Raw Milk Entrepreneur Speaks at Conference

CHRIS TORRES
Staff Writer

QUARRYVILLE, Pa. — The debate on the benefits and risks of raw milk will surely go on for a long time to come. But for one California farmer, his decision is made up.

For 16 years, Mark McAfee helped save lives as a paramedic. He still believes he can save lives, but in a very different way. McAfee is the latest in a growing number of people who believe in the nutritious value of raw milk from grassfed cows.

McAfee traveled more than 3,000 miles to share his experiences at the Southeast Pennsylvania Grazing Conference here at the Solanco Fairgrounds Monday.

McAfee’s Organic Pastures farm, a 600-acre operation near Fresno, Calif. is the largest raw milk producer in the country. With more then 200 cows, the company’s produces raw milk, butter, cheese and other products. More than 300 stores in California carry Organic Pastures products. The company has 42 employees including 10 truck drivers.

McAfee had managed the family fruit farm since the 1980s and launched the dairy operation on it in 2000. It was hearing stories of people getting physically better from the consumption of raw milk that piqued his interest. “It’s all about embracing change,” McAfee said.

He and his family invested more than $3 million of their own money and loans to get the business off the ground.

Having worked in marketing for a number of years, McAfee used his skills to get “the message out to the people.” The company’s trucks are lined with messages on the nutritious value of raw milk products. He himself travels to meetings all over the country, spreading the word of raw milk and its benefits. “You take your product and your talk to people, face to face,” he said.

The countless hours of hard work seem to finally be beginning to pay off. McAfee said the company is now a $4 million company and is starting to turn a profit for the first time. He expects the company to grow by 25 percent each year for the near future.

The products the company sells are not cheap. A half gallon of the farm’s whole raw milk sells for $5 and a pound of raw butter sells for $10.50.
McAfee attributes the growth of his company to a growing demand of people who believe raw milk has essential properties that would otherwise be destroyed through the pasteurization process. He said it starts with the understanding that the human body needs “good” bacteria. This good bacteria, McAfee claims, comes from raw milk and is essential in strengthening a human body’s immune system, absorbing calcium and even treating some diseases such as asthma. “You’re drinking a living food that is really essential to life,” he said.

But it also comes from how the cow is treated at the farm. Unlike the traditional way of housing and milking his cows in a barn, McAfee developed a way to bring the barn to the cows in the pastures. The 70-foot long mobile barn, which could be mistaken for a mobile home by the way it looks on the outside, can accommodate 20 cows at a time. Tanks in the mobile barn chill the milk to 36 degrees Fahrenheit. When the tanks are full, the milk is taken to a separate dairy on the grounds of the farm.

McAfee said he came up with his mobile barn idea as a way to keep his cows in a natural setting, while allowing them to roam freely to reduce their stress. He points out that a cow’s stress level is a risk factor for developing harmful pathogens. “We wanted the cows to be in a green and clean environment,” he said. “Your cow can always move around to the next pasture.”

McAfee said he gets daily e-mails from people who have stated they have been cured of ailments due to the consumption of raw milk. He pointed to the story of a child that developed a serious ear infection and was given antibiotics, but the bacteria in the ear eventually started to resist his treatment. With few options, McAfee said the boy was given daily servings of raw milk. Within six to eight weeks, McAfee claims the boy’s health started to become normal again. “This was just natural whole milk acting in a child’s body,” he said.

But not everyone is sold.

John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Division of Dairy and Egg Safety, said in an Aug. 8, 2006 USA Today article on raw milk that drinking it is “like playing Russian roulette with your health.”

The article pointed out to a number of cases last year in which people allegedly got sick from raw milk products. In June, more than 58 people in Wisconsin reportedly got sick with Campylobacter jejuni from unpasteurized cheese curds. In January 2006, five people were reported sick with campylobacteriosis after drinking raw milk from a dairy in Larimer County, Colo. To date, 26 states allow the sale of raw milk for human consumption. Pennsylvania and New York are the only Mid-Atlantic states that allow it.

But McAfee claims raw milk is safe, pointing to a recent statistic that states after 32 million servings of raw milk in California, not one illness was ever reported. McAfee’s farms as well as another farm are the only two known raw milk farms in California. “You’re drinking a living food that is really essential to life,” he said. “There are lots of natural ways to work with Mother Nature.”