The Raw Milk Movement Is Accelerating

The instinct is reasonable, but their conclusion is not.

The raw milk discussion is everywhere right now.

In my social media feed, being celebrated at the White House, there’s a bill moving through Congress that would let it cross state lines for the first time in decades, and if your algorithm looks anything like mine, at least one wellness influencer has told you it changed their life.

I looked into the science, the politics, the influencers, and the money. I conclude that what’s being said the loudest paints an incomplete picture especially if you have kids.

A Legitimate Concern

First, I want to be fair to the people drawn to this conversation, because the instinct underneath it is real.

Many of us have lost trust in industrialized food systems. We’ve watched regulatory agencies get cozy with the industries they’re supposed to police. We’ve been told things were safe that weren’t. We should also acknowledge that a small, local, direct-from-farmer relationship is a different risk calculus than what the influencer moment is actually promoting. There’s something genuinely appealing about food that is simple and direct, about a farm you can see, or an animal (or herd) you can verify.

That impulse to turn away from industrialized systems is reasonable. But a reasonable instinct can still lead you to an unreasonable conclusion.

The Voices Leading the Charge

Paul Saladino, who goes by “Carnivore MD” online, has nearly 3 million Instagram followers and has been one of the loudest voices for raw milk in the MAHA ecosystem. In May 2024, he posted a video on his X account advocating that parents feed their infants raw dairy. It got 90,000 views before he deleted it after significant backlash. Other videos on his account showed an actual infant drinking raw milk from a bucket. [1]

This is a person with a medical degree (though his California license was listed as “delinquent” as of 2022 for nonpayment of fees [2]), promoting something the American Academy of Pediatrics explicitly warns against. And he was doing it while partnering with Raw Farm, one of the largest raw milk producers in the country, in part to co-create a smoothie sold at Erewhon. [2]

And he’s not alone.

Gwyneth Paltrow has said publicly that she puts Raw Farm cream in her coffee every morning. [3] “Ballerina Farm” influencer Hannah Neeleman (nearly 20 million followers across Instagram and TikTok) has documented producing raw milk at home and promoted its supposed beauty benefits, with her farm gearing up for commercial dairy production. [3] Former U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a photo of raw milk on Instagram captioned “Make America Healthy Again” while she was in office. [4]

At the White House celebration for the MAHA Report release, Saladino filmed himself in a room of podcasters, boasting that he had packed his own raw milk and raw meat lunch — holding up a flask for the camera. [5]

This is what the raw milk moment looks like.

And the financial incentives underneath it are substantial. As one researcher studying the movement put it, “the contemporary wellness industry is massive, and there are huge sums of money to be made.” Influencers promoting raw milk are often directly profiting from product partnerships, supplements, and audience growth built on that content. [4]

Raw Milk Risks are Well-documented

The invention of pasteurization wasn’t aimed at fixing something inherently wrong with milk. It was a response to what industrialized production did to the conditions under which milk was made. Ironically, the movement now pushing raw milk into wider distribution is accelerating the conditions that made pasteurization a necessary safeguard.

University of Wisconsin food scientist John Lucey, who has spent his career working with dairy farmers, explains why: no matter how much care a farmer puts in, farms are places where bacteria reside, and the risk can’t be reduced to zero. Pasteurization, he says, “remains our gold standard.” [13]

Unpasteurized, raw milk can carry Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and Campylobacter. These are not hypothetical or rare risks. The CDC tracks raw milk outbreaks every year. People become hospitalized. Some die. And the populations most vulnerable are exactly who you’d expect: young children, pregnant women, elderly people, and anyone with a compromised immune system. [6]

The CDC estimates that raw milk is approximately 840 times more likely to cause illness per serving than pasteurized milk. [7] That statistic lives as an unmentioned footnote while the influencer content gets millions of views.

The claimed benefits: better enzymes, better probiotics, relief for the lactose intolerant, have been studied extensively. The scientific consensus is clear: pasteurization’s adverse impact on nutritional value is minimal, and there is no peer-reviewed evidence supporting these claimed health benefits of raw milk. What pasteurization does, reliably and demonstrably, is kill the pathogens that can put your family in the hospital. [8]

The American Society for Microbiology has noted that several raw milk health claims have been “demystified or outright refuted” by scientific studies. In contrast, the risks — including from pathogens like Campylobacter and Listeria, which account for nearly 13% of contamination found in raw milk globally — remain well-documented and serious. [6]

Further, the H5N1 Bird flu has been spreading through U.S. dairy cattle since early 2024 and has been detected in raw milk samples. As of yet, there are no confirmed human cases of infection from drinking raw milk, but researchers studying the virus are not relaxed about the possibility.

