By Sabrina Siddiqui
Mark McAfee, chief executive of Raw Farm, the country's largest raw milk producer, got an unexpected text last year from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposing a conversation about raw milk once FDA Commissioner Marty Makary was confirmed.
The meeting never happened.
In the months that followed, McAfee said, his outreach to the health secretary went unanswered. Kennedy, who once took shots of raw milk at the White House alongside a wellness influencer, stopped publicly championing the product. His department hasn't taken steps to expand access or roll back longstanding federal warnings against its consumption.
"He's unresponsive to me in my best attempts," said McAfee. "I think he's allowing the old protocols to just keep on grinding through."
Kennedy's silence on raw milk underscores a growing disconnect between his Make America Healthy Again agenda and his record in office, some of his supporters say. While he has embraced high-profile cultural flashpoints such as vaccines, some allies view Kennedy as reluctant to engage other thorny elements of the MAHA movement's wish list, including efforts to loosen restrictions on raw milk and on alternative health products.
Before taking office, Kennedy promised to end what he dubbed the Food and Drug Administration's "aggressive suppression" of raw milk and other natural products and therapies. His recent social media activity has instead promoted whole milk, a politically safer choice that has support from some in the public health community.
Kennedy and his team have made it a habit not to discuss raw milk recently to avoid talking about "weird stuff," said a person familiar with the secretary's thinking.
The FDA has long warned against consuming raw, unpasteurized milk, citing risks of dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, listeria and E. coli that can lead to severe illness or, in rare cases, death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that consuming raw milk "can lead to serious health risks, especially for certain vulnerable populations," and encourages people to choose pasteurized dairy products.
That public guidance remains intact under Kennedy, who has said he only drinks raw milk. Federal law also still prohibits the sale of raw milk across state lines because of outbreak risks, though it remains legal to sell in more than half of U.S. states.
"The FDA under Secretary Kennedy for the first time in many years is responsive to the aspirations of Americans to take back their health," said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon. "Although some people suffering from food intolerances find raw milk to be the type they digest better, it can be a source of foodborne illness, and the CDC advises that pasteurized milk is the safest choice."
Proponents of raw milk say that pasteurization, a heating process that kills harmful bacteria, removes natural health benefits and that warnings around the consumption of raw milk are overstated. They point out that pasteurized milk has also been linked to outbreaks, although many scientists say raw milk is associated with a higher occurrence of foodborne illnesses.
The FDA is currently investigating a continuing E. coli outbreak among people who reportedly consumed dairy products from McAfee's Raw Farm, which voluntarily recalled some varieties of its cheddar cheese made from raw milk after initially resisting doing so. Citing a lack of evidence, McAfee said he texted Kennedy seeking help with the matter but received no response.
Aaron McAfee, the president of Raw Farm and Mark McAfee's son, denied their products were the cause of the outbreak. He said raw milk advocates, including his company, have urged the FDA to create a set of federal standards to ensure raw milk safety nationwide.
"There's a complete vacuum of leadership at the federal level," he said. "And I'm not calling this Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s problem. He's a supporter, that's great. I'm talking about the FDA."
Nixon said the FDA has engaged with stakeholders, including the McAfees, on raw milk.
Judith McGeary, executive director of the advocacy group Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, said that, despite the investigation into Raw Farm, the FDA under Kennedy's watch has been less involved in litigating access to raw milk at the state level, where much of it is regulated.
"They haven't turned around and started promoting it, but they certainly have stepped away from aggressive attacks on raw milk," said McGeary.
Some raw milk advocates say they have noticed Kennedy's messaging on dairy pivoted toward encouraging full-fat products and restoring whole milk to school lunches. That is a shift that reverses decades of guidance but is seen as less controversial than raw milk.
The government's push for whole milk followed President Trump's signing a bipartisan bill that rolled back Obama-era limits requiring federally subsidized school meals to offer only low-fat or fat-free milk because of concerns around high cholesterol and obesity.
"It doesn't placate the raw milk group but it placates the people who want whole food in their life," said Hubert Karreman, a dairy farmer in North Carolina who has testified about raw milk safety to state legislatures.
Karreman said he doesn't think Kennedy has forgotten about raw milk and has simply had more pressing issues before him. But he would like to see the CDC be "more balanced in how they present raw milk" under Kennedy's leadership.
"It's kind of a safe lane that they chose to go with," he said.
Write to Sabrina Siddiqui at sabrina.siddiqui@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2026 19:00 ET (23:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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