For twenty years the entire raw milk community has been preaching about the immune system benefits of raw milk and raw dairy products. The FDA and CDC has suppressed us. Mainstream media has scorned us. Industry has done everything possible to make sure that raw milk is cut off in the markets, in the legislature, in the courts.  Most consumers have ignored the lessons and incessant efforts to teach and share. That’s been our struggle and our reality.

All the while, conscious farmers persistently responded by connecting directly to conscious consumers by doing whatever was needed to feed and nourish their small but growing core market group. Laws slowly changed, cow shares were formed, brands were founded, raw milk markets were developed, trucks were purchased, and store shelves began to sell raw milk where it was legal. All the while we have struggled to grow and educate the greater raw milk leery public even though our milk was safe and delicious. The public has been in a trance, far too busy eating highly processed foods, sugary foods, and visiting doctors for more and more antibiotics when they got sicker and sicker. That party is over!

The monster of immune depression and chronic illness just tripped the tipping point. It just got real. Nature said ENOUGH.

All of the teaching and all of the lessons, all of the research and all of the EU studies are now at the top of the GOOGLE search and they are shining through. The barriers to learning have been lifted by emotions and panic driving us into the arms of the truth: Doctors cannot provide the solution to our immunity or gut status. Pills and shots are not food. Only foods build immune and gut biome system strength. In fact, going to a hospital or a doctor is the worst place to go. That’s where all the sick people are! The solution is on the farm with unprocessed whole natural foods.

It’s “Farmers over Pharmacies” time. It is well established in the EU that 80,000 kids who drink raw milk share the same immune system benefits including: far fewer colds (virus based), fewer ear infections, less asthma and allergies, fewer fever events, and they are just plain healthier. These are the signs of a strong, resilient, adaptive, and functioning innate immune system that is on duty all of the time, year in and year out. It all begins in the gut with a biodiversity of bacteria and the whole food that feeds them. The gut forms 80% of the immune system with the gut biome and virome.

This last few weeks have taught us critical lessons. We now can see how resilient our local food systems are. We can also see and experience how backlogged and choked off our large big-box superstore industry systems are. Empty store shelves and panicked consumers.

At Organic Pastures Dairy Company (OPDC), we operate 20 of our own trucks to deliver to 400 stores across California. We are able to respond and adapt immediately to serve stores and customers. Here are the lessons of the coronavirus crisis thus far:

1. Consumers are demanding raw milk and other raw diary products to feed their families and build their immune systems.
2. Orders are many times higher than 60 days ago, a store that normally takes $1200 per week of product is now wanting $7500 per week and asking for more in three days.
3. The highways are wide open and traffic is clear. Our trucks are able to deliver to many more stores each day because there is no traffic delay. Can you imagine Los Angeles traffic wide open with no traffic jams?!
4. Fuel for our trucks is becoming less expensive. No one is driving and fuel is abundant and cheap.
5. The entire dairy case is stripped clean in many stores. But now the dairy case managers are stocking a large part of the shelves with OPDC products because there is a scarcity of the rest. Orders for pasteurized dairy products are backlogged in the over-stressed industrial food systems that are consolidated and centralized.
6. Consumers seeing the OPDC brand are grabbing raw for the first time and reading about the benefits of raw. Then they taste it and they love it.
7. Dairy case managers are strongly encouraging raw milk based on the testimonials from established OPDC consumers.
8. UPS orders are going crazy with farm shipments directly to homes.
9. This is an inflexion point with long-term effects. The very idea that you should see your doctor if you get sick right now is being questioned and people are thinking, I better not get sick to begin with, the doctor can’t help me!
10. Your immune system and your gut biome and virome are your personal responsibility! No one else can manage it for you.

It just GOT REAL and that means RAW.

This story is not only ours at OPDC, the entire Raw Milk Institute RAWMI Listed dairy community is reporting exactly the same local community demand phenomena. Farmers are directly responding to their connected consumers with raw dairy products. Our local food systems are thriving in the midst of utter collapse of the first world system. At its very core, this is a failure of the modern-day gut biome, loss of immune system strength, its ability to adapt and be resilient to all threats. This crisis is a direct result of ignoring nutrition and our gut biomes.

Protective bacteria (probiotics) and protective viruses (phages) are your best friends. When fed properly, these friends provide the basis of a powerful and adaptive immune system that works 24-7 all the time. This is not the last threat. Every year we are faced with new threats! There will be more. Will you be ready? Did you build your immunity?

Benefits and Safety of Raw Milk: Read the Studies 

Raw milk is a powerful immune-system, gut-biome-building food. The evidence is super clear. It is also very safe when three things happen:

1. Farmers are properly trained.
2. High standards are used.
3. Routine testing is performed.

A META ANALYSIS is a study of studies. It is a review of many studies and offers a summary and very secure opinion on the data and the science. It is the premier way to look at the body of evidence in science.

Use these to answer the question of raw milk benefits and safety:

This is the Cat Berge Cambridge University Press Journal paper. SAFETY

Whitehead and Lake PLOS trends in raw milk risk reduction. SAFETY

META analysis of raw milk health and immune system  benefit studies. IMMUNE BENEFITS

Raw milk as a respiratory protective food for infants and children. IMMUNE and RESPIRATORY BENEFITS

Shows kids that drink raw milk are protected from ear infections and respiratory illness.

Images from iStock/FamVeld (main), StockSeller_ukr (farmers), jentakespictures (girl milking the goat).