilator and 18 days on dialysis. and received blood. platelet and plasma transfusions.

“He was on the verge of death,” Martin told the visitor. She described it as “flashes of him being in a casket and being at his funeral.”

Chris had a dangerous strain of E. coli, known as O157:H7, leading to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare condition that mostly affects children. With quick intervention most people survive, the story notes, but it can cause lifelong complications.

While Martin’s son was in the ICU, she overheard another mother mention her daughter had the same condition. The families reported the illnesses to the dairy and to the state. A recall and quarantine order followed, suspending distribution of the farm’s products.

McAfee told the visitor that after he learned of the sick children, he wanted to “know the truth,” and he drove four hours to the hospital, then found a way into the ICU.

The accounts diverge sharply over what McAfee saw and what he says he was told.

Martin says McAfee’s recollection doesn’t match reality. The narrative says contemporaneous notes confirm that when McAfee appeared. Chris had just been taken off the ventilator and still struggled to breathe. Even after being extubated. Chris couldn’t eat solid food for weeks because of severe pancreatitis; Martin quotes Chris saying. “I was so hungry… I started crying because I couldn’t eat.”.

When asked why she believed McAfee offered a different account, Martin’s response was blunt: “Mark is the master of spin.”

Chris, now 27, cannot drink alcohol and will spend the rest of his life under a nephrologist’s care because of his elevated risk of chronic kidney disease. Martin says she still remembers how panic attacks and flashbacks lingered—the hospital soap smell, the sticky feeling of tape or Band-Aids.

She also remembers seeing Raw Farm products in a Sprouts store later and feeling rage strong enough that she wanted to smash the aisle.

McAfee has his own view of the episode. He told the visitor he wanted to intervene because he felt he was facing a movement that refused to see nuance: he described his own position as a “pioneer” climbing a mountain others say can’t be climbed.

Two decades later, the story remains dominated by that same tension—an insistence on a small risk against repeated outbreaks tied to the farm.

The narrative says that in one way or another, nearly all states ultimately moved toward allowing raw milk sales. California had long permitted it in stores, but Los Angeles County’s stricter rules had curtailed retail sales. In 2001, food-freedom advocates successfully petitioned the county to weaken regulations, providing McAfee access to a new pool of customers.

At the federal level, a 1987 ban limited interstate sale of raw milk. McAfee found a loophole: raw milk could cross state lines if labeled as pet food. The story says his website at the time—then called Organic Pastures—made the strategy explicit. telling consumers it was “not illegal” and that people could still consume it.

As McAfee’s raw dairy grew, he portrayed himself as under siege by industrial food. In a 2006 interview quoted in the narrative, he said giants “processed our food to death,” and he framed the “raw milk revolution” as a counter-disorder.

Then came the legal pressure.

The article describes that in 2005 an undercover FDA investigator called the farm and was told the milk was safe for human consumption. In 2007. the piece says. an email sent to consumers claimed. “Raw milk can be shipped via UPS to all US states. ” and told people with asthma that they would be cured by raw milk.

In 2008, the Department of Justice pursued criminal charges and a civil suit. McAfee resolved the charges with a promise the farm wouldn’t sell raw milk across state lines again, but prosecutors sought a court order citing “unabashed efforts to manipulate the law.”

In 2010. a judge granted a permanent injunction requiring. among other things. that the farm stop selling raw milk beyond California and take down statements promoting health benefits. McAfee told the visitor the directive felt like an attack on his free speech. The story adds that violations were later found in 2016, 2019 and 2021, according to court records. Federal prosecutors initially pushed for strong penalties. including holding Raw Farm and McAfee in contempt. but the piece says they agreed to a consent decree in 2023 requiring the farm to undergo independent audits.

Then, in early 2024, the narrative says, FDA inspectors discovered a “standard practice” of producing cheese from milk suspected or known to contain pathogens. Court documents showed the cheese tested positive even after the mandated aging period.

In February 2024, federal regulators publicly linked Raw Farm’s cheese to a monthslong E. coli outbreak. Nearly a dozen people across five states fell ill.

The narrative describes Paul Panelli and his wife. Julie. who went to a Newport Beach grocery store searching for Tillamook cheese for tacos. Sold out, Panelli reached for Raw Farm cheddar drawn in by packaging described as organic and all-natural. Both came down with food poisoning. The story says Julie was diagnosed with an E. coli infection that left her needing several kidney surgeries.

The couple’s lawsuit is ongoing; in court records Raw Farm denied responsibility.

McAfee pushed back against the government. arguing he followed federal rules by aging cheese and claiming the farm tested its products before sale. Federal law. the story notes. allows interstate sale of unpasteurized cheese if it’s aged for at least 60 days—though it does not fully eliminate risk or account for using pathogenic milk to make it. The FDA told the farm to destroy cheese made with contaminated milk, court documents say. The farm’s lawyer argued the company was in compliance and insisted there was no “bad cheese” to throw out.

The case reached a political pivot, the narrative says, when a backlog in the under-resourced Eastern District of California left the case paused well into 2025. Then the arrival of the Trump administration created an opening.

By the time Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the health department in 2025, McAfee had close ties inside his inner circle, the story says. Kennedy had campaigned on denouncing government “aggressive suppression” of raw milk. In his new role. the narrative says. he claimed to be “advocating” for raw milk and celebrated the release of a federal report to Make America Healthy Again with “raw-milk shooters” in the White House.

McAfee told the visitor he “go[es] way back” with Kennedy. The article says Kennedy’s running mate. Nicole Shanahan. made a stop at Raw Farm during her presidential campaign. creating multiple videos featuring McAfee. McAfee also told the visitor he was asked to become an adviser to the FDA. though the position didn’t materialize.

