Dairy Processing -March/April 2022 - 11

NOTHING ALTERED, JUST CRAFTED
Raw Farm has been making raw dairy products since 1998.
Over the past two decades, the Fresno, Calif., dairy has taken
great pride in its focused mission to bring tested, organic, raw
dairy products across the United States.
" We take the most important food designed for human-kind
and meticulously craft it (but not alter it) so that consumers can
enjoy each savory and rich flavor, " said Mark McAfee, founder
and president of Raw Farm. " Our raw milk from grass-grazed
cows (365 days a year) is the most organic way dairy products
can be produced. Our mixed herd grazes in mobs, just as they
have naturally grazed since primal eras. The flavor from this
style of mob grazing is noted in the creamy textures of our
products. "
THE REAL ORGANIC PROJECT
The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led
movement created to distinguish soilgrown
and pasture-raised products under
USDA Organic. In response to the lack of
enforcement of some vital USDA Organic
standards to protect soil health and animal
welfare, organic farmers have rallied
together to fight to protect the integrity of
the organic label.
The Real Organic Project was started
McAfee is the team expert on animal breed, raising methods,
land stewarding and animal feed at Raw Farm.
" Our brand is not in the mainstream organic movement, " he
said. " We are leading it and conduct the charge in a completely
different way. Hybrid organic serves people. "
Raw Farm began as a response to consumers who reached
out to them and wanted their raw milk organic and unprocessed,
McAfee said. " So, we listened to those customers and embraced
the challenge, " he said.
McAfee has spent the last 10 years attending and supporting
the work at the International Milk Genomics Consortium at UC
Davis. They study breast milk down to the proteomic and
genomic level.
" We do dairy different, so that all of the nutrient-dense
wholeness is unchanged by processing. "
McAfee said Raw Farm has pioneered testing and food safety
to assure that the risk in raw milk is very low.
" Daily testing for coliforms and the most important
pathogens is what we do to assure safety, " he said. " Organic
means alive, active, biodiverse, vibrant and whole. To us, and
our customers, that is what raw milk means. "
Raw Farm's product line includes whole milk, cream, butter,
kefir and truly raw cheeses.
" We sell in 632 stores in California with raw milk, raw butter,
raw kefir and raw cream, " McAfee said. " We sell our raw cheeses
in another 1,500 stores nationally including Sprouts, and HEB
in Texas, and many others. Whole Foods is approved for our
cheeses, but we had a fire in our plant in early January, and we
had to build back our 60-day aged inventories. Our cheese will
be back in Whole Foods mid-March. "
Raw Farm gets ahead of emerging trends, especially when it
comes to health and nutrition, by truly listening to consumers.
" If you listen to people closely, the customer will tell you
everything you need to know, " McAfee said. " We decided long
ago to connect directly to customers and listen intensively to the
feedback. This communication has served us well. "
by farmers to protect the meaning of
organic. They grow food in the soil, not
hydroponically. They raise livestock on
pasture, not in confinement. In this time of
concern about the erosion of integrity in
the USDA, Real Organic aims to stay true
to what organic is intended to be.
According to the organization's website,
" Organic farmers have long known that
healthy soil creates nutritious food, healthy
people and a healthy environment. This
leaves us to wonder, what does USDA
Organic mean now? How can we protect
the movement that organic family farmers
have built? "
To learn more about the movement, visit
www.realorganicproject.org.
Jan and Rinske de Jong, founders of Working Cows
Dairy, Slocomb, Ala.
DAIRYPROCESSING.COM | MAR-APR 2022 11
http://www.realorganicproject.org http://www.DAIRYPROCESSING.COM
Dairy Processing -March/April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dairy Processing -March/April 2022
