I just wanna drive home the sheer impossibility of 100% hygienic, shit-free milking operations. Especially when cows are lying around on a pack of dried manure as at this dairy. The legs & udders get caked in shit. Cleaning them properly takes forever. And as soon as you do, they shit some more.
Cows just aren't built like people. The human boob is located well above the ass, for hygiene and convenience. That's the kind of milk the human immune system is built around. A cow's udder, on the other hand, is halfway between its ass and the ground.
Anyway, 1. The raw milk guru farmer insists udders are clean when they're obviously not. He's lying about things that are clearly not true. 3. Yet the influencer does not realize he's being lied to. When there's caked-on shit right in front of his face. And that's why ag literacy is important!
TWO, sir, TWO fml
You can't trick us! Two is a hidden secret that you redacted!
That’s fine, ag numeracy is not as important
Five is right out
The hygiene situation helps explain why this raw milk farm has been involved in at least a dozen outbreaks and recalls. www.marlerblog.com/case-news/ra...
Throughout the video, McAfee makes kinds of claims about raw milk's health benefits and how he's being unfairly persecuted. Just bear in mind he also describes udders with crusted-on poop as "extra clean."
Now let's wrap it up with a couple little things I noticed in the video. If you've heard about cats drinking raw milk, getting infected with bird flu, & then dying, many of those cases were traced back to McAfee's product. www.foodpolitics.com/2025/03/week...
McAfee likes to use his barn cats of proof that his milk is fine! It definitely wasn't his milk that made cats sick. I just think it's kinda funny how none of his barn cats seem to be very old (Also cats are fine in barns where the cows live, but really shouldn't be in a milking barn)
Last but not least: arson? to be continued
Ok. That whole "got a $10M USDA-backed loan to build a new cheese factory to replace the one that got burned down" thing. thebusinessjournal.com/arson-destro...
It seems what actually happened is 1. He got approved for a COVID relief loan. It was USDA backed. That means USDA didn't give him the money- USDA told a bank "If you lend to him & it falls through, we'll make sure you're covered."
2. The bank had some questions! a) They wanted collateral. b) They said no at first, bc McAfee already had $6.7M in loans. McAfee complains about this & calls it "gov't oppression," but this is normal bank behavior. The bank wouldn't have given him the time of day w/out USDA intervention.
Thank you for still doing these educational threads well past the election cycle (still sad for you and nc on that one).
I'm pretty sure barn cats basically count as outdoor cats, and there are coyotes in Fresno. But omg, don't let cats someplace that should be clean (I say this as a cat lover)
rumor a while back was that the very farm hit by bird flu was having barn cats evaporate: they got hit so fast and fatally
*every
Grew up in Rural Wales Drank raw milk daily from cows behind my house for ~10 years. Udder → Bottle → Mouth in a few hours. Bullet dodged? Yes. Do I consider raw milk "safe"? NO Would I touch raw milk that has been anywhere near the US food supply. I don't have a death wish. (But I do miss it)
Do you know if the milk was boiled at home before it was drank? I grew up in a rural area in Spain but brucellosis and tuberculosis were not uncommon so everyone bought raw milk but everyone would boil it first thing.
It wasn't. It would come off the doorstep at 7am and straight into my morning cereal.
I was last in a dairy barn in the 1960s, but don't normal dairy farms actually wash the udders with soap or a disinfecting solution?
Every time I post warning people about cats and raw milk I get comments saying "lol the problem isn't raw milk, it's industrial farming. you have to go to a small family farm" and no. Just no. There is not some magical difference that makes small farm raw milk "safe".
Raw milk kills! No raw dairy for me, I’m not going to go out like that! Not again!
I used to enjoy raw milk when I lived on a dairy farm (I hate milk usually) but the key differences were a) transport time was less than a minute and b) I was already covered in shit. If you are more than a minute away and not covered in shit, raw milk is not for you!
There are lots of things that are great if you can get them, but if you can't you really shouldn't. Raw seafood, raw milk, raw meat etc. If you can't see where it comes from, though, its not worth it.
Ummmm. Thank you for PSA...☹🤢
great thread! i got to work with dairy farmers last year who provided tours to educate the public. when going through the milking barn, they clearly directed everyone to stay in the middle of the aisle and out of 'the splash zone' if they didn't want to end up covered in shit. cows, not clean!