Raw milk push unites the right and "healthfluencers"

• The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back pasteurization for milk safety. They say raw milk has caused serious illness and a handful of deaths. It's riskiest for pregnant people, seniors, kids and those who are immunocompromised.
• Experts worry RFK Jr.'s advocacy could undermine science. "What I'm more worried about is that the influence of statements from a position of authority might be misinterpreted as scientific fact, when in reality there's very, very strong evidence to the contrary," Meghan Davis, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies environmental health and infectious disease, told Axios.
• Davis has said the threat of H5N1 avian flu virus spreading via raw milk consumption has "pandemic potential." At least 40 bird flu infections have been reported in humans in the U.S., mostly associated with exposure to sick or infected cows or poultry.

Zoom in: Raw milk doesn't undergo pasteurization, a process that applies heat to kill pathogens. Since 1987, the FDA has barred interstate shipments of the product and mandated milk be pasteurized, but states control raw milk sales within their borders.

• Pasteurization, named after French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, was invented in the 19th century. The same process is used for wine and beer.

State of play: State laws easing the sale and purchase of raw milk have contributed to its rising popularity. So, too, has increasing distrust of public health authorities among libertarians and conservatives, some of whom also frame raw milk as a way to support local producers.

• Weekly raw milk sales were up in May by as much as 65% compared with the same period last year, the AP reported.
• States including Louisiana and Colorado passed or introduced raw milk legislation that make it easier to buy and sell.
• TikTok influencers tout unverified health benefits like extra nutrients or gut-friendly probiotics. Commentators on sites like Gab, Rumble and Infowars decry restrictions on raw milk availability as government overreach.

Longtime raw milk proponents rave about its purported benefits.

• Sally Fallon Morell, president of the pro-raw milk Weston A. Price Foundation, has been organizing on the issue of increasing availability for years. For her, it was personal: A self-described "breastfeeding Nazi," she struggled to provide enough milk for multiple children in the 1970s and 1980s.
• She then discovered raw milk through a book and gave it to her children.

"It was life-changing. It saved [my son's] life. If you've never been in a situation where you see your child starving, you don't understand the relief that this gives," she told Axios.

• Morell set up "A Campaign for Real Milk" in 1999 to provide information on and sources for raw milk, which she's seen explode. She blamed the dairy lobby in part for raw milk's less savory reputation.
• "They don't want farmers to have the right to sell directly to the public and to set their price."

Between the lines: What was once measured or curious coverage of raw milk in left-leaning outlets and liberal foodie hubs like Whole Foods is now full-blown advocacy in more conservative spaces, Politico reported.

Case in point: The Free Press published a story in early 2023 linking one Maryland-based raw milk consumer's affinity for the product to his preference for the blockchain over big banks. (He'd converted from Oatly and Beyond Meat patties.)

What to watch: There's no denying public health agencies have had difficulty reaching audiences with scientific evidence, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

• "We're at a new precipice where, if the FDA says something, there's a fairly large amount of people that are going to do the opposite just because they said that," Katelyn Jetelina, a San Diego-based epidemiologist and author of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter, told Axios.
• The question is how much Kennedy could harness the public health agencies under HHS to message the benefits of raw milk.
• The best bet is to "equip trusted messengers" within a community to "help answer questions from a place of empathy," Jetelina said.