Raw milk has been getting a lot of attention lately thanks to wellness influencers hyping it as a practical superfood and cure-all for everything from allergies and lactose intolerance to dull skin (it’s also been championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.). People who are thirsty for natural ways to get healthier are gulping it up. But is its reputation starting to sour?
One of the biggest influencers, fans and purveyors of raw milk is Hannah Neeleman — better known as the woman behind Ballerina Farm, which boasts more than 10 million Instagram followers. Lately, though, she’s been dealing with her own stomach ache over raw milk, which she and her husband, Daniel, produced on their 328-acre farm in Utah and sold locally: The local outlet KPCW, which viewed records from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, reported that Ballerina Farm failed its health inspection in late May and early June 2025 after high levels of coliform (bacteria that includes E. coli) was found in the farm’s bottled raw milk.
A Ballerina Farm spokesperson told KPCW that their raw milk was tested daily, and that the batch that failed the screenings wasn’t sold to customers. Representatives also told People that their raw milk passed the tests required in Utah. Despite that, Ballerina Farm has paused its sales of raw milk.
Adding fuel to the fire: Daniel admitted that Ballerina Farm wasn’t really set up for raw milk production and that their farm was built for pasteurized dairy products. “Producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint,” the farm said in a Jan. 29 statement shared with KPCW. “Unfortunately, we learned this after the fact.”
Ballerina Farm released a more detailed statement addressing the issue on Feb. 10, saying: “During the period in which Ballerina Farm sold raw milk, it passed the state’s required testing. Additionally, Ballerina Farm never recalled any product, including its raw milk. Raw milk that did not meet regulatory or industry standards was not sold and responsibility disposed of.”
The farm shared that it stopped selling raw milk and started exclusively offering pasteurized milk on Aug. 11, 2025, “due to regulatory requirements, operational complexity and economic considerations.”
It added: “While as a company, we appreciate raw milk, the consumption of raw foods, including dairy, may carry certain health risks that vary by individual and product.” The statement, shared on Instagram, was largely met with support, with one fan posting, “It’s a shame you cannot sell raw milk anymore.” Many commenters praised the Neelemans for their “transparency.”
Registered dietitian Bree Phillips tells Yahoo that acknowledging what’s happened is important — “especially when it’s somebody who has a really large following and is selling to that following.”
Wait, who is Ballerina Farm?
You would think that ballerinas and farming have nothing in common, but you’d be wrong.
Ballerina Farm is run by Hannah, a Juillard-trained dancer and former Mrs. American, and Daniel, who is the son of David Neeleman, the billionaire founder of several commercial airlines, including JetBlue. (Hannah’s brother came up with the farm’s name, inspired by Hannah’s dance background.) Hannah and Daniel are first-generation farmers who sell raw milk (or at least, they did), protein powder, ground beef and sourdough starters while raising eight kids.
Hannah was thrust into the spotlight following a 2024 Sunday Times profile, and a subsequent New York Times article, after she entered the Ms. World competition just two weeks after giving birth to her eighth child (unmedicated and at home).
Critics and others were quick to call her a “tradwife” — short for a traditional wife, a term used to describe women who embrace old-school and often patriarchal gender roles. It’s not entirely surprising Hannah was given that label: Some of the most prominent tradwives are content creators like her (which would technically make them entrepreneurs rather than traditional homemakers, but I digress). Hannah is known for posting picture-perfect videos of herself making food from scratch, sometimes with a cherubic baby on her hip or while wearing pastoral milkmaid dresses or gingham aprons, which she also sells. (Hannah herself has said she doesn’t identify with the term tradwife.)
Is raw milk good for you?
“It’s a hard no,” says Phillips. “There’s a reason why pasteurization exists.”
Food experts have long known that raw milk is risky. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that “raw milk, i.e., unpasteurized milk, can harbor dangerous germs that can pose serious health risks to you and your family.” We’re talking diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting; in severe cases, it could lead to kidney failure, stroke or even death.
