The Amos Miller Raw Milk Story: A Closer Look
There’s a new deep-dive story providing more layers to the Amos Miller raw milk saga, by Bethany Rodgers of USA Today. There are a lot of interesting insights here – and views from “both sides” of the issue. I recommend reading the whole thing (link at bottom). Here are some highlights, along with my comments.
The Power of Amos Miller’s Products
About people’s passion for Miller’s products:
Chronically ill customers said Miller’s milk, kefir and cheeses were a major source of sustenance to them — that they’d finally found products they could keep down and digest after years of struggling to put on weight. For some who’d long experienced food as a source of stress or discomfort, the farmer’s spicy pepper jack cheeses and rich creams had restored the pleasure of eating.
Customers swore Miller’s dairy cured their allergies, bloating, morning sickness, brain fog, insomnia, rashes, depression and restless leg syndrome. One man said it healed his chipped tooth.
You can see the power that these products have – especially if they are giving people with health issues foods that they can digest but bring back some of the joy of food. Furthermore:
His products account for half or even three-quarters of some people’s diets. Customers described drinking a gallon of unpasteurized milk each day instead of water or downing a concoction of six eggs blended with nearly a pound of raw butter.
In their view, the quality of dairy from industrial farms can’t compare with milk from Miller’s cows, which he says wander in sunny pastures grazing on herbs and dandelions. Raw milk proponents say his products and the lifestyle attached remind them of simpler times: An Irish relative’s grass-scented barn, drinking fresh milk as a child in Ukraine or a mother’s homemade ice cream.
I love milk, but can’t imagine drinking a gallon of it daily. That is impressive.
You can also see the emotional power around these products where they evoke comforting childhood memories. It’s no wonder his customers are so invested in his ability to continue doing what he does.
Rose-colored Views?
On the conventional science side, some see problems with the “barnyard reality”:
But these romantic visions contrast with the stark realities of the barnyard, experts say.
“You just got people with rose-colored glasses on,” Marler said. “That bacteria can’t exist if it’s a local farmer who feeds their cow grass.”
Reitzig also says some people have idyllic views about the Amish and can jump to assumptions about their product quality and the values and ethics embedded in their farming practices.
“People are excited about the possibility of that picture-perfect life,” she said. “So they tend not to try to pull the curtain back on that.”
No dairy is pathogen-free, even with the best precautions, said John Lucey, a food science professor who has studied raw milk extensively. Harmful bacteria are in the soil, in the digestive tracts of cows and in the poop they deposit, said Lucey of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Scientific research does not support the idea that raw milk offers significant nutritional benefits, and since the heightened risks of food poisoning are clear, federal health regulators and medical experts discourage drinking it. Pregnant women, children, older adults and people with underlying health problems are particularly vulnerable.
Whether or not Miller’s customers have rose-colored views about the more empirical scientific aspects of his products probably doesn’t matter so much in the long run.
If Miller’s food is evoking emotional memories, delivering great taste, and helping people gain weight, then his customers are going to keep demanding it.
Who is Amos Miller?
The story also provides further details on Amos Miller. It goes into the political side of things – Miller’s case became a flashpoint in the 2024 election year – and also his business acumen:
Miller has also espoused some fringe theories drawn from the right-wing sovereign citizen movement, arguing that he is not a U.S. citizen and exists outside certain legal requirements. However, in a 2022 interview with Glenn Beck, Miller said he would not call himself anti-government.
“We need government to a certain degree,” he told Beck, adding that he does object to regulators “when our members and myself can’t make choices of what I think is healthy for my body.”
Reitzig said she tried to help Miller several years ago after one of his earlier skirmishes with regulators. However, she said she soon concluded he was having a corrosive influence on local farming, encouraging others to share in his hostility toward the government and potentially shadowing raw milk producers who adhere to safety standards.
“What we’re seeing, rather than a small farmer feeding his community and unifying people, is actually a large, potentially greedy company that is dividing people,” she said of Miller’s operation.
That’s the first time I’ve seen someone suggest Miller or his company is “greedy“. I think it can be a tricky road to go down when you start to accuse a company of being “greedy” – most if not all companies, at their core, exist to make a profit.
The accusation may hold more water if, say, someone puts profit-seeking above customers’ well-being. Some might argue that’s what Miller is doing.
However, from what I’ve seen, I believe that Amos Miller fully believes in the value and safety of his products (even though others might disagree).
So I’m not sure that is a fair accusation. He just also happens to make a lot of money in this successful business, which always makes it easier to accuse someone of being “greedy”.
NYU Prof: Raw Milk Drinkers Have A Point
Finally, a word from New York University professor Marion Nestle. Raw milk drinkers have a point – but warns that it doesn’t nullify potential danger.
She also acknowledges that raw milk drinkers have a point when they complain about federal regulators restricting unpasteurized dairy but allowing access to other potentially harmful products like alcohol, cigarettes and sugar-laden snacks.
“What I do think is unreasonable is trivializing a pathogenic E. coli,” she said. “This pathogen is so terrible that people have lifetime problems with the consequences of getting sick from it.”
