Takeaways from AP's report on the push for raw milk intensifying

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Backers of raw milk are pushing to make the potentially dangerous product more widely available and easier to obtain, even as a new outbreak — one of at least five in the past year — sickens U.S. children.

More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, The Associated Press found. A growing number of states are making it legal to sell. Dairy farmers say they can barely keep it in stock.

Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House a year ago and previously promised to halt “aggressive suppression” of the product. Social media posts about raw milk have surged in recent months, often touting unproven claims about its health benefits.

All of this alarms public health officials, who have long warned that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs. The current outbreak — tied to raw milk cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm — has sickened nine people with E. coli, half of them children younger than 5.

Here are some key takeaways from AP’s report on raw milk.

Bills favoring raw milk have been introduced in the current legislative session in 18 states, including those controlled by Democrats and Republicans. AP searched legislation in all 50 states using the bill-tracking software Plural and analyzed bills for whether they expand or streamline access to unpasteurized milk or products made from it. More than 40 bills introduced as of late April would make it easier to buy, sell or consume raw milk.

Some would allow it to be sold for human consumption — something more than three dozen states have already done. Others seek to manage, guide or expand already legal sales.

National legislation is also being considered. A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House would prevent federal departments, agencies or courts from restricting the movement of raw milk between two states where its sale is legal.

Wider access will probably mean more outbreaks, said Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor.

Despite raw milk’s popularity, scientists and public health experts warn against drinking it. Websites run by the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to the well-documented risks of serious illness from a host of germs, including campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and E. coli.

A CDC review counted more than 200 outbreaks tied to raw milk that sickened more than 2,600 people and sent 225 to hospitals between 1998 and 2018.

Another analysis found that raw dairy products cause 840 times more illness and 45 times more hospitalizations than their pasteurized counterparts.

Children are especially vulnerable to such illness, because their immune systems are immature and because they drink milk frequently, noted Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator for the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin.

But adults can also get very sick.

Mari Tardiff, of Ashland, Oregon, was hospitalized for five months after drinking raw milk contaminated with campylobacter in 2008.

Doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barré syndrome, caused by her campylobacter infection. She spent time on a ventilator and was temporarily paralyzed and unable to talk.

“Your whole life is completely blown apart,” said Tardiff, now 70.

Proponents of raw milk are gratified that it’s becoming more available. Even in states where it can’t be sold in stores for human consumption, people can get raw milk marketed for pets or join a “herd share” in which consumers buy a partial ownership in a dairy herd.

Farmers who sell it say safety is key.

“My family and my wife, who’s currently pregnant, drink about a gallon of our own raw milk every single day,” said Ben Beichler, of Creambrook Farm in Middlebrook, Virginia, which relies on herd shares. “So if there’s anybody who has a vested interest in making sure our milk is safe, it is us.”

Beichler said his 150-cow farm works with a veterinarian on regular herd checks and has a multistep safety process that includes sending milk to food safety labs every week to test for common germs.

With raw milk gaining a foothold, people on all sides of the issue are now favoring regulation.

“It’s kind of like legalization of weed, right?” said Schaffner, the food safety expert. “If people want it, we should find a way to regulate it and do it safely.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.