Wisconsin’s raw milk movement may soon get a boost from President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, despite illness outbreaks and decades of proven public safety risks.
Unpasteurized milk, which some claim is healthier than regular milk sold in grocery stores, has been in the spotlight because Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of its fans.
But it’s also been getting attention because the product from a California seller was recalled after it was found tainted with the H5N1 virus. That connection to bird flu added another layer of concerns for Wisconsin’s dairy industry.
“We think this is additional reason for lawmakers to press pause on any plans they may have to expand the sale of raw milk across the country for consumer consumption,” said Rebekah Sweeney, senior director of policy and programs at the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.
Raw milk can carry Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella – all harmful and sometimes lethal pathogens. People who get sick from raw milk may experience gastrointestinal distress, and some — more likely young children, senior citizens, the immuno-compromised, and pregnant women — can experience severe complications including Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can result in kidney failure, stroke or death.
Lobbying from the dairy industry and medical community ended multiple attempts, between 2009 and 2024, to allow broad sales of raw milk to Wisconsin consumers. The state’s current law allows for “incidental” exchanges between a farmer and a consumer. But a sale is not incidental if it’s made in the regular course of business or is preceded by any advertising, offer or solicitation to the general public, state officials told the Journal Sentinel.
Practically speaking, it would mean that a sanitarian inspector should not see physical evidence of raw milk sales on a farm, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said in response to Journal Sentinel questions.
A year ago, a small group of state legislators introduced a bill aimed at legalizing both the advertisement and retail sale of raw milk, requiring only limited testing and reporting by dairy producers. The bill failed to gain enough support for a vote by lawmakers. “It was an irresponsible idea, jeopardizing both consumers’ well-being and the strength of a backbone industry for Wisconsin,” Sweeney said.
Now there’s strong evidence that H5N1 can be transmitted through milk that isn’t pasteurized, a process developed a century ago to kill viruses, bacteria and pathogens. “Pasteurization has helped dairy build its reputation for safety, and when you take that out of the equation, you create unnecessary risk,” Sweeney said.
Raw milk supporters contend it contains more enzymes, probiotics (or the “good bacteria”), proteins and vitamins than pasteurized milk. They also say it helps prevent chronic health issues such as asthma and allergies, citing studies of European children living on farms.
“What we’re talking about is raw milk intended for humans, which is tested for pathogens, has an extremely low bacteria count, and has been phenomenally successful,” said Mark McAfee, founder and CEO of Raw Farm, a supplier of the product in California, where it’s legal for retail sale. He’s also a mentor for Wisconsin farms involved in the movement.
Raw milk in Wisconsin has been promoted through Facebook groups and websites. Some of the sellers say they’ve found legal mechanisms that allow them to reach consumers through membership clubs and cooperatives.
“We’re not worried,” said Clay Pausma with Pausma Dairy in Fox Lake. The farm, he says, takes the responsibility of providing clean, safe, raw milk seriously and does on-farm testing.
State officials say that a nominal fee someone pays for a private milk club membership isn’t enough to allow the sales.
“A bona fide financial interest is one in which the shareholder invests more than a nominal amount and shares in the expenses, profits and losses on the farm,” the state Department of Agriculture told the Journal Sentinel.
“The owners must share, in some manner, the rights and responsibilities of having a milk producer license. The license (and therefore, any ownership interest) may not be used solely for the purpose of allowing the purchase of non-pasteurized milk and/or milk products,” officials said.
If Kennedy is named Health and Human Services Secretary, it could be beneficial for the national raw-milk movement. “It ain’t going to hurt anything. I’m pretty aware of government intervention in general, but that doesn’t seem to be his agenda,” Pausma said. “Hopefully, the politicians and lobbyists don’t water down his intentions or take his intentions and ideas and twist them around,” he added.
From 2013 through 2018, 75 illness outbreaks voluntarily reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were linked to raw milk. Outbreaks during those years sickened 2,645 people and caused 228 hospitalizations and three deaths, according to Sweeney with the Cheese Makers Association.
In 2023 and 2024, more than 100 people fell ill from salmonella linked to raw milk from Raw Farm, the same California company now at the center of raw milk recalls for bird flu. At least seven people were hospitalized, and 40% of cases were in children. Findings only came to light from court records released in the summer, USA TODAY reported.
