Food Rebel: Mark McAfee

 

 

Occupation CEO and Founder at Organic Pastures Dairy Location Fresno, CA Favorite Food Raw cheddar cheese Rebel Story Back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s there were a whole lot more dairies than there are today. There were a million dairies in this country at that time and now we only have 50 thousand so it’s really reduced. The pay price was higher proportionally then it is now. It was a great environment for me to grow up in because I got to have the rhythm of the farm life– milking twice a day, delivering cows and milking cows and drinking raw milk and being a part of the rhythm of life. A dairy has a rhythm of life. And I loved it and it was great and I only had about five to seven years when I did that. I was the chief slave – worked for free but great memories. What’s wrong with food in America? Well, they call it the standard American diet for a reason S.A.D– sad. It’s processed to death. It doesn’t have its enzymes, it doesn’t have its biodiversity of bacteria, it doesn’t have its good raw fats, it certainly doesn’t have minerals in it because it’s been processed. It’s a shelf life enhanced product not a gut life enhanced product and as a result we’re suffering widespread immune depression because 80% of our immune system is made up of biodiversity, of good bacteria in your gut and we basically sterilized our guts. What is wrong with milk in America? I think the dollar voting is telling us what’s wrong with milk. Consumers are just not buying it any more because they want to know their farmer and they want to know that it is pure and unprocessed and whole because what they’re getting right now in America is a product that’s the most allergenic food in America on the FDA website and indigestible by at least 40 -50% of the population because of lactose intolerance. Raw milk is non-allergenic and practically everybody can digest it because it’s not associated with lactose intolerance. So that’s why we see kind of an emerging market for raw milk producers and a declining consumption market for pasteurized milk. What do you do differently? Most dairymen have no idea who their consumers are. When I listen to my consumers, they say I want a food that’s delicious, I want a food that’s not allergenic, I want a food that’s easily digested, I don’t want any GMOs– genetically modified organisms– anywhere near my cows or production, we don’t want any hormones or antibiotics. We want organic, we want it raw and unprocessed. Don’t mess with what God made perfect.