With Raw Farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, Mark McAfee has capitalized on a once-fringe product that’s been thrust into the mainstream in recent years and backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital, and they have been sick, but they recovered,” McAfee acknowledged before my visit. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer. And I’m going against the grain here. I’m climbing a mountain they say you can’t climb.”

…

“We catch these things and divert the milk immediately,” McAfee said of the pathogens.

I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.

Later that day, I learned otherwise.

“We have a red-flag system here, where if there’s anything that gets really out of whack, they can immediately tag the milk, and it doesn’t go to anything but cheese,” McAfee told me. “Because, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.”

Research has shown that raw cheese is not, in fact, resistant to pathogens; while aging can mitigate some risk, harmful bacteria can still survive the usual 60-day maturation process.

  • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 hours ago

    Part of me wants to let the consumers just get sick and let nature sort it out. It just sucks that it’s children being harmed with no say in the matter

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      0·
      14 hours ago

      Exactly how I feel about vaccines, except then people who are immunocompromised are additionally placed at risk.

      Here’s what we should do: every adult who wants raw milk should be given a gun with one round in the chamber. Let them make it quick.

      • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        11 hours ago

        I mean with vaccines it’s about herd immunity. No vaccine is 100%, but if close to 100% of people get vaccinated the disease can die out. If it’s only half of us vaccinated we’re all still at risk.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      15 hours ago

      Caveat Emptor, sure.

      But so much of this is based on maliciously propagated misinformation. It’s the same shit asbestos, lead paint, and cigarette companies were doing in bygone days. Going into national media, lying their asses off, and then kicking the blame down to their customers when they get caught.

      • Krusty@quokk.auEnglish
        0·
        14 hours ago

        What I love is all the shit that influencers peddle that will harm you and your offspring, permanently.

        It’s not bad enough you’re vegan… But now iodized salt is apparently ‘glass’ (I guess because it contains trace amounts of silica aka sand.) yet you don’t think sea salt is going to also contain some sand? Although some just think they don’t need any salt at all. Which is even more profoundly idiotic.

        So where the hell are you getting iodine? Not from eggs (the yolk) and not free sea food (excepting seaweed?) and who eats sea weed daily? And apparently some dairy industries are moving away from using iodine for milking(to sanitize the teets.) another great source of iodine teetering on the edge of the abyss.

        Then you start putting this all together… And it sure makes a lot of sense why these people are mentally and physically ill.