There have been illness outbreaks in Wisconsin, too, notably a 2014 incident in which 38 people who consumed raw milk suffered Campylobacter infections, with 10 hospitalized. State officials said the 2014 incident, linked to a high school football team event in Durand, was one of the largest raw-milk illness outbreaks they’d seen. Twenty-six of the illnesses were laboratory-confirmed to stem from Campylobacter jejuni, a harmful bacterium sometimes found in unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat and poultry.
“The cause of the outbreak was determined through an epidemiologic study, and confirmed by laboratory testing, to be raw milk served at a potluck dinner,” the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said at the time.
In June 2011, unpasteurized milk from a local farm was served at a school event at North Cape Elementary School in Raymond, about 10 miles northwest of Racine. About 45 people attended the event. Three days later, 16 of them, mostly children, became ill. Two more fell ill soon after, and laboratory tests showed that Campylobacter jejuni had caused the illnesses. It was the same strain found in the unpasteurized milk from the unnamed farm.
In both the Durand and Racine County incidents, the farms that provided the milk held state licenses to produce milk for commercial purposes, but not retail, according to state records.
Less than 2% of all foodborne illness outbreaks can be attributed to dairy, but more than 70% of those dairy-related outbreaks can be attributed to raw milk, according to Wisconsin dairy industry sources.
“The scientific data and illness outbreak records we have – now dating back more than 100 years – make it clear: raw milk is not a safe commercial product,” Sweeney said. “Nor is it a smart product to have on the shelf for a state like Wisconsin, where dairy is a $46 billion industry, contributing 157,000 jobs and $1.26 billion in state and local taxes,” she wrote in her December 2023 column.
This week, California officials reported a suspected case of bird flu in a child who experienced fever and vomiting after drinking raw milk. The child has recovered, and no other family members became sick, indicating no person-to person transmission, Marin County officials said Tuesday.
In recent years, the number of states legalizing raw milk sales has more than doubled to all but a handful of states. Most restrict the sales to farm sites, but a growing number allow retail grocery store sales. Still, raw-milk sales are tiny compared with regular milk.
Legislators who have pushed for retail raw-milk sales in Wisconsin and other states have catered to a small, self-interested group of constituents rather than the majority, Sweeney said.
Wisconsin farmers engaged in the practice do so at the risk of running afoul of state regulators who say they respond to individual complaints and investigate as raw milk sales are observed on a farm. In the last four years, state Department of Agriculture officials said, they have done a dozen farm inspections regarding alleged raw-milk sales, six investigations, and taken three unspecified enforcement actions.
In 2013, Sauk County dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger faced four criminal charges in a trial that drew national attention from supporters of the raw milk movement. Prosecutors, represented by the state Department of Justice, depicted Hershberger as someone who flouted the law by not getting a $265 retail license — although the inclusion of unpasteurized dairy products in his food store would have made that impossible.
Hershberger’s supporters said he was targeted for prosecution because he sold raw milk directly to consumers through a private buying club with several hundred members.
Jurors in Sauk County Circuit Court deliberated about four hours before returning a verdict of guilty on just one charge of violating a holding order placed on products on the Hershberger farm, following a raid there in the summer of 2010.
It was the first case of its kind in Wisconsin, according to state officials. The 41-year-old farmer was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $513 in court costs. He had faced a maximum penalty of up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine if he’d been found guilty of the other charges.
McAfee, from California, said he was asked to apply for an advisory role in the Trump administration.
If he’s chosen for the position, McAfee said, he would focus on creating standards for farmers to sell raw milk directly to willing buyers in the general public. “We will have world-class standards for raw milk for human consumption, farmers will be well trained to know what they’re doing, and there will be autonomous testing where farmers can actually test their milk to ensure it’s in compliance,” McAfee said in a Journal Sentinel interview.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of his regular customers, McAfee said, adding that raw milk sales are thriving in states like California. “Where it’s illegally available, it’s still thriving,” but in an underground market, he said.
McAfee’s products have been linked to several outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research.
Even with on-farm testing, raw milk isn’t safe for public consumption, said Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator at the Center, which is on the UW-Madison campus. “The more people who consume it,” he said, “the higher the probability someone’s going to become ill.”
Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
