How Did Raw Milk Become So Political?
And will it kill us all?
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If you had told me three years ago that legalizing raw milk would become a key issue in the 2024 election, I would have rolled my eyes so far back into my head they’d get stuck.
But alas, here we are.
As I scrolled Instagram and TikToks last weekend I watched videos of chunky milk being poured out after months in the fridge on my feed.
I saw raw milk called a superfood and the secret to looking, feeling and performing your best.
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Milk directly from the udder is the latest flashpoint in the culture wars and badge of honor in the new identity politics of the right. And raw milk actually helped Donald Trump get elected. Here’s how: RFK Jr., who Trump nominated to be head of Health and Human Services, has pledged to stop the “aggressive suppression” of raw milk and the right has rallied around it as a political issue. MAHA warriors are obsessed with its pseudoscience health benefits and want to get it more into the mainstream.
As one so-called crunchy mama recently told the Wall Street Journal:
“It felt cool to see someone in politics talking about something that’s so important to me,” said Smith, who grew up in a liberal household. She voted for President Biden in 2020, then cast a ballot for Trump this year. She said that the economy, handling of the pandemic and other factors also played a role in her decision to vote for Trump. She said that most of the women she sees posting about Trump’s win are celebrating Kennedy and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement. “I follow a few Christian influencers, crunchy creators [and] homesteading creators,” she said. “I don’t think anyone [of them] has a problem with Trump being president, but definitely the biggest pull for most of the people that I follow is RFK.”
This popped up in my Instagram feed last week from right wing influencer Alex Clark.
Cute package notwithstanding, the right is saying that very legitimate concerns about raw milk causing bird flu are just another “political” hoax. (sound familiar?)
It isn’t. The raw milk recall in California has expanded after tests detect more bird flu virus.
A California farm expanded a recall of raw milk sold in stores and halted production after state health and agriculture officials found bird flu virus in more milk samples.
Raw Farm, of Fresno, voluntarily recalled all whole milk and cream products from stores late Tuesday after tests found bird flu virus in “multiple” retail samples and dairy storage and bottling sites. The recall covers all Raw Farm milk and cream produced between Nov. 9 and Nov. 27.
To clear one thing up - pasteurizing milk entails heating it to a point that kills pathogens. It’s not adding chemicals as some commenters seem to believe. Public health officials strongly advise against consuming unpasteurized (aka ‘raw’) milk due to the risk of various pathogens, including E. coli and the H5N1 virus.
The right is claiming that this is fake news and that this is being done for “political” reasons. They argue that there are ‘beneficial’ bacteria and ‘bioactives.’ I often struggle because I think what these people are looking for is yogurt. (The fermentation process of yogurt kills harmful bacteria.) If you want to see more fact checks on the beneficial health claims, the FDA has a website here.
Pasteurization and vaccinations are two of the most powerful advancements in human history. They’ve allowed us all to live happier and healthier lives. As the MAHA movement grows they need more chum to throw to their masses. Their prevailing narrative is that evil pharma and liberal elites are conspiring to keep health away from the masses - we want them suffering and unhappy and sucking at the teet of big ozempic. This example of raw milk fits the bill.
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If I was an evil conservative billionaire sitting in my lair, thinking of how to prove I have the most effective influence machine at my fingertips, raw milk could not have been a more perfect testing ground.
Raw milk is a tangible thing to hold onto. A tangible thing that can be conspiratized, legislated and politicized. It is also a thing that can easily define a person.
Are you a person who believes in health and wellness, longevity and natural solutions? For people who want to identify as that, fighting for raw milk lets them signal those values in a world where performing values in a visual setting (IG) has more potency than ever.
So why are they doing this?
Like many of their pseudo-science ideologies, this isn’t new: in 1910, at New York’s Conference on Milk Problems, “raw milk supporters argued that heating destroyed many of the nutritious properties of milk, as well as the beneficial bacteria.”
Gweneth Paltrow has been gooping for raw milk as well, she recently said on The Skinny Confidential podcast, “I drink raw farm dairy, and there are schools of thought that say drinking raw milk is better, because once you process it it makes dairy harder to tolerate.” (this is not factually accurate, what she’s looking for is Lactaid milk.)
But Gweneth looks gorg when she says it. Wellness warriors on social media create incredibly aspirational content. People want to emulate them and identify with them. Many of them have become incredibly adept at harnessing women concerned about all kinds of health issues from hormonal disruptions, menopause, neurological problems and gut illnesses.
The distinction, today, is that the right’s influence infrastructure has been so effective at not only building this cultural movement, but harnessing it for political means.
Being a girly who loves raw milk has become an identity because identity politics are not just for the left. Alex’s meme wasn’t innocuous, it was identity building, ‘chill girls’ are those who drink raw milk.
