Build Immune System Strength With Whole Foods: Drink Raw Milk!

America invested $3 billion dollars and spent 13 years between 1990 and 2003 to figure out what makes us genetically human. The research project focused on discovery of the genes and genetic code that makes us what we are.  This work was funded by Congress and led by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The findings were not quite as expected.  

Our parents gave us each about 20,000 genes that give us our basic structure and shape. That was the easy part.  That is our “hardware”. However, the “software” that runs our human machine gets a little tricky. It becomes very complicated and even inconvenient.

Rob Knight, founder of the Center for Microbiome Innovation and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego, describes that,

“You’re more microbe than you are human.”

On a cellular level, we are only 43% human, with the balance of our cells being bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Genetically, our 20,000 human genes are vastly outnumbered by 2,000,000 to 20,000,000 microbial genes, which are mainly coming from bacteria. And most of these bacteria make their home in our gut.

At the cellular level, genetic information is shared between human cells and microbial cells. Genetic information is freely traded, exchanged and swapped around as an essential part of life and cellular function. The essential bacterial genetic information acts as “software” for the human cells, regulating the immune system, digestion, and manufacture of vital vitamins. This is how our human micro-biome functions.  

I like to say “we are Bacteriosapiens”.  What does this mean in real terms? How do we apply advanced science and use this information to better our lives? The bottom line is this:

We have great control over our optimal health.

We are not narrowly driven by the genes our parents passed to us. Those genes are important, but they are only a sliver of the genetics that truly drive our human machine. How we live our lives has tremendous impact on our microbiome and therefore our health. Were we breast fed, were we born by C-Section, did we receive heavy antibiotics early on? That’s just for starters. What we were fed as children and how do we continue to eat today? Don’t get into a guilt trip. That’s all old history. You can start fixing it today.

According to Dr. Anahid Jewett PhD at UCLA:

The healthy gut biome needs two things to reduce inflammation and keep you healthy:

• A load of biodiverse bacteria

• The whole foods that feed them

It comes down to nurturing our beneficial bacteria!  How do we get good bacteria to hang out, colonize our bodies, and become our very best genetic friends? How do we get and keep our genetic software so our human cells can make good decisions and keep us healthy?  Beneficial bacteria don’t hang around very long if we don’t offer them breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What nourishes our beneficial bacteria?  Whole foods do. What is a whole food? A whole food is a food that is unprocessed and complete. Nothing taken away and nothing added. Whole foods grow right out of good healthy soils which are teaming with earthworms, fungi, and bacteria. Whole foods come right out of the cow or straight from a well-nourished animal.

Americans don’t eat many whole foods. Instead we eat the Standard American Diet (SAD). In doing so, we starve and deprive our beneficial bacteria! In fact, we Americans love our antibiotics, pharmaceutical drugs, preservatives, sugar rich foods, long shelf life foods and GMOs. Highly processed foods and chemicals are destructive to our gut biome and the bacterial diversity required for genomic health. So what does that leave us? Its leaves us with “hardware and no software to drive it”. We become genetically inept at the cellular level.  We develop a whole range of diseases, including allergies, leaky gut, autoimmune disorders, depression, autism, and more. It’s really SAD.   

Nourishing and healing our gut microbiome requires moving away from processed foods and pharmaceuticals, and instead moving towards whole foods.

Raw milk, raw cheese, raw butter, raw cream and raw kefir are whole gut biome superfoods. They seed the gut with diverse beneficial bacteria, while providing the enzymes, proteins, minerals, and good fats that bacteria love to eat. They are whole foods with biologically active elements and protein systems that protect the gut, and build and maintain our immune system. They are the first foods of life!  Add fresh or fermented vegetables, grass-fed beef, chicken, eggs, and other direct-from-the-farm foods to make your bacteriosapien thrive!

Follow-on studies to the Human Genome Project continue today, including the Human Microbiome Project and the American Gut Project. It has become quite the clash of titans. The current medical and food processing establishments find this information to be extremely inconvenient. If bacteria are critical to life, then what are we doing with all the antibiotics? Sugars grow candida yeast and disrupt normal healthy bacterial colonization. Preservatives kill off bacteria in foods to extend shelf life and cause damage to the gut bacterial colonies. So does the widely-used glyphosate Round-up!

In the recent Coronavirus Pandemic, we witnessed lack of resilience in our gut biomes and immune systems.

While some people were not affected by Coronavirus others became deathly ill or worse.  We don’t know exactly why there was such a difference in these outcomes and pathways. We have been given a big hint, though: in general, COVID19 illness seriously affected those with compromised immune systems and poor health status.

New threats will continue to emerge. Viruses and bacteria continually evolve and adapt. Our immune system and gut biome must dynamically do the same. We must be adaptive and resilient to be able to address the ever present and evolving threats that will come to visit us. Will your immune system and genomics be up to the new threat?  Vaccines are always late, come after the fact, and don’t have the most effective track record. A healthy adaptive resilient immune system is with you and working all the time.

