Anna Merlin

My name is Anna Merlin, and I'm a senior reporter at Mother Jones covering disinformation, extremism, and technology.

There is definitely an increasing interest in raw milk, especially the idea of increased raw milk legalization and selling raw milk across state lines, which I think even under the second Trump administration and RFK is not...

Super likely, the FDA has enforced their ban on the interstate sale of raw milk since the 1980s.

But there is a bill out there in committee right now.

And there's also tons of bills at the state level to continue making raw milk even more accessible in various states.

There are like 40 plus bills across 18 states that have to do with, you know, raw dairy, raw cheese.

Oklahoma just passed one.

Raw milk is legal to some degree in 43 states, but it varies really widely.

So in some places like California, where I live, you can go to the store and buy raw milk.

In other places, you can access it through what's called a herd share, which is a legal agreement where

Consumers have access to a milking animal or a herd and they can buy or get the milk directly from the farmer.

In other places, raw milk is only legal as pet food.

But, you know, obviously there's nothing stopping people if they really insist on it from buying and drinking milk labeled as pet food.

Yes, I imagine you did because you're in D.C.,

Yeah.

So D.C.

is one of the places where raw milk is illegal.

Rhode Island, I believe it is totally illegal, except I think you can get raw goat milk with a prescription from a doctor.

It's also illegal in Hawaii.

But yeah, most places in the U.S., you're going to be able to get raw milk in some form.