It's illegal in Florida to sell raw milk for human consumption, but why are more people drinking it?
MIAMI – The raw milk trend is gaining momentum across South Florida and much of the country. It can be found at multiple Miami-Dade and Broward farmers markets, with signs clearly marking it's not for human consumption due to state law.
However, that does not mean people aren't drinking it by the half gallon and gallon.
"For me, it's the taste," Genevieve Lopez told CBS News Miami at one farmers market. "It's the taste and how it makes me feel."
At another farmers market, Jennifer Acosta had a similar thought.
"Yeah, it's helping me a lot with brain fog," she said. "I had a lot of issues with hormones and thyroid and ever since I started eating animal-based diet, especially raw milk, and raw dairy, I started helping me feel better."
Angela Donisi just started drinking raw milk in recent weeks. CBS News Miami asked her what it tasted like.
"It's delicious, actually," Donisi said. "It tastes … it tastes pure and clean."
Why is raw milk so popular?
Mark McAfee, the founder of one of the largest raw milk producers in the world, said sales have grown 50% year-over-year for the last three years. He is also the founder of the Raw Milk Institute, an organization whose mission is to improve the safety and quality of raw milk.
"To see raw milk growing, as juxtaposed to pasteurized milk, is quite a phenomenal thing, especially when raw milk is so much more expensive than pasteurized milk," he said.
McAfee went on to claim the reason why raw milk is growing is because it "literally changes people's lives."
He said the reason raw milk is better for the human body is because it does not undergo the heating process in pasteurization.
That heating process kills harmful bacteria in milk, but he said it also eliminates a large part of the drink's benefits. McAfee pointed to research from Cornell University that suggests bioactives in raw milk led to improvements in our immune system, blood pressure and bone health.
"It's delicious, it builds your immune system, it decreases all of these other risks," McAfee said.
Is it safe to drink raw milk?
Despite perceived benefits, top U.S. health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have long been against drinking raw milk.
"Since 1987, there have been 143 reported outbreaks of illness, some involving miscarriages, stillbirths, kidney failure and deaths associated with consumption of raw milk and raw milk products that were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria such as listeria, campylobacter, salmonella and E. coli," the FDA said.
But that stance by the federal government could change with time.
McAfee said President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., not only drinks raw milk but vowed to shake up food regulations.
"With RFK in charge of the at the HHS, the Health and Human Services over the top of the NIH, CDC and FDA, which allows for research on raw milk, cause right now research is banned," he said. "And with that there will be new standards established at the RMO, the Raw Milk Ordinance and those standards will be the best in the world."
It's illegal in Florida to sell raw milk for human consumption
It is illegal in Florida to sell raw milk, except as pet food. At the farmers markets visited by CBS News Miami, signs were clearly posted, letting customers know the milk is not for human consumption. But in 2023, Jimmy Patronis, chief financial officer of Florida, signaled his support for the industry.
What do Floridians think of raw milk?
Kelsey Gemmill, a registered dietician in Florida, said raw milk is a hot topic with her clients.
"I think, of course, more research is beneficial, but I will make the argument we, we kind of already know that pasteurized dairy is really safe and it's one of the biggest and best public health initiatives that we've had in this country that keeps people safe and keeps our food supply safe," she told CBS News Miami.
For Lopez, her raw milk purchases come down to family. For her father, it reminded him of the milk he drank growing up in Cuba. It was also about caring for her son.
"I have a special needs son, and when I began giving him the raw milk, he just had, what do you call it… spontaneous speech, and he told me that he loves his protein shake now," she said.
Back at the farmers market CBS News Miami visited, Acosta had this to say: "If you're scared of giving it to your kids, you know, try yourself don't be afraid, get it from a clean source try it for a week, give it a try and see what it does to you and then like I, I took it for like a couple of months before giving it to my kids."