There is a long list of studies that confirm the health benefits of raw milk. These benefits include significantly fewer colds (which are viral illnesses), less asthma, fewer ear infections, reduction of eczema, less allergies, and stronger general health. These findings confirm that:

Those who eat a whole food diet and consume raw dairy products have more adaptive and resilient immune systems.

Get to know your bacterial self. You are not alone. Give your new best friends breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They won’t ever let you down if you feed them well.

Drink your raw milk and eat your whole foods! Cherish your new bacterial friends. They are the healthy you!

Avian Flu and Raw Milk: A Common Sense Approach

Breaking News!  There is a concern among dairymen and biosecurity experts about a multistate outbreak of avian flu that is affecting cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, and Idaho. Various Federal and state government agencies are using this cow illness outbreak as a stage to warn consumers against drinking raw milk. 

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in cattle this illness causes decreased lactation and low appetite, but the cattle generally recover without dying. Cows who have contracted this illness have recovered “with little to no associated mortality,” according to the USDA.

The press and media information released by the USDA and others warns against drinking raw milk from affected cows. They further state that pasteurization protects consumers from the illness.  

Raw Milk and Breastmilk are Very Similar

As a premed-trained dairy farmer who is a 12-year member of the UC Davis International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC), I have studied viral infections in cows and the immunologic and biomechanics of antibody creation.  Based on what is known about antibodies and raw milk, there are deep flaws in the warnings about consuming raw milk related to avian flu.  

Dr David Dallas PhD is an IMGC researcher who studies milk genomics. At the 2023 IMGC Symposium, Dr Dallas reported that raw milk from cows and goats is “qualitatively similar” to human breast milk.  However, “quantitatively” bovine raw milk and human breast milk have “different levels” of various milk components.  

This is why raw milk from cows and goats is so well-digested and compatible by human consumers. We can thus compare human mammals with bovine mammals in how mothers protect their babies. 

Mammals Protect Their Young Through Antibodies in Raw Milk

In 2004, the state of California Veterinarian visited our dairy to perform tuberculosis testing of our cows. He told me something I will never forget: “Mammals protect their young.”  

What he meant was that, in general, when a mother becomes infected by a virus or bacterial infection, she will produce antibodies in her raw milk that will provide her young with protection from the illness.  This is part of why breastfed babies are known to have stronger immune systems than babies raised on formula.  Antibodies in raw milk are one way that Nature assures the strength and survival of the next generation.  

The CDC readily acknowledges that mothers should continue to breastfeed their infants because “flu is not spread to infants through breast milk.” They know that breastmilk contains “antibodies and other immunological factors that can help protect her infant from flu.” Similarly, studies performed at the UC Davis dairy lab during COVID found that exposing a cow to coronavirus resulted in antibodies to coronavirus in her raw milk.  

These studies were a further confirmation of what doctors and the owners of Alta Dena dairy knew way back in the 1960’s: cows that have been exposed to illnesses create antibodies to the illnesses which are then passed through their raw milk.  Decades ago, Alta Dena dairy would purposely make immune milk for certain consumers and doctors by intentionally exposing cows to specific illnesses. This raw milk was used to help heal sick people.  Now the FDA does not allow this practice and threatens anyone who uses it with criminal charges. They consider it to be equivalent to creating a new drug without oversight, which is a crime in the USA under the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.  

Further back in history, it was observed that the milk maidens of the 1700-1800s did not catch smallpox because of their exposure to cowpox by being around dairy animals and drinking raw milk.

Common Sense Approach to Avian Flu in Cattle

The warnings against raw milk related to avian flu are clearly fearmongering.  The FDA acknowledges that “there is limited information available about the transmission of bird flu in raw, unpasteurized milk.” Then they go on to use the same fearmongering tactics they’ve been using for decades against raw milk, despite the fact that there is now ample evidence that raw milk can be carefully produced as a low-risk food.  

Conscientious raw milk producers already monitor their herds for illness and ensure that raw milk from unhealthy animals is not used for direct human consumption. Additionally, biosecurity measures such as maintaining a closed herd and quarantining any new animals are implemented.   

These are common sense measures that are already recommended by the Raw Milk Institute and used by diligent raw milk farmers. We have no reason to suspect that any further measures are necessary in the current Avian flu outbreak in cattle.  Mammalian milk is uniquely designed to protect and strengthen the immune system, and those systems will continue on as new threats arise.

FDA Demonstrates Bias Against Raw Milk in Unfounded Raw Cheese Recall

Government agencies in many countries have been biased against raw milk and raw dairy products for over a century.  This is true in the United States as well, even though Dr Henry Coit and the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions demonstrated that raw milk could be produced carefully and hygienically as a low-risk food all the way back in the late 1800’s.