Pasteurization destroys H5N1. Raw milk removes that protection at a moment when public health experts are monitoring this virus for pandemic potential. [6]

Raw Farm, the same brand that Saladino and Paltrow were publicly promoting, halted distribution of its products after its milk tested positive for H5N1. [3] More recently, the FDA linked an ongoing E. coli outbreak to Raw Farm’s cheddar products. The company refused a voluntary recall, saying its own tests came back clean. As of this spring, the FDA has still not issued a mandatory recall, and Democratic lawmakers have publicly asked whether the brand’s political connections to the Kennedy operation are influencing that restraint. [9]

A Political Rise

RFK Jr. has made raw milk a cultural signifier for the MAHA movement. He’s said he drinks only raw milk. He celebrated the release of the MAHA Report by doing shots of it at the White House with a prominent health influencer. He has called FDA regulations on raw milk part of the agency’s “war on public health.” [10]

Interestingly, the MAHA Report that his commission produced doesn’t mention raw milk once. And Kennedy, as HHS Secretary, hasn’t changed a single federal policy around it. The FDA’s official warnings remain unchanged. The interstate sales ban, in place since 1987, is still law. [11]

What has changed is the political energy, which has put wind in the sails of H.R. 7880, the Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2026, introduced in March by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME). The bill would end the federal prohibition on transporting raw milk across state lines between states where it’s already legal to sell. It carries genuine bipartisan support and more legislative momentum than any previous version. [12]

If it passes, raw milk becomes more available and more widely distributed — further from the small, local, farm-direct model that even raw milk’s own advocates cite as essential to doing it safely. More product. More distribution. More influencers. Less accountability. [12]

The Raw Truth

I can see why people are drawn to this conversation. The distrust of industrial food systems is real and sometimes earned. The desire to feel connected to what you’re feeding your family is understandable and commendable.

The discussion about raw milk, however, is getting hijacked by people with financial stakes in what we put on our table.

Pasteurization is not a corporate conspiracy. It is one of the most consequential public health interventions in human history. Before it was standard, raw milk killed people with regularity. It was a documented vector for tuberculosis, typhoid, and scarlet fever. We figured that out, we fixed it, and now a wellness industrial complex is asking you to unlearn it in exchange for a vibe and a White House photo op. [8]

As a parent, I try to view institutions critically. I like to peel back the layers of what I’m being told. I recognize salesmanship and emotional reframing when it tries to keep me away from data.

The science on raw milk is not ambiguous. The risks are real, the benefits are unproven, and the people promoting it most loudly have money on the line.

Talk to your pediatrician. Talk to a local farmer. Read the research. And when the next influencer shows up in your feed holding a glass of raw milk with that warm, trustworthy smile — ask yourself, and them, where’s the science?

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The Dad Briefs covers the civic, political, and quietly human stories that shape family life in America.

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Sources

[1] CBS News — “Influencers promote raw milk despite FDA health warnings as bird flu spreads in dairy cows” (May 2024) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-raw-milk-influencers-fda-warning/

[2] Wikipedia — Paul Saladino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Saladino

[3] Business of Fashion — “Raw Milk: The Influencer Wellness Fad With a Side of Bird Flu” (December 2024) https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/raw-milk-the-influence-wellness-fad-with-a-side-of-bird-flu/

[4] Dazed — “Why are right-wing influencers drinking raw milk?” (December 2024) https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/65608/1/why-are-right-wing-influencers-drinking-raw-milk-unpasteurised-rfk-jr

[5] Rolling Stone — “Why Are Health Influencers Drinking Raw Milk and Honey Shots at the White House?” (May 2025) https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/raw-milk-honey-maha-report-white-house-influencers-1235349031/

[6] American Society for Microbiology — “Raw Milk Microbiology: Unfiltered and Unfriendly” (May 2025) https://asm.org/articles/2025/may/raw-milk-microbiology-unfiltered-and-unfriendly

[7] Real Raw Milk Facts — “Raw Milk State Laws and Regulations” https://realrawmilkfacts.com/raw-milk-regulations

[8] Sentient Media — “RFK Jr.’s Stance on Raw Milk, UPFs, Oils & Organic Food” (February 2025) https://sentientmedia.org/rfks-raw-milk-upfs-oils-organic-food/

[9] E&E News / Politico — “RFK Jr.-Favored Farm Linked to E. coli Outbreak Resists Voluntary Recall” (April 2026) https://www.eenews.net/articles/rfk-jr-favored-farm-linked-to-e-coli-outbreak-resists-voluntary-recall/

[10] Dairy Herd — “RFK Jr.: Friend or Foe to the Dairy Industry?” (February 2025) https://www.dairyherd.com/news/policy/rfk-jr-friend-or-foe-dairy-industry

[11] NBC News — “Raw Milk Advocates Wonder: Where Is Kennedy?” (June 2025) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/raw-milk-kennedy-rcna213568

[12] Food Safety News — “Bill to Lift Ban on Transporting Raw Milk Is Back” (March 2026) https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/03/bill-to-lift-ban-on-transporting-raw-milk-is-back/

[13] Takeaways from AP’s report on the push for raw milk intensifying https://apnews.com/article/raw-milk-pasteurization-state-law-takeaways-b387602e8ce5101858a5c4b0de5b4613

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