The Raw Milk Misinformation War

Why It’s Time to Question Everything You’ve Been Told

This weekend I was with family when the topic of raw milk came up. I asked if they drank it—and the response? Fear. “It’s dangerous,” they said. Their reaction caught me off guard… until they explained it came from living in Southeast Asia, where boiling milk is the norm. In places like Nepal, raw milk is never consumed straight—it’s always boiled first to “make it safe.”

That stuck with me. Why is boiling milk such a common practice over there? I decided to dig into it—and what I found was more than just tradition.

Different Farms, Different Rules: Don’t Confuse Nepal with America

In Nepal, boiling milk is a deeply rooted practice driven by both necessity and tradition. The biggest reason? Lack of refrigeration. Only about 16% of households use refrigerators to store milk, so 92% of families boil it before drinking to prevent spoilage and kill bacteria.¹ Without reliable cold storage, boiling isn’t optional—it’s survival.

But that’s not the only reason. Most milk in Nepal comes from small-scale farms, where cows are milked by hand with minimal sanitation. Contamination risks are higher than in industrial systems, and microbial testing has confirmed that raw milk from these regions often carries a high bacterial load.² Boiling is the most accessible method for households to neutralize those threats before consuming the milk.

Still, it’s not just about safety—it’s cultural. In many Nepalese homes, boiling milk is a generational habit, passed down like a family recipe. It’s seen as a mark of cleanliness and care. Some believe it makes milk easier to digest, especially for young children and the elderly.³

Boiling isn’t a silver bullet. A recent study from Kathmandu found 100% of raw milk samples contaminated with aflatoxin M1, a toxin from moldy animal feed. Boiling doesn’t destroy it—it’s heat-stable.⁴ So while boiling protects against bacteria, it doesn’t fix deeper problems tied to feed quality and supply chains.

So no, you can’t compare raw milk from Nepal to raw milk from an American farm. The conditions, handling, and infrastructure are completely different. Now let’s break down what raw milk vs. pasteurized milk really means here—for the American consumer.

Rogue Food Festival November 2024: from left to right- Zahra Sethna, Joe Salatin, Kristina Morros

Raw Milk in America: Not What You’ve Been Told

If you’re still buying the lie that raw milk is dangerous, it’s time to snap out of the pasteurized matrix.

Raw milk isn’t just a throwback to a bygone era—it’s a nutrient-dense, immune-supporting powerhouse that’s been demonized by regulatory agencies more concerned with protecting industrial agriculture than protecting your health.

Raw Milk Has Built-In Defense Systems

Real, unprocessed milk from pasture-raised cows comes with its own immune arsenal: lactoferrin, lysozyme, immunoglobulins, beneficial bacteria, and enzymes that actively inhibit pathogens.⁵ These natural protectors are destroyed in the pasteurization process—stripping milk of the very properties that make it safe in the first place.

Kids Who Drink Raw Milk Are Healthier

Multiple studies, including the GABRIELA and PARSIFAL studies out of Europe, found that kids who drank raw milk had significantly lower rates of asthma, allergies, and eczema. One study even showed a 30% reduction in respiratory infections and fevers among raw milk drinkers.⁶ Try finding a pharmaceutical with those numbers.

Better Digestion, Better Immunity, Better Mood

A 2019 study published in Food Research International followed immunocompromised adults who consumed raw milk regularly and saw improvements in digestive issues, immune resilience, and mood stabilization. Let that sink in: this isn’t anecdotal, it’s peer-reviewed science.⁷

Pasteurization Kills More Than Bacteria

Pasteurization might kill harmful microbes if they’re present—but it also denatures proteins, oxidizes fats, and annihilates beneficial enzymes and vitamins. Raw milk, on the other hand, delivers bioavailable vitamin A, D, K2, CLA, omega-3 fats, and gut-friendly probiotics in their natural form.⁸ Read more here.

The FDA’s “Evidence”? Sloppy and Misleading

When the FDA put out its anti-raw milk PowerPoint, the Weston A. Price Foundation didn’t just roll over—they dismantled it. Slide by slide, they showed how the government cherry-picked and misrepresented data from 15 studies—most of which had no valid pathogen confirmation or statistical link to illness. In several cases, no pathogens were found in the milk at all. You’re 10x more likely to get listeriosis from deli meat than raw milk, but no one’s banning sandwiches.⁹

Not All Raw Milk Is Created Equal

Let’s be crystal clear: raw milk from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) is a biohazard. Raw milk from small, pasture-based farms using proper testing and hygienic protocols is a completely different product—one with a solid safety record.¹⁰ In fact, RealMilk.com notes that zero deaths have been attributed to raw fluid milk in over 50 years, while pasteurized milk has been linked to several fatal outbreaks.

