We can now produce clean, safe raw milk, and consumers are demanding it more and more as they abandon highly processed allergenic and lactose intolerance-producing pasteurized dairy products.

 

Mission and Vision

The Mission of the Raw Milk Institute is to improve the safety and quality of raw milk and raw milk products through:

  • Farmer training and mentoring nationally and internationally

  • Establishing raw milk guidelines and Common Standards

  • Improving consumer access and producer transparency

  • Consumer education about the benefits of raw milk on the immune system and gut microbiome

  • Investment in raw milk research with use of RAWMI test data

The Raw Milk Institute’s Vision is to build a healthier world where raw milk is safe, embraced, and accessible.  RAWMI empowers dairy farmers and consumers by providing support from grass to glass and soil to soul.

About RAWMI

The Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) is a non-profit international organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the safe and hygienic production of raw milk and raw milk products for direct human consumption. RAWMI teaches well-established scientific principles and good manufacturing methods to assist farmers to produce hygienic safe raw milk. RAWMI assists farmers in developing and writing up risk analysis and management plans (RAMP) covering their whole farms.

Farms that have established basic criteria for biosecurity, animal welfare, animal management, nutrition, animal health, and milking hygiene and product handling can apply to be listed by RAWMI. Listed RAWMI farmers have in-depth knowledge of potential risks with their own production system, good knowledge regarding the beneficial effects of raw milk and have demonstrated that raw milk can be very safe. Listed farmers comply with RAWMI common standards, and these include at least monthly milk testing to evaluate basic milk hygiene parameters.

Why Now?

Ever since 1892 when Dr. Coit suggested and recommended clean raw milk as the best food for children and established the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions, raw milk has been in a battle for survival. The issue has become a battleground for farmers, consumers, and industrial forces that rely on processing to permit cheap, unsanitary, long-shelf-life CAFO milk to be exploited. This exploitation cheated farmers of a living, damaged the soil, air, and water and, most importantly, created the most allergenic food in America from what is the most healing food in America: clean raw milk. This ultimately cheated families of nutrition and clean raw milk, the ages-old food needed for immune development in children and adults alike.

Today we find ourselves in a raw milk renaissance. People have begun to rediscover that clean delicious raw milk is a powerful immune rebuilder which helps prevent asthma and treats Crohns, IBS and other gut and digestive issues. It is rarely associated with lactose intolerance and builds bone density quickly. Pasteurized milk does none of these things.

As consumers discover these healing attributes found only in raw milk from clean and caring dairies, industry and its regulatory agencies have stepped in to protect processors and CAFO dairy systems from falling market share as consumers “dollar vote” for raw milk. These anti-raw milk industrial efforts have been coupled with cooperative FDA agency enforcement politics to stop this growth of farmer and consumer connection and raw milk consumption. As a favor to industry, the FDA and other government agencies refuse to acknowledge that there are “Two Raw Milks in America” – raw milk produced with pasteurization in mind, and raw milk intended to be consumed raw – and insist that all raw milk is dirty and must be pasteurized. Experience has shown this to be untrue; it has been clearly demonstrated in California and other states that when proper care and conditions are used and when standards and testing are implemented with a RAMP food safety plan, raw milk can be extremely safe.

This is why RAWMI was born. In 2011, a “nutritional civil rights movement” is rising. People are awakening to realize that the American population is being made sick by highly processed, dead, sterilized, immune-depressing, highly allergenic foods. Consumers are searching for farmers who can supply unprocessed, clean raw milk. In this search the consumers are confused, and most farmers lack training and education, and have little guidance from nonexistent or conflicting standards. Industry celebrates this confusion and does all that it can to continue it. They know that when farmers forge together in alliances and embrace good raw milk policies, the end of pasteurization as the only process to bring dairy products to America will be near. After all, pasteurization was a 19th century answer to filthy swill milk that killed 50% of the children that drank it. We now have flushing toilets, clean water, hot water, testing systems, green pastures, an expanded knowledge of biology, and experience. We can now produce clean, safe raw milk, and consumers are demanding it more and more as they abandon highly processed allergenic and lactose intolerance-producing pasteurized dairy products.

In this raw milk renaissance and revival, rational standards, farmer-friendly food safety plans and a RAWMI seal of approval are needed. RAWMI will add the objectivity of third-party certification, and use the transparency of the internet to present listed farmers’ bacteria counts and food safety plans for all consumers to see and appreciate. RAWMI answers this desperate need and call. RAWMI celebrates responsible raw milk production as America begins to repair its soil and rebuild American families’ health and immune systems.