Raw Farm, formerly known as Organic Pastures, is an American company that produces

raw milk Raw milk or unpasteurized milk is milk that has not undergone pasteurization, a process of heating liquid foods to kill pathogens for safe consumption and extension of shelf life. Proponents of raw milk have alleged numerous purported benefits t ...

(milk that has not undergone

pasteurization In food processing, pasteurization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated wi ...

to be removed of

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...

s) or

dairy product Dairy products or milk products are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, goat, nanny goat, and Sheep, ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food around the world such as y ...

s made with raw milk. Their products are made in

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

and

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

counties in California. The company has made controversy over their products sometimes being contaminated with ''

Campylobacter ''Campylobacter'' is a type of bacteria that can cause a diarrheal disease in people. Its name means "curved bacteria", as the germ typically appears in a comma or "s" shape. According to its scientific classification, it is a genus of gram-negat ...

'', ''

Salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of bacillus (shape), rod-shaped, (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two known species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' ...

'', ''E. coli'', or

bird flu "Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cri ...

, resulting from the lack of pasteurization. They have also faced legal troubles for violating federal law regarding the distribution and marketing of raw milk.

History

Raw Farm, formerly named Organic Pastures, was founded by Mark McAfee in 1998. The company's sales have grown in recent years, as more people have started consuming raw food or drink products for various reasons. Proponents of raw products say they taste better and are more healthy than

pasteurized In food processing, pasteurization ( also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life ...

products; in the latter case, scientists do not agree that they are healthier, because the pasteurization process removes

s which can cause illnesses. Public health officials warned consumers in March 2024 to not drink raw milk, after bird flu virus was found in dairy cows in the United States; despite this, the company's sales significantly increased in the months afterward. In June 2024, McAfee said that Raw Farm was selling 80,000

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in British imperial units and United States customary units. The imperial gallon (imp gal) is defined as , and is or was used in the United Kingdom and its former colonies, including Ireland, Canada, Australia ...

s of their milk a week, and that the increased in sales came from hanging dietary trends and social media attention. According to McAfee, as of January 2025, Raw Farm's Raw Milk brand is sold at 500 stores in California. There is a political angle to some people who are buying Raw Farm's products, motivated by distrust in the government; McAfee said in May 2024, "Anything that the nowiki/>Food and Drug Administration (FDA)">Food_and_Drug_Administration.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Food and Drug Administration">nowiki/>Food and Drug Administration (FDA)tells our customers to do, they do the opposite." The Raw Milk brand is favored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an attorney and activist who is the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. At the request of Kennedy's Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 2024 presidential campaign, 2024 presidential campaign running mate

Nicole Shanahan Nicole Ann Shanahan (born September 26, 1985) is an American attorney and entrepreneur working in Silicon Valley. She was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign. Born in California, Shanahan graduated from the ...

, McAfee has been asked to work at the FDA as a "raw milk adviser".

Health and legal incidents

In 2006, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) temporarily quarantined milk and cream from Organic Pastures that were contaminated with ''

E. coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...

'', after four children received contracted the bacteria from the products. In April 2010, Organic Pastures was found by the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

(DOJ) to have violated a 2007 federal law on "introducing and/or distributing raw milk into interstate commerce" and promoting "unapproved raw drugs", the latter resulting from Organic Pastures advertising their products as health cures. An

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

was imposed on Organic Pastures which was supposed to limit their ability to violate the 2007 law. In March 2022, the DOJ alleged that Raw Farm was engaging in

civil contempt Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

by defying the 2010 injunction, and in July 2023, in the

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California (in case citations, E.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the ...

, Mark McAfee and Raw Farm pleaded guilty to

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

charges of "introduction and delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of misbranded food". On January 8, 2022, a Raw Farm

creamery A creamery or cheese factory is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has ...

was burned down in an act of

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

by an unknown person. A $10 million dollar loan backed by the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production ...

was given to Raw Farm to build a new creamery. In May 2023, the CDFA issued a recall of Raw Farm's Raw Milk after the CDFA found ''

'' bacteria in milk from a Raw Farm packaging facility. In August 2023, California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones issued a recall of Raw Farm's Raw Cheddar cheese products after ''

'' was found by the CDFA in a Raw Farm packaging facility. The Raw Cheese brand is made of whole raw milk. In October 2023, 19 cases of ''Salmonella'' were reported in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

counties in California, linked to Raw Farm's Raw Milk. The products were recalled by the CDFA. In February 2024, 10 people in the United States were infected with ''E. coli'' that had come from contaminated Raw Farm's Raw Cheddar. Four of the people who contracted ''E. coli'' were hospitalized, one of them developing

hemolytic uremic syndrome Hemolysis or haemolysis (), also known by several other names, is the rupturing ( lysis) of red blood cells (erythrocytes) and the release of their contents (cytoplasm) into surrounding fluid (e.g. blood plasma). Hemolysis may occur in v ...

. The

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

warned consumers not to buy the Raw Cheddar brand, while Raw Farm issued a voluntary recall the products. Raw Farm said none of their products had been found to have ''E. coli'' when they tested it. In November 2024, bird flu virus was found to have contaminated some of Raw Farm's Raw Milk sold in California. The company issued a voluntary recall of the affected products. The California Department of Public Safety said that no illnesses were found in conjunction with the batch, but warned consumers against buying the brand. In December, California suspended the distribution of Raw Farm's Raw Milk to halt the spread of bird flu.

References

{{Reflist Food safety scandals Farms in California Health in California Food recalls Disease outbreaks in the United States 2023 disease outbreaks 2024 disease outbreaks Raw foodism Fresno County, California Kings County, California