Anti-raw milk smear campaigns and propaganda have been used continually to make people fearful of raw milk and raw milk products. In reality, raw milk can be produced as a low-risk food when farmers are trained and use careful production practices.

Of course, there is no such thing as a perfectly safe food, as evidenced by the ongoing illness outbreaks linked to foods such as cantaloupes, leafy greens, and chicken. Pasteurized milk is not perfectly safe, either, and is implicated in foodborne illnesses and outbreaks every year. For instance, in 2007, there was an outbreak of Listeriosis in Massachusetts which was associated with pasteurized milk.  Overall, there were five cases identified and three deaths occurred.

Nonetheless, only raw milk and raw milk products are targeted by government agencies as being unsafe.

My Family’s Farm is Being Targeted

In the latest example of anti raw milk bias, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently targeted raw cheese from my family’s farm (RAW Farm). On February 15th 2024, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the FDA urgently demanded to speak with us. We had 30 minutes notice for a call that was attended by about a dozen people from the CDC and FDA.

Our raw cheeses are sold nationally at over 1,300 grocery stores.  We were told that the CDC’s PULSENET database had associated 10 illnesses to our raw cheese products over the last 5 months. The CDC and FDA admitted that, out of these 10 illnesses, half of those who became ill denied ever having consumed our cheese.

Nonetheless, the FDA gave us two alternatives: either 1) voluntarily recall all of our cheese sold in the USA, or 2) they would force a mandatory recall of all our cheeses.

Our own internal tests performed on every batch of raw cheese were all negative for pathogens.  The state of California’s tests on our cheeses were also all negative for pathogens.  Nonetheless, we chose to fully comply with a voluntary recall of all raw cheeses within a specified date range. Although we needed a lot more information and answers to questions, out of an abundance of caution we recalled all of our cheeses on February 16th 2024. 

Searching for Answers to Many Questions

Over a 10-day period during our voluntary recall, we dug into the data to see what we could learn.  We were patient and did not comment, but instead we just collected information and considered every piece of data in our investigation.

We asked the FDA to provide the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) test data gathered by PULSENET. We conferred with experts from a testing lab who concluded that the WGS data was inconsistent from person to person and did not match as having a single cause. The CDC appears to have picked and selected data to match a narrative and ignored other data and date ranges. 

By February 25th, we had considered all the data from the FDA as well as mountains of internal test data and state test data. There was never any evidence that our cheese contained pathogens.

Clear Bias from the FDA and CDC

In handling this situation, the FDA broke their own rules in numerous ways.  They did not comply with their own Food Safety Modernization Act requirements or procedures. 

The timing of this whole situation was conspicuous considering that it was in the middle of a nationwide recall of pasteurized cheeses due to Listeria.  That outbreak is affecting 11-states and is associated with dozens of illnesses and two deaths. 

Additionally, on February 17th despite lack of evidence, FDA Director Dr Stic Harris posted on his personal LinkedIn page a photo of our cheese along with a warning that “While my personal opinion is you should never drink raw milk or eat raw milk products, you certainly don’t want to eat raw milk cheese linked to an ongoing outbreak.” Raw milk was never even involved in this recall, only raw cheese.  The bias against raw milk and raw milk products is clear.

The Accusations Were Baseless

It is clear from investigating all of the data that the FDA’s accusations against RAW Farm’s cheese were baseless. We stand with our consumers and our test data. The FDA can provide no evidence what so ever of any pathogens in any of our products.

As of February 26, we have now lifted our Voluntary Recall on our cheeses. You can read our full press release here:

Suffice it to say that as pioneers in the raw milk movement, we wage many battles.  Some are scientific, some are political, and some are educational. In this case, the FDA refuses to acknowledge science and is protecting themselves and big industry. They are demonstrating extreme political bias and continue to refuse to become educated about how raw milk can be produced as a low-risk food.

New Raw Milk Research From the 2023 IMGC Symposium

A Farmer’s Takeaways from the 2023 Symposium of the International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC)

“If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.”

Introduction

Well…I was in the right room at IMGC with a huge opportunity to learn and grow. Just like all prior years.

The 20th International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC) Symposium was held on September 6-8 2023. This was the 12th year that I have attended the IMGC Symposium. For the last several years, the Raw Milk Institute has been an official Bronze Level Sponsor of the conference. These conferences have taken me all over the world, including Cork Ireland, Quebec Canada, Aarhus Demark (twice), Sydney Australia, and UC Davis in California several times. I am nearly always the only farmer in the room filled with dairy processing scientists, PhD students, dairy science professors and university professors, and other milk researchers.

Over 12 years, I have made some great friends and created some important collaborations and alliances. I am approached by PhDs, especially after I speak at the microphone after a particularly engaging presentation that begs questions. They say things like, “Keep on asking those great questions!”  I am the only one that can ask those questions because everyone else would potentially lose their NIH or industry grants if they dared to asked those kinds of questions.