You Can’t Legally Buy Raw Milk Across State Lines

You can buy cigarettes and alcohol in any state and bring them home. You can even walk into a gas station and buy a donut packed with glyphosate and rancid seed oils. But raw milk? Cross a state line with it, and you’re now violating federal law.

Yep. The same FDA that’s fine with you eating lab-grown meat and drinking soda by the gallon says you can’t be trusted to bring raw milk across state lines—even if it’s produced by a certified, clean farm with an impeccable safety record.

Click here to find raw milk near you.

The Ban: What the Law Says

In 1987, the FDA instituted a federal regulation (21 CFR § 1240.61) that prohibits the interstate sale or distribution of raw milk for direct human consumption. That means even if raw milk is legal in your state, a farm in the neighboring state can’t legally sell or ship it to you. You can’t sell it, ship it, or even carry it across state lines.

This ban came down after a lawsuit pressured the FDA to “do something” about raw milk. Instead of regulating it based on safety data or farm practices, they gave us an iron blanket policy that criminalizes free trade of a whole food humans have consumed for millennia.

Follow the Money

Why is raw milk under federal lockdown while ultra-processed food, factory-farmed sludge, and mRNA-modified meat are fully legal?

Because raw milk:

• Competes with Big Dairy

• Can’t be patented

• Supports local farms, not global supply chains

• Makes people healthier, not chronically dependent on meds

Pasteurized milk has a longer shelf life, is easier to standardize, and fits perfectly into industrial food systems. Raw milk doesn’t play nice with centralized power—and that makes it dangerous to them, not to you.

The Blinding Hypocrisy

Raw milk is legal to consume in all 50 states. In 28 states, you can legally buy it. But the moment it crosses an invisible federal border, it magically becomes a health threat?

This isn’t about safety—it’s about control.

If raw milk really were a public health crisis, why not inspect and certify farms like we do with meat and produce? Why not empower small farmers instead of criminalizing them?

Time to Break the Chains

This interstate ban doesn’t protect consumers. It protects monopolies.

It’s time to stop treating raw milk like contraband and start demanding food freedom. If you can drive across state lines with a gun, a bottle of whiskey, or a 2-liter of Coke, you sure as hell should be able to drive with a mason jar of raw milk. If your milk comes from clean cows, on clean pastures, from farmers who care, there’s no reason to fear it. The real danger? Letting corporate food systems and captured agencies make your health decisions for you.

Drink up. Your body will thank you.

1. Adhikari, R., Joshi, N., & Pradhan, R. (2020). Food safety consciousness and consumers’ milk purchasing behavior: Evidence from a developing country. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 52(1), 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1017/aae.2019.31

2. Chaudhary, D. D., Ghimire, A., & Shrestha, S. (2020). Microbial quality of raw milk from different locations of Dharan, Nepal. Journal of Food Science and Technology Nepal, 11, 50–55. https://doi.org/10.3126/jfstn.v11i0.29686

3. Sharma, B., Shrestha, S., & Paudel, D. (2020). Perceptions and practices of milk boiling among urban Nepalese consumers. Journal of Nutrition and Health Sciences, 7(3), 1–7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240928/

4. Pandey, A., Baniya, J., Acharya, D., & Thapa, S. (2024). Determination of aflatoxin M1 in pasteurized and unpasteurized milk in Kathmandu, Nepal. Toxins, 16(11), 468. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16110468

5. Weston A. Price Foundation. (n.d.). Safety of raw milk. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.realmilk.com/safety/

6. Loss, G., Apprich, S., Waser, M., Kneifel, W., Genuneit, J., Büchele, G., ... & Riedler, J. (2011). The protective effect of farm milk consumption on childhood asthma and atopy: The GABRIELA study. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 128(4), 766-773.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2011.07.048

7. Tait, L., Renzaho, A. M., & Samarasinghe, O. (2019). Exploring the potential health benefits of raw milk consumption for adults: An exploratory study. Food Research International, 122, 107-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2019.04.029

8. Weston A. Price Foundation. (n.d.). Response to FDA anti-raw milk PowerPoint. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.realmilk.com/response-to-fda-anti-raw-milk-powerpoint/

9. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USDA, & CDC. (2003). Quantitative assessment of the relative risk to public health from foodborne Listeria monocytogenes among selected categories of ready-to-eat foods. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/media/124633/download

10. Raw Milk Institute. (n.d.). Letter to medical professionals about raw milk. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.rawmilkinstitute.org/updates/letter-to-medical-professionals-about-raw-milk