A Raw Farm executive has reportedly been encouraged to apply for the FDA position

Mark McAfee, a California dairy producer who has been at the center of several bird flu-related product recalls, says Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s reform team. it has encouraged him to apply for a position at the Food and Drug Administration.

McAfee, CEO of Fresno-based Raw Farm, LLC, told The Times that he complied with the request and applied to become an “adviser to the FDA on raw milk policy and standards development.”

The recent raw milk recall was the result of testing positive for H5N1 bird flu among McAfee's cows. His farms have since been isolated, and the state has stopped all sales of milk and cream. Raw Farm has issued a voluntary recall of all remaining milk and cream products in stores.

McAfee's farm has also been involved in at least 11 cases stemming from a Salmonella outbreak that sickened 171 people in California, which occurred between October of last year and May of this year, according to Seattle-based food safety attorney Bill Marler.

Last month, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Kennedy to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

Kennedy has been an advocate for raw milk, and has criticized the FDA's policy of restricting interstate sales of the product. According to McAfee, Kennedy is a buyer and seller of Raw Farm milk.

McAfee said he has not been officially appointed to the advisory role. Indeed, Kennedy's nomination as director of HHS still needs to be confirmed by the US Senate.

The Times reached out to Trump's transition team and Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again groups for comment, but has not yet received a response.

McAfee is the nation's largest raw milk producer and cares for 1,800 dairy cows on two farms – one in Fresno, the other outside Hanford.

His raw dairy products include whole milk, cream, kefir and cheese — all of which can be sold in stores in California, but not across state lines.

However, FDA regulations do not apply to the pet food product line, which cannot be sold outside of California — even though there are warning labels noting that the products are not intended for human consumption.

McAfee is also president of the Raw Milk Institute, a raw milk education and advocacy organization designed to help farmers who wish to adopt raw milk production standards and practices.

In an interview with the Times two weeks ago, McAfee said that while he is happy for Kennedy to change the FDA's policy on raw milk, such a move needs to be done carefully and deliberately.

“I'm committed to making sure that whatever happens, it's not chaos, madness, or a free-for-all, but instead it's very constructive through farmer training and testing and high standards,” he said. “I'm very interested in the dedication to helping raw milk emerge as a wholesome, high-quality, healthy, amazing, sprouting, delicious food.”

He noted that in 2021, Montana lawmakers passed a “freedom to eat” law that allowed the illegal sale of raw milk and dairy products. Soon after that, people started getting sick.

McAfee said he got off the plane and met with raw milk producers and helped them establish standards that included training, testing and quality control.

For example, he noted that one dairy farmer was cleaning his milk buckets with chlorine, which McAfee said does not address grease and biofilms.

“It was dirty,” he said.

Instead, he showed farmers how to clean their equipment with hot water and soap.

“You have to have values,” she said.

McAfee's milk is highly regulated by the state of California, which regularly tests for foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella as well as other bacterial diseases in its milk.

He said that unlike normal dairies where the milk is steurized after it has been collected, he must check the cows to see if they are free of bacteria, and he said that he milks only disease-free cows.

He has an on-farm laboratory where he tests for Listeria, Campylobacter, Ecoli 0157H7 and Salmonella in his bulk tanks and cattle.

He said his cows are cleaned carefully before they are milked. And the milk is immediately placed in a rapid chiller that drops the milk's temperature from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to 35 degrees Fahrenheit in about two minutes, he said.

Then the milk stays at that temperature until it is delivered to the stores.

Still, experts say bacteria can still contaminate milk – even if it's found in sparkling clean breasts. The FDA, CDC and other health agencies say the public should drink only unpasteurized milk.

Since 2006, Raw Farm – formerly known as Organic Pastures Dairy Company – has been involved in 13 recalls, including three related to bird flu since last month.

Another recall was the result of bacterial contamination, including E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacteria and Salmonella. In some cases, people become seriously ill with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome – or kidney failure.

There was also a recent outbreak of Salmonella poisoning from Raw Farm raw milk, involving at least 171 people “many of whom were children,” notes a lawsuit filed by The Food Safety Law Firm, a Seattle firm owned by Marler, a food safety attorney.

When asked about whether McAfee might be tapped for the organization's food advisory role, Marler wrote in an email: “Clown Car.”

McAfee said that if he was appointed to an advisory role at the FDA, he would consider creating a certification program, such as those that exist for organic farming that include farmer education and training on raw milk production.

He also said he would look into changing the food credit laws, “where you can't get a million dollars from someone who has diarrhea for a week.”

McAfee said the government should consider raw milk and other food insurance programs, such as the USDA's crop insurance program that provides coverage for farmers whose fields and crops have been affected by drought, flood or fire – or the recent milk insurance program that provides money to dairy farmers whose herds are infected with bird flu.

“I would strongly recommend that all whole foods – including maybe vegetables, eggs, carrots, oh God, poor carrots – have food credit insurance … so that people can get that food, because right now, insurance or companies that say, 'Oh! you're on the naughty list so you don't have insurance anymore yours.'” he said.