Time and interest are ushering in a new generation of open-minded PhD researchers, many of whom are women. They all want to talk about raw milk and its bioactive elements. Raw milk is truly a miracle of nature.  Being an event sponsor has allowed greater access to insider information about all things milk.  Below are my main takeaways from three intensive days of meetings, interactions, meals and dinner parties, and presentations in Cork Ireland at the University of Cork.

Raw Milk Institute was a Bronze Level Sponsor of the 2023 IMGC Symposium

Raw Milk Nourishes, Protects, and Directs

Raw milk is incredibly complex and perfectly designed to nourish, protect, and direct. We all know that raw milk is designed as the first food of life for babies to thrive and grow, yet as researchers continue to study raw milk, they discover many more benefits.

For instance, raw milk serves as a delivery system for immune-bioactive proteins. Peptides (which are chains of amino acid proteins) are protective of the baby by not allowing pathogens to cause illness. These functional proteins serve many roles, including protection of the baby.

Other specialized-proteins in breastmilk include natural mRNA, which provide the genetic information to direct cellular metabolic processes in the baby.  Breastmilk also contains stem cells for repair of damaged cells or tissues.

Raw milk also contains everything needed for its digestion. Raw milk has proteases, peptidases (for digesting proteins), lipases (for digesting fats), and bacteria that make lactase (for digesting lactose).

Additionally, when people drink milk, over time there are changes in the composition of the gut bacteria that make milk digestion easier. Lactase-producing bacteria found in the gut become the probiotic and as they feed on lactose, that becomes their selected prebiotic (food that bacteria chose to digest or eat). Over time the populations of these lactose-loving probiotic bacteria increase when they are fed lactose from dairy products.

The various milk proteins, immunoglobins, enzymes, fats and sugars are “qualitatively similar” between human breastmilk and cow milk. However, they are “quantitatively different” and appear at different levels and amounts in cow milk versus human milk. The same would be true for other bovine milks. The similarities are why humans can drink raw milk from cows, goats, and other animals. 

Milk’s Benefits Can’t Be Extracted

Many raw milk researchers are focused on finding ways to extract beneficial elements from raw milk. However, these elements are designed to work together with the full complement of many different macro- and micro- nutrients, enzymes, probiotics, etc in whole raw milk.

New products made with bio-actives extracted from raw milk will likely be met with suspicion, as well they should. The health benefits from whole, raw milk are the result of a complex interplay of bio-actives. Outside of the whole food matrix, those bio-actives are incomplete and not as effective as in their natural state.

Milk Fat is Essential to Its Beneficial Properties

Butterfat in milk is an essential part of milk’s overall beneficial properties. This fat is known to benefit brain development, immune system development, intestinal development, and the composition of the gut microbiota.

Butter fat globules are three-layer thick capsules that come in different sizes. The three-layered capsules are used by the gut as fiber; they also provide butyrate and butyric acids which are highly beneficial and healing to the lower gut. 60% of the bioactive elements found in raw milk are “carried on or inside” the fat globule. This says so much about skim milk, which has lost much of its beneficial value with the removal of the fat.

Researchers discovered that the fat globules in the milk are smaller in cows fed a high energy diet with high stress levels, such as cows being kept in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The smaller fat globules in the milk do not contain bacteria inside that could ride through the stomach to the lower gut.

In contrast, the fat globules are larger in cows fed a low energy diet and under low stress levels (such as cows in pasture-based operations).  These larger fat globules carry bacteria inside of them. It is thought that the fat cell may act as a protective carrier vessel to carry bacteria though the stomach acid environment into the lower gut where they may be beneficial.

Pasteurization Damages and Denatures Milk

Pasteurization damages milk such that it becomes oxidated, highly allergenic, and hard to digest. It is a common protocol to pasteurize milk up to 3 or 4 times to achieve longer shelf life and assure that the milk is completely dead, with no regard for the essential and beneficial bio-actives that are destroyed in the process. 

Raw milk contains everything it needs to digest itself. Raw milk contains enzymes and bacteria that help create more enzymes to digest raw milk and all the sub elements. Milk maldigestion has been over simplified. It is not just lactose; it is the proteins and fats that also need help with digestion.

After pasteurization the bioactive elements needed for milk to digest itself are missing! Fats, proteins, and sugars all need digesting, but their enzymes and digestive bacteria are denatured or dead.  Without active enzymes, digestion of fat (via lipase) and proteins (via protease) is inhibited. This results in maldigestion in some consumers. 

Whereas raw milk helps to build immune system strength, pasteurized milk does not build up the immune system. Heat denatures the functional proteins and does not allow cellular direction. This can result in cellular confusion and chaos.

Raw whey proteins are highly anti-inflammatory and have many health benefits. The raw whey health benefit findings are consistent with other researchers in the Netherlands, including Dr. Ton Baars’ research on whey proteins showing that they stabilize MAST cells, control histamine release, and reduce allergies.

