With Raw Farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, Mark McAfee has capitalized on a once-fringe product that’s been thrust into the mainstream in recent years and backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital, and they have been sick, but they recovered,” McAfee acknowledged before my visit. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer. And I’m going against the grain here. I’m climbing a mountain they say you can’t climb.”

…

“We catch these things and divert the milk immediately,” McAfee said of the pathogens.

I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.

Later that day, I learned otherwise.

“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 told me. “Because, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.”

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.

    • knife@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 day ago

      That just isn’t true. A quick search returned this and this. Just like in the US it seems to be very rare. There are also plenty of other foods like melon, greens, meat, etc that can cause similar sickness. My point is that these rare cases that involve raw milk in the US are being publicized because RFK is a proponent of raw milk and is Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. Raw milk wasn’t just legalized and it didn’t just start making people sick in the US rather the media just started reporting on it in order to blame RFK for it.

    • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      Maybe the magat farmers doing this use the same old pasturized procedures, just without actually pasteurizing? The safety and cleanliness is designed around “good enough”. Because, if you’re sterilizing after collection anyway, it’s fine. However, it is not enough cleanliness if you’re not also sterilizing after collection.

      Or

      These magat farmers are likely just doing whatever they want. The FDA doesn’t function anymore. There are almost no inspectors or inspections anymore. Regulations have been rolled back across the board. Not that it matters if you’re not inspecting. Since trump took office, food spoils much quicker.

      And on top of all that, these raw milk farmers are on trump’s untouchables list. So also, they can double do whatever they want.