It’s a chance Miller’s customers say they’re willing to accept, saying they’ve never experienced any ill effects from his raw dairy. Not only do they take responsibility for the consequences of drinking the milk, but some also call it an issue of bodily autonomy and constitutional rights.
There’s a lot more to the story. Check it out in full here.
Amos Milk
One thing God has always instilled inside my heart along with the love of Christians, Jews is the love for Amish. While I don’t know their doctrine, I believe the Amish strive to seek the face of the Lord. I am writing this inquiring how I can obtain Amish milk and not the store bought that is polluted with additives, hormones, etc. I have read since government regulated the milk industry as well as just about everything, more and more sickness has taken place. I believe this. We were made by God with the clay of the earth. The farther man moves from being of the earth, the sicker man becomes. So I humble ask how I can obtain milk from the Amish. I live in Jefferson County in Ohio. We often travel to Catalpa Grove in Columbia Country. We live on a fixed income so the trip eats up our gas. I believe if the Amish opened up a store in Jefferson County they would make a lot of money. I have read how the milk from cows not being pasteurized has great health benefits, especially for infants. There is God’s way and there is man’s way. If man would adhere to the leading of the Lord, our people would greatly benefit from it.
Death and sickness
What’s the big deal?
Just because his products are making people sick, sending them to the hospital, and killing them…what’s the big deal? After all, they were going to die someday after all weren’t they? It’s a free country, we all get to drive as fast as we want, build to any safety standard we desire, and write out prescriptions for any drug we think we need. Who needs these laws? -Certainly not us!
Raw milk
Check out Amos Miller’s website; being Amish I have no idea how involved he is personally in maintaining it, but one can assume, reasonably, that he has non-Amish friends who might help him with that. I noted that one can buy a number of his products and have it shipped, but you have to become a member of his clientele and I think there is a membership fee. His prices aren’t what I would call cheap, but if his customers are satisfied then I guess it’s worth it to them. I was tempted to join and buy a few things, cheeses mainly, but after thinking about it decided it wasn’t affordable for me.
PS Erik video
I enjoyed the video further explaining the Miller case and his products, especially the colostrum–I had to laugh at the last comment about it in the video. I hope you will continue covering this case; I don’t see a quick and easy judicial “remedy” to any of this, however, Amos Miller may have some sort of “ally” or “approval” from the Trump administration and especially from cabinet member Robert Kennedy, Jr. Stay tuned, I guess.
Poorly written story by Bethany Rodgers.
She’s writing more about politics/Republicans than she does about Amos Miller. This is a political story more than a story about raw milk.
She talks about Trump eating McDonalds food. LOL. That has nothing to do with Amos Miller wanting to sell raw milk products and people’s free choice to buy raw milk products.
In fact, at least 20 paragraphs mention politics. It’s a political story.
She clearly is using this story to attack ‘Maga Republicans.’ She even puts that term in the title of her story. She puts that term in her story and makes it a ‘symbol’ of the right’s ‘thirst’ for raw milk.
She starts the story with people saying how much they like raw milk for the purpose to make them sound overly dramatic and a little nutty. So she has started from the very beginning to slant to story against the consumers and people on the right of the political spectrum.
This is funny because this very same website did a story how the Amish in Lancaster seemed to vote the same way they have in the past. Meaning, it has nothing to do with Amos Miller somehow being a symbol of the right. LOL
And she finishes suggesting that it may actually be about money. Really? Where is his yacht? His expensive cars? His mansion? That’s right. He has none of those things.
But the people who run government approved processed and pasteurized products have all of those things and more. Who is the greedy one now?
She goes on to use terms like rose-colored glasses and barnyard as part of her story to attack those who enjoy raw milk.
She states that research does not show raw milk has significant health benefits. This is poorly written and designed to manipulate the reader into looking down on raw milk because raw milk does have health benefits and more than pasteurized milk but not by a ‘significant’ amount. So, it does have health benefits. But she won’t let herself say it.
Facts: According to the very same government(the CDC) alcohol kills about 178,000 Americans per year.
Facts: Smoking cigarettes kill(again, from the CDC) 480,000 Americans per year. Secondhand smoke alone kills about 41,000 per year.
Boars Head meat company had a meat product that killed 10 people and 57 have been hospitalized due to listeria. The company closed one facility and is still in business and operates making millions.
Yet, Amos Miller’s milk may or may not have gotten 2 people sick in the last 20 years? LOL
Under oath, the state of Pennsylvania admitted that NOBODY has complained about Amos Miller’s products. Nicole Martz, the Woman who Led the January 4th search on Miller’s farm, Chief of food Safety at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, answered no.
Whether you like raw milk or not, facts are, millions of people drink it and are doing just fine. As for those who smoke and drink alcohol, well, that facts speak for themselves….
Milk is more dangerous than vaccines?!?
The government said take a chemical laden, poison vaccine for a cold that was developed using a cell line from an aborted fetus, and they “care” about you when it comes to shoving a needle in your arm, but Heaven forbid you should trust in Gods natural order of the earth and his animals to feed you and make you healthy. Whatever the government tells you to do, DO THE OPPOSITE!!!! Jesus is King forever and ever.