Raw milk advocates wonder: Where is Kennedy?

Kennedy champions raw milk and criticizes federal health officials for their stance, but he's yet to relax rules or reverse warnings against drinking it.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health and human services secretary, advocates for raw milk were thrilled to have one of their own at the helm in Washington. A self-professed fan of the drink, Kennedy had included raw milk in a list of foods and drugs that he felt federal officials had unfairly suppressed.

“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote shortly after the November election.

But Kennedy hasn’t actively taken up the cause yet — even amid his sweeping effort to upend federal health agencies and his Make America Healthy Again campaign to change how Americans eat, frustrating and concerning some of the most prominent raw milk advocates.

Federal officials have long warned that raw milk is unsafe for drinking because it hasn’t gone through the heat process of pasteurization that kills off harmful bacteria, and sales across state lines have been banned since 1987.

Kennedy helped champion and elevate raw milk and has criticized resistance from health officials, but he has yet to relax federal rules or reverse warnings against drinking it. His inaction so far is in contrast to his campaigns against childhood vaccines and artificial food dyes, longtime causes now at the center of his efforts as secretary.