Head Of A Celebrity-friendly Raw Milk Brand Says Its Recall Is Political. He May Soon Have An Fda Role.

SACRAMENTO, California — The raw milk brand favored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing a recall in California over safety concerns just as the CEO is poised to join the Trump administration at the behest of the former independent presidential candidate.

Mark McAfee, CEO of Raw Farm, says he was asked by Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan to apply for a role at the Food and Drug Administration as a “raw milk adviser.”

The California Department of Public Health issued its latest voluntary recall against the company this week after several batches of raw milk products tested positive for H5N1, or bird flu. With the virus spreading rampantly among California’s dairy herds, McAfee said it was his farm’s turn to have some positive tests. He said it will take around two months for the virus to move through his herd before they build antibodies and develop immunity. Until then, he said he is focused on feeding the cows, keeping them healthy and working with a farm with no infections 300 miles north in order to keep raw milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese on shelves.

And he said that while he’s been working closely with state agencies, he feels they’re being pressured by federal bureaucrats back East. Regulators like the FDA are using avian flu as an excuse, he said, to take action against raw milk.

“What they don’t want is for raw milk to thrive, and that’s a political decision they made years ago,” McAfee said of the FDA. “It’s a new angle to try and discourage us.”

Ali Bay, deputy director of Communications for the California Department of Public Health, said the state is working “aggressively” to contain the spread of bird flu in humans and animals.

“Our public health messages have always included concern about the risks of bird flu transmission from consuming raw milk and raw dairy products,” Bay said in a statement. “Milk from infected cows splashing into the eyes of workers on farms has led to more than 30 human cases in California, indicating that raw milk is infectious to humans.”

The FDA is currently involved in an “enforcement action” with Raw Farm in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and wouldn’t comment either, citing agency policy.

The incident comes just weeks ahead of confirmation hearings for Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, which is already engulfed in heated debates over other controversial appointments by President-elect Donald Trump. While the Kennedy scion is expected to get through the confirmation process, his fringe health beliefs on everything from unpasteurized dairy to vaccines are of serious concern for many lawmakers.

Kennedy is a raw milk enthusiast because of its purported health benefits, and his former running mate did a campaign stop at the Fresno-based Raw Farm during their White House run. Kennedy has promised to end the “aggressive suppression” of raw milk as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Health and Human Services houses the FDA, which today strongly recommends against consuming unpasteurized dairy.

Kennedy’s vocal raw milk advocacy is colliding with an avian flu outbreak in the country’s dairy and poultry herds. In Raw Farm’s home state of California alone, 31 people and the cows at over 475 dairies have tested positive for the virus. The humans getting sick are mostly dairy workers who come into contact with raw milk at work, but a child near San Francisco has also been infected. Just this week, California confirmed one new human case and another probable one in the state.

Raw milk proponents claim that pasteurizing milk — heating it to kill bacteria and viruses — also destroys its nutritional value. That hasn’t been proven, but it hasn’t stopped raw milk from becoming the anti-establishment cause d’etre in the past few years. Raw Farm in particular has drawn many big-name fans like Gwyneth Paltrow, who drinks it in her morning coffee.

Three weeks ago, McAfee said he was approached by Shanahan to apply for the role in the FDA, and while nothing is official yet, he says he is on their shortlist.

Kennedy and his spokesperson did not return multiple messages seeking comment.

McAfee envisions a three-part plan for a federal position that oversees raw milk: high uniform standards, better training for farmers to handle and produce it and access to testing on every farm.

“You would have a renaissance of farmer vigor in this country like you’ve never seen before,” he said.

None of McAfee’s cows had flu symptoms before their milk tested positive, and he noted that no human cases of bird flu have been linked to consuming raw milk. All the more reason, he said, to look with skepticism at the “long-term plan to make sure raw milk doesn’t come back.”

It is not known what consuming raw milk that is infected with H5N1 will do in humans, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. But she noted that studies have shown deleterious effects in animals, some of which developed "really hideous symptoms" like neurologic conditions.

Raw milk’s threat to public health doesn’t stop at avian flu, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

"The bad news is that for raw milk drinkers, … you still have a higher risk of things like listeria, Campylobacter, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, things like that,” Poulsen said. “That's still a bigger risk."

Dr. Meghan Davis, associate professor and a veterinarian at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, added, “We are really confident that this is a bad virus.”

“It can cause disease in humans, and there's no reason to think that it wouldn't be a high risk for [raw milk] consumers,” said Davis, noting that the CDC considers raw milk drinkers and people who work with related products, such as at a processing plant, higher risk than the general public — just like farmworkers. Handling raw milk at home could also be a route of transmission, such as when a person gets milk on their hands and rubs their eyes.  

Kennedy’s ascension has helped contribute to a recent boom for the raw milk industry, said Pete Kennedy, a consultant with the Weston A. Price Foundation, a group that supports expanded raw milk consumption.

“Raw milk demand in the country has never been greater and this bird flu has been around now for eight or nine months,” said Pete Kennedy, referencing several state laws passed this year that have expanded access to the product. “And there's never been any evidence since the start of it, that anyone has gotten sick from drinking raw milk infected with bird flu.”

As for Kennedy’s possible promotion to HHS secretary, Pete Kennedy said he hopes “eventually it’ll lead FDA to changing its position on raw milk. Right now, they're strongly opposed to its consumption.”

He added, “I think [Kennedy’s confirmation] will further increase, further encourage states to pass laws either expanding raw milk access or, in a handful of states where it's still illegal, encourage them to pass laws legalizing sale or distribution.”

But Kennedy’s advocacy troubles Nuzzo.

"He's been a proponent of raw milk, and there are no credible studies demonstrating the health benefits of raw milk," Nuzzo said. "So that demonstrates his lack of command of evidence and data."

David Lim contributed to this report.