The man behind one of the buzziest raw milk farms explains why they are going pasteurized — for now

Mark McAfee is the founder of Raw Farm, the biggest producer of raw milk in the US. They’re based in Fresno, California.

One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s favorite raw milk producers is temporarily going pasteurized, as bird flu sweeps across California’s dairyland.

Raw Farm is California’s largest producer of raw milk products, and a huge name in West Coast wellness circles. This summer, the company partnered with carnivore diet influencer Paul Saladino and trendy LA grocery store Erewhon to produce a $19 raw kefir smoothie.

Now, the company is recalling all of its raw milk and raw cream on store shelves statewide, after initial retail tests of at least two batches of milk turned up positive for H5N1 bird flu.

In the meantime, raw milk produced at the Fresno-based dairy is being processed like regular milk.

“It’s going from our dairies directly to a processing plant owned by somebody else to be pasteurized,” Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee told Business Insider on Wednesday, adding that the move is a “horrible” one for his bottom line.

“We’re getting about 20%” of normal sales revenue, he said.

Raw Farm isn’t recalling its raw cheeses, butter, or kefir, and McAfee said that’s because those products have been fermented, heated, cultured, or aged, and therefore are somewhat less of a concern to regulators.

Dr. Paul Saladino’s $19 Raw Animal-Based Smoothie includes Raw Farm’s kefir milk, plus beef organ powder, blueberries, honey, bananas, and other ingredients

Can you get bird flu from raw milk?

It’s normal for raw milk to have viruses or bacteria floating around in it. Unlike pasteurized milk, raw milk is not heated to kill pathogens.

That’s why the US Food and Drug Administration advises against anyone drinking raw milk. There’s a risk of contracting stomach bugs like Salmonella or E. coli, which can cause food poisoning, and in rare cases hospitalization or death. Kids are especially at risk.

It’s not clear whether people can actually get bird flu by drinking milk from a sick cow. So far, there have been no reports of raw milk drinkers catching bird flu, but there have been several cases of cats drinking raw milk from cows sick with bird flu, and then dropping dead afterwards.

“Like many foodborne illnesses, illnesses from raw milk are often underreported because many people aren’t tested by a doctor in time to identify a pathogen and link the illness to a specific food,” the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, the agency that first identified bird flu virus in Raw Farm products in November, told B-17 in a statement.

The FDA declined to comment for this story, citing an ongoing lawsuit against Raw Farm, which accuses the company of selling raw milk across state lines (that’s forbidden under federal law).

A spokesperson for the agency pointed B-17 to a recent letter to dairy producers nationwide, which mentions that bird flu is a virus, like other viruses, that can’t withstand pasteurization.

A bird flu outbreak will not stop the raw milk trend, McAfee says

McAfee is trying to set up some raw milk bottling and processing in another area of the state that isn’t as affected by the current H5N1 outbreak as the Central Valley. He said he hopes to start selling raw milk again soon, after performing (and clearing) some additional tests.

“Hopefully, within the next 10 days, we’ll have a dairy that’s up and going, and products will be flowing from a different area of California,” he said.

Raw Farm cows recently tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. The virus has been sweeping through California’s Central Valley herds, among others nationwide.

That would be welcome news to President-elect Trump’s pick to head up Health and Human Services next year.

Kennedy has promised to end the FDA’s “war” on raw milk. McAfee said he’s been tapped by Kennedy’s transition team to apply for a position advising the FDA on standards and policy for raw milk production.

“People don’t really appreciate the deep science of this,” he said. “I do.”

He pointed to the latest science that suggests the biggest hazard for bird flu transmission lies not in the milk itself, but in dairy cow udders.

So far, of the 32 human bird flu cases reported in California, 31 have been traced back to cattle exposure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been warning dairy workers to watch out for raw milk splashing into their eyeballs, and McAfee said his dairy workers wear eye protection.