And who doesn’t want to be a chill girl? A healthy, sexy chill girl without hormonal disruptions or bowel problems!
More and more hot and popular influencers are shilling it. “People are seeing more influencers talk about raw milk over the last year or more,” said Jessica Gall Myrick, a Pennsylvania State University health communications professor. And “more and more people are buying raw milk: Ambrook Research reports that sales “jumped 27 percent, from $12 million in 2021 to $19.4 million” in 2023.” And those girlies want to be seen and validated.
Guess who is validating them? Trump!
A CEO of a raw milk company says he has been asked by RFK Jr. to apply for the job of guiding the Trump Admin’s approach to raw milk. According to the Guardian:
Mark McAfee, a California raw milk producer whose products have been recalled several times recently due to bird flu contamination, said he has been approached by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s team to guide the upcoming administration on raw milk policy.
McAfee, whose dairy products were recalled after state officials detected bird flu virus in milk samples, said that the transition team for Kennedy, the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, asked him to apply for a position advising on raw milk policy and standards development. The idea, he told the Guardian, would be to create a “raw milk ordinance”, mirroring the existing federal “standard milk ordinance”
In 2008, McAfee’s company pleaded guilty to putting “pet food” stickers on its raw milk in order to illegally sell it across state lines for human consumption.
The thing about infectious outbreaks is they spread. A mother giving her baby infected milk is a tragedy, that infection spreading to the rest of the community is a crisis. A reason why public health exists is because we as humans live in communities, and to protect the whole we need to limit the behavior of some of the parts.
A defining feature of MAGA is a view of everything through the lens of individuality. It’s not about how one can help the community, it’s only about how one can help themselves. This is what they mean by the vernacular of freedom - freedom of religion means the ability to force your religion on others and restrict abortion. Freedom to bear arms means the ability to own all the guns you want and stop any gun control. “The Texas agricultural commissioner, arguing to legalize raw milk in a recent editorial, wrote, “There’s nothing more American than the freedom to choose what kind of food you eat.” Which means the freedom to help start a bird flu pandemic.
Once again this is an example of the right co-opting the idea of personal freedoms for their own political gain.
The Atlantic opened a recent article on raw milk by saying “the thirst for an illicit beverage is growing.” One of the emotional veins that MAGA has tapped into so well is the human desire to be counter-cultural. To not be basic, to not be a sheep. Even when one is actually following a herd led by a wolf, it feels good to be special.
So what are the things the Trump administration and RFK can actually do come Jan. 20th?
Drinking raw milk is legal in all 50 states, but in some states there are specific regulations around selling raw milk at the state level.
Since 1987, the FDA has prevented raw milk from being sold across state lines. RFK could work on changing that.
Kennedy has also promised to end the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of raw milk.” Just a few days ago, the USDA released a new National Milk Testing Strategy “requiring that raw (unpasteurized) milk samples nationwide be collected and shared with USDA for testing.” Kennedy could work to loosen these restrictions which could increase the amount of food illnesses and pathogens. (Though HHS does not run the USDA.)
I think we’re only going to see this focus on raw milk increase and more and more wellness influencers taking on the mantle of the raw milk fight as part of their identity. As this happens, their pro-Trump and pro-RFK messaging will continue to infect more of the population by using raw milk as a gateway.
The new administration likely won’t solve anything, but they will keep this as an open cudgel to use to win future elections. And along the way, we can only hope it doesn’t cause a crisis.
"A defining feature of MAGA is a view of everything through the lens of individuality. It’s not about how one can help the community, it’s only about how one can help themselves."
Emily you have succinctly summed up the mindset I see in people today. It still shocks me how many people cannot see beyond the end of their own nose. Would have never guessed raw milk would make that list. I can't tolerate milk unless it's the fat free or skim that is basically water.
I also find it telling about the politics of all this MAHA energy that the things rising to the top aren't that positively impactful on public health (or even an individual's health) in the grand scheme of issues we're facing.
I have two boys who play hockey, and I feel like the MAHA priorities (dyes, raw milk) are like trying to be a better hockey player by sharpening your skates. I mean... that helps, I guess? ... but that's not the hard work that drives meaningful improvement.
For MAHA, hard work looks like stronger regulations against pesticides, less pollution from fossil fuels, fewer microplastics in everything, addressing PFAS, healthier soil, etc... -- those are all priorities that go up against Big Oil (and align with climate activists). That MAHA is only willing to get loud about itty bitty identity issues that can easily be displayed on social media (as Emily mentions) should be telling. And we KNOW they're not touching Big Oil; that's political suicide.
I understand why the political forces are weaponizing this, but why are so many genuinely-concerned people falling for it? Why do so many people not see the forest for trees?