However, all whey is required to be pasteurized in the USA as per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Whey proteins are destroyed by processing and are highly sensitive to heat. One researcher has been frustrated in trying to extract the beneficial components from pasteurized whey. The heating of whey makes the components “sticky” such that they plug up the ultrafiltration micropores. Therefore, ultra filtration cannot be used to extract whey components from pasteurized whey.

New Pasteurization Technologies Cause Less Damage Than Traditional Heat Pasteurization

As an alternative to heat-based pasteurization, researchers are studying other methods such as high pressure (HPP), ultrafiltration, and ultraviolet (UV) light. These methods are effective at inactivating bacteria and less harmful to milk than heat-based pasteurization. For instance, both high pressure processing and ultraviolet processing preserve some of the bioactive milk proteins better than heat-based pasteurization.

Nonetheless, milk processors in the USA are resisting the use of these new technologies. In some other countries, UV and HPP are being successfully used, but in the USA the FDA continues to represent processors’ interests and thereby block the ability to innovate with these alternatives to heat processing. This failure to innovate with HPP, UV or Ultrafiltration is creating a loss of consumer interest in pasteurized milk as people continue to suffer from maldigestion when consuming pasteurized milk.

In Studies, 20,000+ Kids Drank Raw Milk With NO Milk-Related Illnesses

The pioneering PARSIFAL and GABRIELA studies of more than 55,000 kids in Europe really set the international high bar for studies on raw milk. The overall findings included reduced rates of asthma, eczema, respiratory illnesses, fevers, allergies, and ear infections in children who drank raw milk.

At the symposium, it was emphasized that during all of those studies and over twenty years of research, there was never a “red flag event.” A red flag event would be a reported illness from raw milk consumption. The studies included data from more than 20,000 children who drank raw milk, and there was not a single red flag event!

Yet, at the end of each of the peer reviewed and journal published articles, there is a disclaimer that says something such as, “even though there are health benefits to consuming raw milk, the researchers can not recommend raw milk because of the risks of raw milk consumption.” This disclaimer was included because peer review and journal publication political pressures demanded it, despite the fact that there was no basis in the research data.

Dr. Markus Ege MD and Mark McAfee, in Cork Ireland at the IMGC symposium 2023

Raw Milk Provides Sustainability for Farmers and Superb Nutrition for Consumers

Farmers have been denied fair markets for their dairy products for more than a century. All of the value-added efforts are happening after products leave the farm. Milk processors continue to ensure that farmers are paid low prices for their milk, resulting in the loss of thousands of family farms. However, raw milk provides a pathway to sustainability and life satisfaction for dairy farmers.

Raw milk presents a unique farmstead product that brings all the added value back to the farmer with an incentive to work on quality. By selling directly to consumers, raw milk farmers are able to obtain greater financial rewards for their work, while consumers benefit from the improved flavor and nutrition. It’s a win-win for farmers and consumers!

Raw milk that is carefully and intentionally produced for direct human consumption is a low-risk food. This type of raw milk is wholly different from raw milk being produced in unhygienic conditions. Raw milk intended for direct human consumption is produced in sanitary conditions, with much care to ensure that the animals are healthy and that the milk is clean. This type of raw milk is tested often and held to rigorous standards to ensure that it is being produced in a way that discourages pathogen growth.

By combining nature’s blueprints, the bio-actives found in whole raw milk, standards for good production practices and modern testing systems, RAWMI Listed farmers are nourishing consumers safely. Congrats to all of the RAWMI Listed pioneers! 

New Raw Milk Research from the 2020 IMGC Symposium

Takeaways from a RAWMI Farmer

The 17th International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC) Symposium was held on October 13-16, 2020. This year’s conference was presented virtually, to an audience of more than 270 people from around the world. As a raw milk farmer and Chairman of the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI), this was the 10th annual symposium that I have attended.  

Through attending these conferences year-after-year, I have developed many close relationships with university and PhD scientists.  Although the virtual format didn’t allow much in terms of one-on-one connections and conversations with researchers, nonetheless there were many fascinating presentations this year.  

This year’s conference focused on health impacts of milk, with particular focus on immune health, gut microbiome, and breastfeeding in relation to COVID-19. You can see a complete list of all presentations here. There were several presentations related to raw milk which I want to share with the raw milk community.  

University of California-Davis

Loss of Allergy-Protective Capacity of Raw Cow’s Milk After Heat Treatment Coincides with Loss of Immune Active Whey Proteins

Ling Xiong, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands 

This study “aimed at achieving a better understanding of the underlying mechanism between heat damage to whey proteins and allergy development.” Raw milk has been correlated with anti-allergenic benefits, and heat-sensitive whey protein has been hypothesized to contribute to these benefits. In this study, “raw cow’s milk was heated for 30 min at 50, 60, 65, 70, 75, or 80 °C [122, 140, 149, 158, 167, or 176 °F]… The allergy-protective effect of differently heated milk samples were tested in a murine OVA-induced food allergy model.” 

