Takeaways from AP's report on the push for raw milk intensifying

Backers of raw milk are pushing to make the potentially dangerous product more widely available and easier to obtain, even as a new disease outbreak — one of at least five in the past year — sickens U.S. children.

More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, The Associated Press found. A growing number of states are making it legal to sell. Dairy farmers say they can barely keep it in stock.

Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House a year ago and previously promised to halt “aggressive suppression” of the product. Social media posts about raw milk have surged in recent months, often touting unproven claims about its health benefits.

All of this alarms public health officials, who have long warned that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs. The current outbreak — tied to raw milk cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm — has sickened nine people with E. coli, half of them children younger than 5.

Here are some key takeaways from AP’s report on raw milk.

Bills favoring raw milk have been introduced in the current legislative session in 18 states, including those controlled by Democrats and Republicans. AP searched legislation in all 50 states using the bill-tracking software Plural and analyzed bills for whether they expand or streamline access to unpasteurized milk or products made from it. More than 40 bills introduced as of late April would make it easier to buy, sell or consume raw milk.

Some would allow it to be sold for human consumption — something more than three dozen states have already done. Others seek to manage, guide or expand already legal sales.

National legislation is also being considered. A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House would prevent federal departments, agencies or courts from restricting the movement of raw milk between two states where its sale is legal.

Wider access will probably mean more outbreaks, said Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor.

Despite raw milk’s popularity, scientists and public health experts warn against drinking it. Websites run by the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to the well-documented risks of serious illness from a host of germs, including campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and E. coli.

A CDC review counted more than 200 outbreaks tied to raw milk that sickened more than 2,600 people and sent 225 to hospitals between 1998 and 2018.

Another analysis found that raw dairy products cause 840 times more illness and 45 times more hospitalizations than their pasteurized counterparts.

Children are especially vulnerable to such illness, because their immune systems are immature and because they drink milk frequently, noted Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator for the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin.

But adults can also get very sick.

Mari Tardiff, of Ashland, Oregon, was hospitalized for five months after drinking raw milk contaminated with campylobacter in 2008.

Doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barré syndrome, caused by her campylobacter infection. She spent time on a ventilator and was temporarily paralyzed and unable to talk.

“Your whole life is completely blown apart,” said Tardiff, now 70.

Proponents of raw milk are gratified that it’s becoming more available. Even in states where it can’t be sold in stores for human consumption, people can get raw milk marketed for pets or join a “herd share” in which consumers buy a partial ownership in a dairy herd.

Farmers who sell it say safety is key.

“My family and my wife, who’s currently pregnant, drink about a gallon of our own raw milk every single day,” said Ben Beichler, of Creambrook Farm in Middlebrook, Virginia, which relies on herd shares. “So if there’s anybody who has a vested interest in making sure our milk is safe, it is us.”

Beichler said his 150-cow farm works with a veterinarian on regular herd checks and has a multistep safety process that includes sending milk to food safety labs every week to test for common germs.

With raw milk gaining a foothold, people on all sides of the issue are now favoring regulation.

“It’s kind of like legalization of weed, right?” said Schaffner, the food safety expert. “If people want it, we should find a way to regulate it and do it safely.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Nick Armato sanitizes a cow's udder before milking at Ronnybrook Farm, which uses pasteurization, in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

A receive jar collects raw milk from cows before it is eventually pasteurized at Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

Herdsman Stephen Reed watches raw cow milk collect in a receive jar before it is eventually pasteurized at Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

Nick Armato prepares a cow for milking at Ronnybrook Farm, which uses pasteurization, in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

Raw milk sits in a tank before being eventually pasteurized at Ronnybrook Farm in Ancramdale, N.Y., on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Conlon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Skeptical Democrats confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Wednesday for the first time since the Trump administration went to war with Iran, touching off tense exchanges over a costly conflict with unclear objectives that has been waged without congressional approval.

The hearing before the House Armed Services Committee was focused on the administration's 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, stressed the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.

Democrats quickly pivoted to the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children. Some lawmakers also questioned Trump's dealings with allies and President Donald Trump's shifting justification for the conflict.

The war has cost $25 billion so far, the chief financial official for the Pentagon told lawmakers. Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said most of that money was spent on munitions. The military has also spent money on running the operations and replacing equipment.

Hegseth dismissed criticism of the war as political and said lawmakers who have raised questions about it are one of the greatest challenges facing the U.S. military.

“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth said.

In one tense exchange, Hegseth told Democratic Rep. Adam Smith that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated in a 2025 attack by the U.S., prompting Smith to question the Trump administration’s reasoning for starting the Iran war less than a year later.

“We had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” said Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated?”

Hegseth responded by saying that Iran “had not given up their nuclear ambitions” and still had thousands of missiles.

Smith said the war “left us at exactly the same place we were before.”

Democrats accused Hegseth of mismanaging the war and lying to Americans about the reasons for the conflict and said rising gas prices are now threatening the pocketbooks of millions of people in the U.S.

“Secretary Hegseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one and so has the president,” said Rep. John Garamendi of California, who called the war “a geopolitical calamity," a “strategic blunder" and a ”self-inflicted wound to America."

Hegseth blasted Garamandi's remarks.

“Who are you cheering for here?” he asked the lawmaker. ”Your hatred for President Trump blinds you” to the success of the war.

While a fragile ceasefire is now in place, the U.S. and Israel launched the war Feb. 28 without congressional oversight. House and Senate Democrats have failed to pass multiple war power resolutions that would have required President Donald Trump to halt the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.

Republicans say they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

While Democrats pressed Hegseth and Caine over Iran, Republicans focused their questions on the Department of Defense's budget proposal, not the management of the war.

Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the committee, opened the hearing by noting Trump's call to increase military spending. He pointed to recent increases in defense spending by China, Russia and Iran.

“We don’t have enough munitions, ships, aircraft or autonomous systems to ensure dominance against every adversary," Rogers said. “They are spending more of their GDP on defense than we are.”

Iran's closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping corridor for the world's oil, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and posed problems for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. The U.S. has responded with a Navy blockade of Iranian shipping and further built up its military forces in the region. Three American aircraft carriers are in the Middle East for the first time in more than 20 years.

The countries appear locked in a stalemate, with Trump unlikely to accept Tehran's latest offer to reopen the strait if the U.S. ends the war, lifts its sea blockade and postpones nuclear talks.

Hegseth has avoided public questioning from lawmakers about the war, although he and Caine have held televised Pentagon briefings. Hegseth has mostly taken questions from conservative journalists, while citing Bible passages to castigate mainstream outlets.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appears before a House Committee on Armed Services business meeting on the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2027, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appears before a House Committee on Armed Services business meeting on the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2027 on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appears before a House Committee on Armed Services business meeting on the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2027 on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appears before a House Committee on Armed Services business meeting on the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2027 on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)