American media is abuzz with information of President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the top of the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS). Seemingly each story mentions his controversial views on matters from vaccines to fluoride within the water to uncooked milk—a longtime libertarian trigger célèbre. Although it is onerous to ascertain a extra unlikely catalyst, RFK Jr.’s nomination stands out as the last push that will get uncooked milk throughout the legalization end line.
Till the late 1800s, uncooked milk was merely often known as “milk” and was the one sport on the town for Individuals needing a scrumptious dairy beverage. However when it was found that heating up merchandise like milk may scale back the presence of doubtless dangerous micro organism, the pasteurization craze was underway. Given reviews of thousands of babies dying from bacteria-riddled milk round this time interval, pasteurization was seen as a outstanding public well being breakthrough.
This set off a wave of twentieth century state and native authorities mandates that required milk to be pasteurized. Lastly, in 1987, a federal court docket cemented a federal ban on all interstate uncooked milk gross sales. However not lengthy afterward, the fashionable natural meals motion was born, and uncooked milk grew to become a cult favourite among the many crunchy political left. Now, uncooked milk has more and more been adopted as a form of tradition battle standing image on the political proper.
“Lengthy a fringe well being meals for new-age hippies and fad-chasing liberal foodies, uncooked milk has gained over the hearts and minds of GOP legislators and regulators in the previous few years,” writes Marc Novicoff in Politico. Along with its inherent deregulatory enchantment, Novicoff recounts that “conservatives found that uncooked milk match neatly inside a worldview that was more and more skeptical of credentialed experience.”
During the last decade, quite a few states have handed legal guidelines to legalize uncooked milk, main meals coverage skilled Baylen Linnekin to declare that the “uncooked milk restoration is underway.” May it now be about to kick into overdrive, probably even spreading to an overturn of the federal interstate gross sales ban?
No matter one’s views of RFK’s potential adeptness—or lack thereof—at navigating the federal paperwork to pursue his agenda, he might not be the one member of Trump’s cupboard to be a uncooked milk fanatic. Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), who has run a bill in Congress for the final decade to overturn the federal ban, is heavily rumored to be the following Secretary of Agriculture.
To additional contribute to the momentum, there’s not less than some proof that the political left could embrace uncooked milk once more as nicely. Though most states which have handed current uncooked milk reforms skew pink, states like Colorado have seen Democratic lawmakers introduce raw milk bills this previous yr (with Governor Jared Polis supporting the hassle). Moreover, deep-blue Delaware simply grew to become the latest state to legalize uncooked milk. In response to the Farm-to-Client Authorized Protection Fund, a majority of states have now legalized uncooked milk in some type and solely a handful nonetheless ban it outright.
On the federal degree, along with uncooked milk’s ideological virtue-signaling enchantment to GOP lawmakers and administration officers, Senators like Cory Booker (D–N.J.) have taken sturdy anticorporate agriculture stances throughout their time in workplace, thereby making it not less than conceivable they might be part of Republican colleagues in overturning the federal ban.
The pushback, nonetheless, continues to be vital. Quite a few research and well being consultants warn of the hazards of uncooked milk in comparison with pasteurized milk. Information from the Facilities for Illness Management found that between 1998 and 2018, there have been 202 outbreaks of foodborne diseases from uncooked milk, which led to 2,645 folks turning into sick, 228 hospitalizations, and three deaths.
Whereas few would critically dispute that pasteurized milk reduces the prospect of buying a food-borne sickness, it raises an attention-grabbing query: What ought to the comparability level be for uncooked milk by way of security? Ought to or not it’s in comparison with pasteurized milk, or is it fairer to check it to different uncooked (and even non-raw) meals?
As an illustration, uncooked oysters—a delicacy loved by many Individuals that aren’t legally prohibited—kill round 100 people per year, in comparison with the three uncooked milk deaths the CDC discovered over twenty years. A 2024 salmonella outbreak linked to backyard poultry—one other authorized exercise in most jurisdictions—resulted in 125 hospitalizations and one loss of life in lower than a yr. Within the 12-year period from 1998 to 2010, the CDC recorded 1,345 diseases, 104 hospitalizations, and 19 deaths from deli meat, whereas even the common-or-garden fruit salad caused 1,323 diseases, 29 hospitalizations, and 1 loss of life throughout this era.
In different phrases, uncooked milk would not seem like uniquely harmful in comparison with different utterly authorized and freely obtainable meals however continues to be prohibited in a handful of states and topic to a federal ban. As inconceivable as it could appear, RFK’s nomination—with a possible Rep. Massie add-on nomination—may very well be what lastly breaks open the uncooked milk authorized dam.