Without publicly stating a reason, the story says the government dropped its efforts to take action against the farm this past January. A former federal employee with knowledge of the suit told the visitor cases involving raw milk were deprioritized because of Kennedy’s stance.

DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre did not respond to questions about the decision. but in an email she said the administration “will always be concerned about risks to public health and will continue to take enforcement action as appropriate to protect American consumers.” The health department. the FDA and Kennedy’s office did not respond to additional outreach.

McAfee called the withdrawal a “big win.” He told the visitor the lesson he took from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” was to “win the war they don’t expect you to fight.” He said while officials gathered evidence. he focused on “education” of consumers—first in person. later through influencers with audiences of millions.

That shift in enforcement posture is now meeting legislation.

A month after McAfee’s visit to the farm, the narrative says Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, reintroduced the Interstate Milk Freedom Act. The bill would prohibit “federal interference” with interstate sale of raw dairy in states where raw milk is already legal.

Massie. the story notes. served raw milk at his recent wedding. has a farm with 50 cattle. and said the bill would reverse the criminalization of specific dairy farmers. Pingree, a former dairy farmer and the only Democratic sponsor, raised her own grass-fed beef. She told the visitor the bill is not about marketing raw milk or making any health claims. and that she trusts state departments of agriculture and health to monitor compliance. assess health risks. and enforce rules meant to protect consumers.

For families who say they’ve paid the price of those risks, the stakes are personal—especially as the federal government’s guidance appears to shift with politics.

Six weeks after the visitor left Raw Farm. the narrative says. federal regulators publicly linked its cheese to yet another E. coli outbreak. Nine people were infected across three states; more than half were younger than 5. Of the three hospitalized. the piece says one developed the same severe kidney condition that Martin’s son had battled two decades earlier.

This time. federal health agencies didn’t urge people to avoid the cheese or throw it away in the same way they had under previous administrations. A CDC notice advised consumers should “consider” not eating it, and the FDA gave no consumption guidance at all. The narrative adds that three federal health employees later told the visitor political appointees watered down the original language; agency advisories have since been updated.

When asked about why the farm didn’t recall products faster, the narrative says McAfee resisted government demands. The farm refused for a time. When FDA inspectors showed up unannounced, the company cooperated with an investigation. It later issued a voluntary recall 18 days after the outbreak was announced.

The farm appended unusual statements to the April 2 advisory: “This Voluntary Recall is being performed under protest.” It also said. “This Voluntary Recall is performed as a path forward.” Those statements were retracted five days later. During the investigation, FDA sampled and tested the farm’s cheese; one sample tested positive for E. coli. and inspectors found the farm’s cheese had tested presumptively positive for pathogens even after 60 days. illustrating limits of the aging process. The farm destroyed the contaminated batches.

McAfee told the visitor that previously the farm would divert to cheesemaking, but that it no longer does. He did not specify a precise date, saying the shift had happened “quite some time,” and he threw out dates from two years ago to last summer.

While testifying to a congressional subcommittee on April 16 about the outbreak, the narrative says Kennedy said companies usually comply with recalls right away, but that there was “foot-dragging” and the firm was “intransigent.”

After Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked whether Kennedy had a moral responsibility to tell the public not to drink raw milk, Kennedy responded that every product can contain contaminants and that the department’s job was to inform the public and let people choose.

On April 30, the FDA closed its investigation without taking enforcement action. McAfee told the visitor his raw-cheese products were back in stores. Sprouts and H-E-B, two retail chains named in the narrative as having carried his cheese, did not respond to emailed questions about the outbreak.

McAfee’s conclusion to the visitor was defiant: he said the farm didn’t feel bad about the episode, that sales were “highest they’ve ever been,” and that feedback online—framed as advice to disregard FDA guidance—was driving the business.

On a sunny weekend in early May. the narrative describes hundreds gathering at Raw Farm for its annual “Camping With the Cows” event. Influencers in cowboy hats chugged cartons of milk. Matt James. noted as a leading man on Season 25 of “The Bachelor. ” was pictured in a shirt reading “Raw Milk Club.”.

Some attendees said the recent illnesses didn’t bother them. They described raw dairy as a symbol of freedom. as something they use to reduce inflammation. avoid additives. prevent lactose intolerance. clear skin. and balance hormones. They said they wanted nutrients that don’t exist in “boiled to death” milk. and they said they wanted to drink it “the natural way.”.

Alyssa Wolfer. a 42-year-old mother of two from Bakersfield. called it “true American freedom” and pointed to choosing what people consume and less regulation. Lindsay Espinoza. 34 and seven months pregnant from the narrative. said she drank raw milk because that’s how “God has created it to be.” Melanie Copeland of Huntington Beach questioned whether an outbreak had even happened. saying “The odds of it being true are slim to none. ” and that people need to do their research.

McAfee mingled among his flock, stopping for pictures and flashing a thumbs-up.

For the public, though, the picture has become harder to hold. Regulators have spent years tracing illnesses back to McAfee’s farm and issuing recalls and quarantines. Families like Mary McGonigle-Martin say those decisions came too late—or not forcefully enough. Federal enforcement, in turn, appears to have loosened during an administration that President Donald Trump handed control of U.S. health agencies to a figure who built his own political career by criticizing government’s approach to raw milk.

Whether that pivot reflects new priorities. a changed definition of risk. or the power of a movement that has turned unpasteurized dairy into a test of freedom. the outcome has been the same: a controversial product continues to expand—while the government’s willingness to stop it has. at least on key fronts. moved out of the fast lane and into something closer to silence.

United States politics FDA DOJ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Raw Farm Mark McAfee raw milk E. coli outbreak interstate commerce Interstate Milk Freedom Act Thomas Massie Chellie Pingree health policy