Ohio bill would legalize raw milk despite health risks
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Two Republican lawmakers want to legalize raw milk in Ohio, a cause that has become a rallying point for some right-wing influencers and politicians amid the "MAHA" movement.
Why it matters: Demand is skyrocketing, but state and federal health officials warn that increased access would defy a proven pasteurization process and could result in sick Ohioans.
Driving the news: House Bill 406 would legalize and regulate the sale of unpasteurized ("raw") milk.
- The bill is sponsored by Reps. Kellie Deeter of Norwalk and Levi Dean of Xenia and has yet to have its initial Agriculture Committee hearing.
- Neither of their offices returned calls requesting comment on the bill.
How it works: Retail milk in Ohio must be pasteurized — heated to at least 150 degrees for a specified time to kill pathogens.
State of play: Ohio law currently prohibits retailers from selling raw milk directly to consumers unless they've been continuously doing so since before 1965.
- However, some farms and consumers get around that rule by participating in "herdshares" — private agreements where people buy an "ownership" share in dairy animals and are therefore entitled to that animal's milk.
- It can also be sold under a different license as "pet milk" and labeled not for human consumption.
The other side: "I'm personally not a raw milk advocate; I'm a liberty advocate," Deeter told the Dispatch, and compared raw milk legalization to legalized marijuana.
- "I don't think it's unreasonable to legalize raw milk for the consumer in a very narrow lane in a regulated fashion where it is actually safer for folks than I think that it might be currently unregulated," she told the Ohio Capital Journal.
- Wellness influencers on social media and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claim raw milk has health benefits and that pasteurization removes nutrients.
Reality check: The scientific community disagrees.
- The Food and Drug Administration itself dispels raw milk advocates' claims as "myths" and "misconceptions."
- Studies find "no significant effect of pasteurization" on milk's vitamin levels.
What they're saying: "Milk is one of the best foods in the world," says Valente Alvarez, director of Ohio State's Food Industries Center. And that's exactly what makes raw milk so dangerous.
- Alvarez, who studies milk safety, is adamant that pasteurization is critical to public health while offering negligible, if any, drawbacks.
- "Bacteria and pathogens have the same taste that humans do. They like good foods and good weather, and that's the issue."
Threat level: Raw milk has been blamed for outbreaks of various maladies in states that have legalized it.
- Commercial sales are legal in California, and have been linked to dozens of salmonella cases and bird flu in humans.
- Connecticut, Idaho and Minnesota have all had their own outbreaks.
The bottom line: "Sometimes, the truth for people is what they believe," Alvarez says.
- "That, to me, is the challenge … When we believe something, we convince ourselves."