This study “tested the various heat-treated milk samples for their native protein profile and their allergy-protective capacity... the allergy-protective effect of raw cow's milk is lost after heating milk for 30 min at 65 °C [149 °F] or higher. This loss of protection coincided with a reduction in native immunologically active whey proteins.” 

Heat treatment at 65 °C or higher destroyed allergy-protective capacity of raw milk in murine OVA-induced food allergy model. Xiong, et al.

The whey protein in raw milk provides protection from allergies, asthma, and inflammation.  When heated above 149 °F, these properties are dramatically reduced or eliminated. This finding is an important confirmation of the unique beneficial properties of whole, unprocessed raw milk. Raw dairy products such as cheese, butter, and strained yogurts would not be expected to have such strong anti-allergenic benefits because they do not contain whey. 

All across the world, when raw cheeses are made the raw whey is drained off and either discarded, used as a fertilizer, or fed to animals such as pigs.  Raw whey protein is arguably one of the most vital components in raw milk and it is literally treated as a waste byproduct. Some raw whey is made into powder and sold as a health product. Most of the whey protein powders on the market are not raw, but are highly pasteurized, spray dried, and oxidized. These widely available whey products no longer have the bioactivity found in the raw form.  

The new research on the anti-allergenic benefits of raw whey shows that, instead of being discarded, the whey left over from making cheese has great potential. Researchers called for innovation to bring raw whey protein to the market for the benefit of human health.  

B. infantis EVC001 Colonization in Breastfed Infants Modulates Cytokine Profile Linked to Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases

Bethany Henrick, Evolve Biosystems Inc., Davis, CA, USA 

This research at UC Davis has been studying the effects of Bifidobacteria infantis EVC001 on gut microbiome and immune health. “The intestinal microbiome plays a critical role in the development of the immune system…Stool samples were collected at Day 6 (baseline) and day 60 of life from exclusively breastfed infants (n=40) randomly selected to receive either 1.8 x 1010 CFU B. infantis EVC001 daily for 21 days starting Day 7 postnatal (EVC001) or breast milk alone (controls).

“Importantly, infants fed B. infantis EVC001 produced significantly decreased levels of [proinflammatory cytokines], while [beneficial cytokine considered to reduce autoimmune and allergic diseases] levels were significantly increased…

“These findings suggest a novel immunomodulatory function of B. infantis in breastfed infants… and further imply this strain of bacteria may [be]… critically important in the reduction of… autoimmune and allergic diseases.” 

The researchers have identified that Bifidobacteria infantis is critical to the training and development of T-Cells, which play a central role in the immune system. Historically, Bifidobacteria dominated the microbiome of breastfed infants. These beneficial bacteria actively train naive T-Cells into protective “Killer T-Cells.” This is foundational and is essential to the development of the newborn infant’s immune system. Under the current set of societal and nutritional conditions, Bifidobacteria in newborns are reduced due to limited breast feeding, use of baby formulas and antibiotics, and high C-section rates. This new research demonstrates that supplementation with Bifidobacteria is likely to improve infants’ immune systems. 

Image from Bethany Henrick’s Presentation at the 2020 IMGC Symposium

Evidence of a Significant Secretory-IgA-Dominant SARS-CoV-2 Immune Response in Human Milk Following Recovery from COVID-19

Rebecca Powell, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

Researchers studied breastfeeding mothers and infants during the peak of the New York City COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020. It was found that COVID-19 positive mothers did not transfer the virus to their babies. Tests of the breastmilk of COVID-19 positive mothers found that there is a strong “SARS-CoV-2 immune response [in the form of antibodies] in human milk after infection in the majority of individuals.” Breastmilk from COVID-19 positive mothers contains antibodies which can then confer protection against COVID-19 to their breastfed babies. Interestingly, the milk from COVID-19 positive mothers has been shown to continue to contain COVID-19 antibodies even months after the infection.  

This is one of nature’s protective gifts. Mammalian mothers protect their young through breast milk and antibody sharing. This important fact has also lead other researchers to consider the use of immune milk from cows as a therapeutic food.  It was hypothesized that, if cows were exposed to coronavirus during the last stages of pregnancy, the colostrum they produced after calving would contain coronavirus antibodies.  

My own RAWMI LISTED dairy (Organic Pastures Dairy Company) worked with IMGC and UC Davis researchers in early 2020 to test this hypothesis in a pilot study.  The cows were exposed to a bovine coronavirus in late pregnancy, and their colostrum and milk were then tested after calving. It worked! Antibodies to coronavirus were found in the colostrum and milk after calving. This study is now being expanded at UC Davis using their own cows. Further work needs to be done to better understand any potential impact of antibodies in milk on older children and adults, who do not have permeable guts like young infants do.  

