Right-Wing Raw Milk Trend Going Just As Well As Expected

Dozens of people have gotten sick with salmonella.

Louis Pasteur

Back in 1864, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur invented a process now known as pasteurization — heating foods in order to kill harmful bacteria that can make people sick. It was a pretty helpful invention, at least for those of us who prefer to be able to enjoy our food without possibly dying.

And you might think that “those of us who prefer to be able to enjoy our food without possibly dying” is a group that would include practically everyone, but no! Ever since COVID, right-wing interest in “things that could make you sick or possibly die” seems to have skyrocketed. Of particular interest has been “raw milk.” They now like drinking raw, unpasteurized milk, which they believe has magical powers far superior to that of regular milk. They have continued drinking raw milk in spite of, or perhaps because of, health officials warning that it could contain bird flu.

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As it turns out, around 165 people did get very sick from raw milk earlier this year, though not because of bird flu. Rather, they all got salmonella, which seems like the kind of thing one might expect when one drinks milk filled with bacteria.

Via AP:

As of February, at least 165 people were sickened with salmonella infections tied to products from Raw Farm, of Fresno, California, according to the records. It is the largest reported salmonella outbreak linked to raw milk in the U.S. in the past decade, according to health officials. […]

Investigators matched samples from sick people to samples from the farm and a retail store, the documents said. More than 60% of the people with confirmed infections who were interviewed reported consuming Raw Farm products. People from four states were infected, though the vast majority — 162 — were from California. Four of the people with salmonella were also infected with campylobacter and/or dangerous E. coli bacteria, the documents said.

Mmmm! Virus-y bacteria milk!

I’d like to note here that the interstate sale of raw milk is actually illegal, thanks to the work of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. (Nota bene: You don’t see moderate Democrats guzzling raw milk — or refusing to wear seatbelts — just to spite Ralph Nader, do you? No, you don’t. Because that is a very strange way to react to disliking someone or even to disliking regulations.)

In April, Media Matters published a rundown of some of the more wacky things right-wing commentators were saying about raw milk and its magical properties.

“So now that more people are going to local farms and farmers' markets, and consuming raw milk, this angers the FDA. This angers Big Milk,” Infowars host Owen Shroyer said on his show back in April, adding, “Say, ‘No, you need to pasteurize milk, it’s a lot less healthy for you.’ See eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They'll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”

“Raw milk + heavy metal detox with herbal tinctures= I do not have seasonal allergies for the first time ever this season,” said Gab CEO Andrew Torba.

“Raw milk, grass-fed, organic meat, and other foods produced the way that food has been produced for thousands of years, outside of corporate environments, have been shown time and time again to not just have the ability to improve our health, but even in some cases to reverse serious health issues that are induced or exacerbated by our disgusting, poisonous food supply,” said far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters back in March.

All of this is absolute nonsense, by the way. Why on earth would “Big Milk” go through the process of pasteurizing milk when they could just sell it as is, if it were perfectly safe? What would be the point of that? To what end? Making people less healthy? Does salmonella and bird flu make anyone healthy?

Now, lots of us take risks with our food. I eat oysters, practically live on Caesar salad, get my steak medium-rare and my eggs over easy. Clearly, I live on the edge. But I’m also not claiming that eating these things have magic, allergy-erasing powers (don’t I wish!) and I do not specifically try to go out and eat oysters or romaine lettuce when the CDC has put out a warning to not go eat those things because they have been tainted.

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It would be one thing, however, if it were just adults risking their lives to totally own the libs/health officials. Clearly, it’s worth it to them and I actually really don’t care what people eat or drink so long as they’re informed and aware of the risk. (Although contracting bird flu would put others at risk as well, so that’s not really okay.)

However, 40 percent of those who got sick from the raw milk from that farm were children under the age of five. So it’s not as though these people are just hurting themselves, they’re also hurting children who are unable to meaningfully consent to drinking the salmonella milk and are also more likely to get food poisoning than adults.

If you have to do something stupid out of spite, at least make sure that the people you’re hurting are your intended targets. I’m not sitting here worried and upset that some wingnut somewhere is spending the day with their head in the toilet. I’m not the one being hurt, neither is the CDC or the FDA — but their own children very well could be. That doesn’t sound like a very good revenge plan to me.