At the moment, nonetheless, a small however rising variety of People want to drink their milk uncooked. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s selection to steer the Division of Well being and Human Providers, now stands on the vanguard of this motion. Kennedy has mentioned he drinks uncooked milk and has criticized what he describes because the Meals and Drug Administration’s “aggressive suppression” of raw-milk manufacturing, amongst different issues. Fans anticipate that, as H.H.S. secretary, he would make uncooked milk simpler to accumulate — though how stays unclear. Federal laws prohibit the sale of uncooked milk throughout state traces, however the place it’s authorized, uncooked milk is regulated by state governments, not federal companies.
In embracing uncooked milk, Kennedy is following a longtime pattern as a lot as main it. The roots of the motion stretch again many years. The small, unbiased health-food shops my dad and mom frequented in New Mexico within the Eighties, for instance, offered uncooked milk. (We by no means partook.) However to listen to Mark McAfee inform it, the pandemic supercharged demand.
McAfee heads one of many largest producers of uncooked milk within the nation, Uncooked Farm in California. McAfee, who has mentioned Kennedy is a buyer, has utilized to serve in an advisory function at H.H.S. — on the urging of Kennedy’s transition crew, he says. In the course of the pandemic, McAfee advised me, individuals felt deserted by medical professionals and started researching methods to look after their very own immune programs. Many turned to uncooked milk, which he calls “the primary meals of life.” Perhaps they thought it may shield them from the coronavirus, he says, an unproven thought which will stem from the commentary that human breast milk supplies nursing infants with some safety towards an infection.
Anecdotes of seemingly miraculous cures from uncooked milk additionally assist gasoline the phenomenon — inflammatory ailments that go into remission, allergic reactions and digestive issues that disappear. McAfee eagerly shared such tales. Nonetheless, his prospects defy simple categorization. When he started promoting uncooked milk 25 years in the past, hippie “nut-and-berry mothers” and pure foodies, as he places it, fashioned McAfee’s core clientele. However as his gross sales have grown — about 30-fold since then, he estimates — his prospects have diversified.
At the moment’s raw-milk motion is made up of individuals and concepts from throughout the political spectrum: back-to-the-land sorts searching for unadulterated complete meals; well being fanatics searching for the most recent superfood; don’t-tell-me-what-to-eat libertarians who mistrust authority and who, in McAfee’s description, intend to do the other of regardless of the F.D.A. says. Quite a lot of labels have been utilized to the motion: “meals sovereignty,” “sluggish meals,” “actual meals,” “meals freedom.” For the extra conspiratorially minded, uncooked milk represents meals free of presidency meddling. For these merely chasing the most recent fad, uncooked milk could also be a standing image — a single gallon can price practically $20.