Milk, Nose, Gut: Microbiomes in the CHILD Cohort Study

Meghan Azad, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada 

The CHILD Cohort Study (www.childstudy.ca) is a study of 3,500 Canadian families from pregnancy onwards to understand the developmental origins of chronic diseases. This study has shown that breastfeeding and vaginal birth are associated with reduced risks of childhood asthma and obesity. These beneficial effects appear to be partly mediated by the infant gut microbiome, which is seeded with beneficial bacteria in the birth canal as well as through breastfeeding. Current research is focused on understanding “how breastfeeding practices and breast milk components (including bacteria, fungi, oligosaccharides, fatty acids, hormones and cytokines) shape the developing infant nasal and gut microbiomes and contribute to health and disease trajectories.”   

Raw milk from other mammals has been correlated with many of the same benefits as human breast milk. Like breast milk, raw milk contains a wide array of essential nutrients, fats, proteins, anti-inflammatory and digestive enzymes, bioavailable vitamins, and minerals, all in a natural form which is most easily utilized by the body.  

Image from Meghan Azad’s Presentation at the 2020 IMGC Symposium

Difference in Levels of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein- and Nucleocapsid-Reactive SIgM/IgM, IgG and SIgA/IgA Antibodies in Human Milk

Veronique Demers Mathieu, Medolac Laboratories/University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA 

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts sought gain an understanding of the “presence and the levels of [COVID-19] antibodies” in breast milk. The researchers measured the amounts of various types of COVID-19 antibodies in breast milk samples from 41 women during the pandemic. They found that women who “had symptoms of viral respiratory infection during the last year” had higher levels of certain types of COVID-19 antibodies than women who had experienced no viral respiratory symptoms in the last year.  Heat treatment of the breast milk at 100°C (212 °F) for 30 minutes “completely inactivated” the antibodies. The researchers concluded that, “The presence of SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies in human milk could provide passive immunization to the breastfed infants.” 

This research has confirmed that antibodies are completely destroyed through heat treatment of milk. Breast milk must be raw in order to provide antibody protection to infants. This same science applies to raw milk from other mammals.

Closing Remarks

The symposium ended with closing remarks by Dr. Bruce German and Dr. Jennifer Smilowitz from UC Davis. They discussed two important upcoming needs in the community of scientific research about milk:

1. Defining breast milk as the keystone research target of 21st Century for the public research funding agencies of the world, and

2. Positioning food as the first line of defense for nourishment and therapeutics in emerging infections of public health impact. 

In other words, raw milk is considered to be the most important area of research going forward. This is because raw milk contains the bioactive genomic secrets of life, and to a large degree determines how well the immune system and gut microbiome will function. When the science of raw milk is better understood, human health will be improved and more illnesses will be prevented. 

In summary, this conference confirmed the following.  

• Raw milk is a whole bioactive superfood that nourishes and builds the immune system.

• Heat destroys the bioactive elements in raw milk that impart health benefits.

• Raw whey is a new market opportunity, yet innovation will be required because the FDA forbids sale of raw whey. Safe raw whey must be produced in the same ways that safe raw milk is produced.

• Raw breast milk provides protection against COVID-19 to breastfeeding infants. There is a need for more research into the immune-protective benefits of raw milk from other mammals.

Factory Farms vs. Sustainable Local Farms During COVID19

Milk is Being Dumped While Stores are Selling Out

Mother Nature has her ways of giving us advice. Sometimes that advice is subtle and sometimes it is brutal.  This time she was pretty direct, and she did not mix her signals.  Consolidated, centralized food systems have not been able to adapt to the rapid changes brought on by the COVID19 pandemic.

The Standard American Diet and its production, processing, logistics and delivery systems have failed.  American farmers that serve this highly consolidated food system are dumping 3 million gallons of milk per day; meanwhile American supermarkets are stripped clean of dairy products. The dairy processing industry which was previously supplying milk to schools and restaurants cannot rapidly adapt to bottling and delivering milk for retail sales.

For many years, the demand for fluid pasteurized milk has been dropping at a rate of ~1% per year. During this long decline, bottling plants have been closed and cheese plants have been opened. When America was asked to stay at home in response to COVID19, much of the food service industry was stopped, restaurants were idled, and schools were closed.

At home, kids wanted cereal and needed three meals every day. They wanted milk! The demand for milk raged upwards. Yet the supermarkets could not meet that demand. Panic-buying made matters even worse, with store shelves remaining sporadically empty for weeks, and even now milk is being rationed in many places.

Meanwhile, dairymen are dumping truckloads of milk. The market price of milk is dropping like a rock from $18 per hundredweight (CWT) to $14 CWT or even lower. The break-even price for dairymen is around $18-$20 CWT. Thus, dairies are continuing to fail at an unprecedented rate while stores are not able to meet the demand for milk.  It is an unmitigated disaster.

