Mark McAfee, the CEO of Fresno-based Raw Farm, has applied for an advisory role at the Food and Drug Administration. His dairy is at the center of a statewide raw milk recall.

Last Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health announced that it had secured a voluntary recall from Raw Milk LLC after the bird flu virus was found in its raw milk and cream products produced between Nov. 9 and Nov. 27. Amid the investigation, the CDPH detected bird flu virus within bulk milk storage and bottled products at Raw Farm's bottling facility, which has since been quarantined and suspended from new distribution of "raw milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese products." As of Monday, the Fresno farm, the nation's largest raw milk producer, remains under quarantine.

"CDFA dairy inspectors sampled milk from bottled products and bulk milk storage at Raw Farm's bottling facility on Wednesday, Nov 27, and laboratory test results made known on November 28 showed the presence of the bird flu virus," a spokesperson for the California Department of Food and Agriculture said in a statement shared with SFGATE. "All milk tested by CDFA remained at the Raw Farm plant and was not released to consumers."

Days after the recall, McAfee told ABC Action News that he applied for an advisory role to the Trump administration under the encouragement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who last month was selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. In October, Kennedy, who is a staunch proponent of raw milk, shared a post on X in which he threatened to fire FDA employees whom he accused of waging a "war on public health" and pursuing an "aggressive suppression" of raw milk, among other items listed.

McAfee told the Los Angeles Times he's excited for the change Kennedy could make toward the FDA's current strict stance on consuming raw milk.

"I'm dedicated to making sure that whatever happens, it is not chaotic, crazy, or just a free-for-all, but rather very constructive with farmer training and testing and high standards," McAfee told the Times. "I'm very interested in committing myself to helping raw milk emerge as a constructive, high-standards, healthy, wonderful, germinating, delicious food."

In 1987, the FDA prohibited the sale of interstate raw milk and opted for pasteurization, which can kill off harmful bacteria and viruses that include bird flu, salmonella, listeria, E. coli, and more. Since the FDA prohibited interstate raw milk sales, the agency said there have been 143 outbreaks that have included miscarriages, still births, kidney failure, and even death. Sales of raw milk are also regulated at the state level. In California, raw milk products can be found across major grocery stores that include Bristol Farms, Sprouts Farmers Markets and Erewhon Market, according to Supermarket News. But the products must include warning labels advising consumers of the risks. Nevertheless, an estimated 4% of consumers enjoy raw milk, according to an FDA study in 2016 and 2019.

In a Politico deep dive about raw milk earlier this year, the outlet reported that raw milk made a comeback around the early aughts as consumers moved away from processed foods amid the rapid rise of obesity cases. Whole Foods-shopping liberals and Democrats especially advocated for drinking raw milk, with proponents claiming that the product "contains probiotics, enzymes, and vitamins that are reduced, damaged, or made inactive by the pasteurization process," Politico said. But over the years, and once Whole Foods stopped carrying it in 2010, the unpasteurized product began gaining popularity with conservatives who aligned their political views with drinking raw milk in recent years.

According to Politico, the shift came during the global pandemic as conservatives became "increasingly skeptical of credentialed expertise" amid strict COVID-19 guidelines. Drinking raw milk was as political as resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine. In the words of Suzy Weiss of the Free Press, drinking raw milk consumption was a "way of breaking with convention and raging against the machine" that includes the "United States Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control, the FDA, doctors, PhDs, state regulators, and Big Dairy." Drinking raw milk has even become a sign of resisting government oversight. In June, far-right youth group Turning Point USA promoted drinking unpasteurized milk after it released T-shirts etched with the message "got raw milk?"

"The environment [in red states] has been more friendly to the concept of less regulation of consumer choice and letting consumers decide for themselves if they want access to this local food," Alexia Kulwiec, the executive director of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, told Politico.

To date, there have been no reported human bird flu illnesses linked to the recent contamination. Yet it's not the first time Raw Farm products have been recalled. Twenty-two people were hospitalized and 171 people became ill with salmonella from Raw Farm products from September 2023 to March 2024, according to Bay Area News Group. The outlet also reported that in 2011, three children who drank Raw Farm were hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure.

SFGATE reached out to Raw Farm for comment but did not hear back by publication.