But don’t just take the FDA’s word for it: Even the National Milk Producers Federation, which is the largest organization of dairy farmers in the U.S., has come out against raw milk, saying, “What raw milk does do is contain pathogens that make people sick.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that drinking raw milk was linked to 202 outbreaks from 1998 through 2018, sickening 2,645 people and sending 228 to the hospital. More recent cases underscore the danger: Nine people, including two children, were hospitalized in Idaho in early February after drinking raw milk from the family-run dairy farm R Bar H. Just days before that, a newborn in New Mexico died of listeria after the infant’s mother reportedly drank unpasteurized milk while pregnant.
Pasteurization works by briefly heating milk to a high temperature — usually about 161 degrees for 15 seconds — to kill harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, E. coli, listeria and campylobacter. “We’ve had pasteurization for a very long time, and it’s been a really significant public health initiative that has saved so many lives,” says Phillips.
So why are people drinking raw milk?
Raw milk’s popularity taps into the MAHA-coded push to eat fewer processed foods and more whole foods — echoing advice health experts have been giving for years. That’s normally a good thing, but not when that food can make you sick.
Fans of raw milk have made a slew of health claims about the beverage, and its reputation as being “closer to nature” gives it an outsized (and undeserved) health halo. Some claim that the pasteurization process kills beneficial bacteria, nutrients and enzymes, but the FDA (and food experts) have debunked this — and many other claims — stating that pasteurization does not reduce milk’s nutritional value.
Phillips explains that the amount of protein, fat and calcium is the same in both raw and pasteurized milk. “There’s really no nutrient trade-off that justifies the increased risk of consuming an unpasteurized milk product,” she says.
Another claim is that raw milk provides good bacteria, like bifidobacteria, to support a healthy gut. But here’s the kicker: According to the FDA, “The presence of bifidobacteria in raw milk indicates fecal contamination and poor farm hygiene.”
The other argument for raw milk is much simpler: Some think raw milk tastes better than pasteurized milk, which Phillips says she can understand. “If you go to the farmer’s market and you buy fresh produce or anything that’s closer to its source, it’s probably going to taste better,” she says.
Phillips suggests a safer way to do that: Look for a local dairy with a good reputation that has grass-fed cows and makes small batches of pasteurized milk. “That also helps local farmers and supports your community too,” she adds.
What happens next?
It’s unclear when, or if, Ballerina Farms will start selling raw milk again. For now, they’re only selling pasteurized milk. A spokesperson told KPCW that Ballerina Farm does have plans, however, to build a second dairy dedicated to raw milk products.
In the meantime, one Utah legislator and long-term dairy farmer is pushing for stricter standards for people selling raw milk in the Neelemans’ state, along with harsher penalties for health violations. As he puts it: “I am turning up the heat a little bit on raw milk producers that make people sick.”
What’s the lesson here?
For some critics, this feels like the “find out” stage of raw milk — an overdue wake-up call for people promoting and drinking it despite years of public health warnings.
As one Reddit user, reacting to the Ballerina Farm news, put it: “If only we had some way to rid raw milk of bacteria in a super safe and convenient way…idk maybe they could boil it or something…just spitballing here guys.”
Beyond the internet snark, Ballerina Farm’s failed health inspection is a broader reality check on wellness culture. Just because something is natural, or looks wholesome on social media, doesn’t mean it’s safe.
Raw milk also highlights how wellness trends aren’t always about the product itself. It’s also about the vibes. “You want to try something because you see the successes that somebody else has, but it might not be about the product at all,” says Phillips. “It might be about the energy that person has or their appearance or lifestyle or something else. Because no one product — not a supplement, not a food item, not a bath product — is going to transform someone’s life.”
And yet we keep chasing those silver bullets, especially when it comes to health. “We all have such busy lives,” says Phillips. “Easy things” — like just drink raw milk to get healthier — “are simple and attainable, and they make it realistic for the consumer. It feels like we’re doing what we should to improve our health, even if it may or may not.”