“Get Big or Get Out”

This is the 50 year old story of “Get Big or Get Out”. This philosophy of feeding the world and starving the American farmer was started in the early 1970’s by Earl Butz, who was Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon. Butz’s idea was that the most efficient farmers would overtake the smaller farmers, prices would drop, and supply would increase.

This structure concentrates power into the hands of a few aiming at cheap food for all, with an abundance which America would then export into the world markets. We would feed the world.  This design has become part of the America farm culture and has led to a massive decline in the number of dairies.  

Massive Decline in Number of Small Dairies

In 1940, America had over 4 million dairy farms. By the late 1990’s, that number had dropped to just over 100,000 dairies in the USA. Currently, there are only about 30,000 dairies left, and we are losing an additional 5% of dairies every year.   

According to USDA data, there has been a sharp decline in the number of dairies with 30-200 cows; meanwhile, the number of large dairy farms is increasing. From 1992-2012, “the number of dairy farms with at least 1,000 cows more than tripled.” One future-thinking dairy leader has projected that America will have only 100 dairies in 20 years. America would still have its 9+ million cows, but those cows would be contained in massive concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) with 90,000 cows each.

Consumer polls clearly indicate that consumers don’t want their milk coming from 90,000 cow massive CAFO operations. The environmental impact from large CAFO operations is devastating. The manure lagoons are the size of lakes and the smell is horrendous. There are no pastures. The feedlots go on and on forever!  This system has many flaws, and more of those flaws showed themselves to the world in the last 6 weeks during the COVID19 pandemic.

Consolidated Food Systems Lack Resilience and Adaptability

COVID19 has demonstrated that a consolidated food system fails the American public in times of crisis. Consolidated massive operations and their logistics can not adapt and they are not resilient. These operations cannot adjust to changing market conditions and they fail when the consumer demands change. The consolidated milk industry failed to meet the needs of Americans because it was not able to respond and adapt in the face of rapid change. Similar issues have arisen in consolidated vegetable industries and meat industries during this crisis.

The food chain stress test has been performed. The results are in and America’s big food systems have failed miserably.  This has become a serious threat to American national food security!

Food security is seriously jeopardized with milk going to just a handful of milk processors. That’s the future of “Get Big or Get Out” and it is smelly, ugly, and does not work to serve America. Additionally, with so much of this system relying on imports and exports, when countries close their borders, this system cannot function.

Consumer Connected Farmers Are Thriving

The local farmer-to-consumer system has also been tested during this time of crisis, and the results have been quite different. Farmers who sell directly to consumers are thriving. The comparison of this market to the CAFO-driven market is dramatic.  

Farmer–to-consumer sales are highly adaptive and resilient, because the farmers are connected to their consumers. They know and hear one another!  Farmers can adjust quickly to changes in consumer demand. During the COVID19 pandemic, many dairy farmers who sell directly to consumers saw a huge increase in the demand for milk. They were able to meet this demand by diverting milk which would have been used to make butter and cheese into bottled milk instead. Both the farmers and consumers benefited from this ability of the farmers to adapt to the changing demand.

Farmers who sell directly to consumers produce fresh foods which are unprocessed or less-processed. These fresh foods support and build immune systems through nourishing healthy gut biomes. Up to 80% of the immune system makes its home in our gut and is powered by a biodiversity of bacteria and the whole foods that feed them. These foods come from sundrenched rich soils and local ethical farmers that connect directly to consumers. This food system is thriving and growing.

In contrast, highly processed foods with long shelf life, which are filled with preservatives and antibiotics, are destructive to the gut biome. Consumers have begun to understand this.

Within the dairy community, farms such as cow share programs, micro dairies that produce raw milk, and dairies with their own processing plants have been able to quickly adapt and respond to the changing demand from consumers and stores. These food systems are responsive, adaptive, nutritionally rich, and economically alive.

You Vote With Your Food Dollars

America must make a decision about its fate. Food systems are very much a part of our America. Will America thrive, be resilient and adapt to threats? Will America continue to become even more economically, environmentally, and immunologically compromised and depressed? Or will America embrace smaller local farms who produce nourishing whole foods? Will America embrace disease-prevention and whole food nutrition? Will it build or suppress its innate and adaptive immune systems?

Each dollar spent on food directs America’s future. Where we direct our food dollars is a very personal question. Will we have healthy children or not?  Will we take personal responsibility for our own health with whole food nutrition or will we continue to vote for “Get Big or Get Out”?   

The food system stress test results are in. Let’s move beyond “Get Big or Get Out.”  Let’s invest in illness prevention with farm-direct local, unprocessed, whole foods that build our immunity. It’s a personal gut microbiome choice. Let’s adapt and become resilient. The alternative is a dead end.