As conservatives advocate for raw milk, creamery owner sentenced to probation after fatal outbreak

Over the past decade, Republicans have ardently stood by raw, unpasteurized milk.

Their biggest victory came last May when the Iowa Legislature passed a bill legalizing the sale of raw milk directly from farms to consumers. Dubbed the “fresh milk bill,” Senate Bill 315 was approved following a 37 to 13 Senate vote, allowing producers to sell raw milk to Iowans, along with raw milk products like cheese, yogurt and ice cream. The bill’s earliest iteration was conceived back in 2008, after Iowa State Senator Jason Schultz visited a local farmer who received a cease-and-desist letter for selling unpasteurized milk to his friends and neighbors. In the wake of Senate Bill 315’s passage, Schultz and many of his Republican supporters celebrated the so-called win. Schultz said he’s waited 17 years for a raw milk bill to clear the Legislature.

However, amid the recent right-wing fervor, a raw milk creamery based in Walton, New York, was found to be the source of Listeria monocytogenes that sickened eight people, killing two of them in 2016. On July 9, Johannes Vulto, the owner of Vulto Creamery, was sentenced to three years probation, a $100,000 fine and 240 hours of community service by the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. Vulto could have been sentenced to up to a year in prison but agreed to pay a $100,000 fine, according to his plea agreement.

Court documents revealed that Vulto Creamery started producing and shipping raw milk cheese in 2012. Samples of Vulto’s cheese repeatedly tested positive for listeria species between July 2014 and Feb. 2017, ultimately leading the federal court to shut down the creamery in 2018.

Vulto Creamery initiated a recall of its Ouleout cheese on March 3, 2017. Four days later, it expanded its recall to include all soft and semi-soft cheese. All Vulto cheese products were recalled on March 11, 2017. And on April 5, 2017, the creamery destroyed all cheese in its inventory and other returned products from prior recalls.

Upon further inspection of Vulto Creamery, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found several health and safety violations. Vulto employees reportedly didn’t wash their lower or upper arms before submerging them in whey to stir and break up fresh cheese curds. According to FDA investigators, one of those employees had several cuts and abrasions on their arms. Black mold was also found throughout the creamery’s factory. The FDA listed 18 total violations.

The recent case with Vulto Creamery underscores some of the dangers of raw milk consumption. The FDA has advised against drinking raw milk and eating raw milk products — mainly sourced from cows, sheep and goats. Raw milk can carry dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter and other pathogens that cause foodborne illness.

Despite those risks, the pro-raw milk movement has only intensified, even in the midst of a recent outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle. As of July 8, the H5N1 strain has infected dairy herds in 12 states: 27 herds each in Colorado and Idaho, 25 in Michigan, 21 in Texas, 12 in Iowa, eight in New Mexico, seven in Minnesota, five in South Dakota, four in Kansas, and one each in North Carolina, Ohio, and Wyoming.

Within humans, the consequences of drinking unpasteurized milk from cows infected with bird flu remain inconclusive, although one study suggested that it may be dangerous. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison discovered that mice that were fed samples of milk from a herd of H5N1-infected cows subsequently grew very sick. They said more research is needed to determine whether humans who drink raw milk containing the H5N1 virus would be affected in a similar manner as mice. However, researchers did conclude that H5N1-positive milk poses a risk when consumed untreated.

Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said consuming raw milk could come with serious health risks.

“There is concern that consumption of unpasteurized milk and products made from unpasteurized milk contaminated with HPAI A(H5N1) virus could transmit HPAI A(H5N1) virus to people; however, the risk of human infection is unknown at this time,” the agency wrote.

However, last month, sales of raw milk were on the rise as the number of bird flu cases increased.

That’s largely due to conservatives decrying both the government and “Big Milk” for allegedly violating their right to consume raw milk, regardless of whether it fueled the human-to-human spread of bird flu. As explained by Salon’s Ashlie Stevens, “It’s an attitude that closely mimics the party’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which their members refused to participate in even basic public health and safety measures.” Avoiding the consumption of raw milk has become “the new masking” for Republicans, Stevens added.

Take for example Infowars host Owen Shroyer, who called the FDA a “gangster mafia” that wanted to “make raw milk illegal.”

“So, now that more people are going to local farms and farmers markets and consuming raw milk, this angers the FDA,” Shroyer said in April. “This angers Big Milk. Say, ‘No, you need to pasteurize milk, it’s a lot less healthy for you.’ See, eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They’ll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”

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That same month, right-wing media outlet TheBlaze published an article titled “Blaze News Investigates: The truth about raw milk the government doesn't want you to know: ‘Close to a perfect food,’” which claimed that “the so-called ‘experts’ are not telling you the full story” and that “unfortunately, the potential benefits of raw dairy are a secret to most Americans.”

Conservative youth organization Turning Point USA also promoted drinking raw milk with a plain white t-shirt featuring an image of a cow and the words “got raw milk?” under it.

What will it take for conservatives to realize that prohibiting the consumption of raw milk isn’t merely a “violation” of one’s rights — it’s a safety measure at large? Is it another Listeriosis outbreak? Or is it more dairy cattle infected with bird flu? Science and public health concerns are clearly out the window. So perhaps, the question remains unanswered for the time being.