A girl nearly died after drinking raw milk. The state did little to punish the unlicensed farmer who sold it.

Courtesy of Emily Marris/ProPublica

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published by ProPublica , a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches , a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive its stories in your inbox every week.

Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit last year, watching a ventilator keep her 17-month-old daughter alive, Emily Marris scoured the contents of her phone for evidence to give to California health and food safety investigators.

She had bought raw goat milk from a farm recommended to her in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor. Marris had hoped the milk, unprocessed and natural, would help with her daughter Brooklyn’s constipation. But doctors now suspected the unpasteurized milk, which hadn’t been heated to kill off pathogens, was the source of the toddler’s severe E. coli infection.

To the regulators who’d reached out to Marris, the case was a top priority. The farm appeared to be defying state law to sell unregulated raw milk to unsuspecting families; soon, another child, a 6-year-old girl who’d drunk milk from the same farm, would wind up in the same San Diego hospital, with the same potentially fatal illness, needing blood transfusions.

Similar cases were popping up across the country as social media influencers and President Donald Trump’s White House kept touting the unproven benefits of raw milk and downplaying its risks. In the past two years alone, hundreds had fallen ill across nine states from drinking raw milk or eating products made with it.

Recognizing that people still want the freedom to buy it, California had struck a balance: It licenses farms that sell raw milk for human consumption, inspects them for sanitation and requires them to regularly test batches for pathogens.

The system hadn’t prevented outbreaks , as ProPublica previously reported. But it aimed to ensure that customers, at the very least, knew what they were getting into; milk legally sold in the state had to be clearly labeled with warnings .

Which is what troubled regulators even more about this particular outbreak.

The milk suspected to have sickened the girls didn’t come from one of the state’s dozen licensed farms . The dairy was totally off the radar, selling unknown quantities of unlabeled gallons.

And inside Marris’ phone was even more alarming information. Months of text messages showed the farm’s owner knew from the start that a toddler was drinking her milk. Then after the farmer learned that Brooklyn had contracted a serious foodborne infection, which doctors attributed to the milk, she continued to advertise on Facebook: “raw goat milk from a clean tested herd.”

After many sleepless nights, Marris screengrabbed the messages and sent them to the investigators, hoping to quell the outbreak before it grew.

Amid a flurry of emails involving at least four state and county agencies, investigators with the California Department of Food and Agriculture took the lead. They needed to confirm that the farm was indeed selling milk for human consumption. In California, doing so without a license is a violation of state law and can lead to fines of up to $10,000 and jail time of up to a year.

On the evening of June 17, 2025, an undercover investigator messaged the farm’s Facebook account:

“Would like to buy like a gallon”

Someone from the farm replied that they sold goat milk by the gallon, explained that they were temporarily out of jugs and said they would message as soon as their shipment arrived.

Regulators now had a rare opportunity.

They had strong evidence: two cooperating families, direct text admissions and access to hospital records documenting the destruction wrought on two young bodies.

They had a clear reason to act. Raw-milk consumption was a growing hazard, and their state, like others, was teeming with black-market dairies , propped up by consumer demand fueled by misinformation.

They could have pursued penalties under a law enacted to prevent this very conduct, sending a message to other sellers about what the state would not tolerate.

But that’s not what would happen.

Marris was breastfeeding her daughter in her southern California home one afternoon that previous January when a post on Facebook caught her eye.

In a private group of backyard farmers, her chiropractor, Chris Boman, had shared a photo of a refrigerator, filled with gallons of freshly collected milk. In the years Marris had been visiting his office, she’d seen him selling raw milk from his own cow in his clinic’s waiting room.

She had never thought to try it herself, but milk was on her mind lately. She was trying to wean Brooklyn, and so far it wasn’t going well.

Brooklyn was her “miracle baby.” Marris had become pregnant with her — a desperately wanted third child — at age 48. Then she arrived seven weeks premature, her low birth weight and underdeveloped lungs confining her to the intensive care unit for her first month.

Sarahbeth Maney for ProPublica

The traumatic birth sent Marris’ protective instincts into overdrive. Already a self-described “crunchy” mom, she’d detoxified their home in suburban Winchester, a small inland community in Riverside County; stripped it of harmful chemicals and synthetic materials; and limited her family’s intake of ultraprocessed food. A trained birth doula and former teacher, she spent much of her days caring for her kids while her husband ran a sports technology startup company. As she had with her other two children, she was determined to breastfeed Brooklyn for as long as needed.

But when her daughter was barely a year old, Marris started a new medication for her chronic hip pain that could pass through breastmilk. She tried organic infant formula, but the number of additives alarmed her, and store-bought cow milk left Brooklyn severely constipated. Marris considered stopping her medication, but then she couldn’t walk without pain.

Desperate for an alternative, she commented on her chiropractor’s Facebook post, “Would this be a good milk for baby Brookie?”

The group’s members quickly chimed in. “I had to put my baby on raw goats milk,” one mother wrote. “Healed her right up. … Goats milk is easier digested than cow.” While sales of raw milk are prohibited on Facebook’s Marketplace, and such ads are removed when flagged, discussions of raw milk are still allowed, said a Meta spokesperson.

The commenter recommended a farm called Moonlight Ridge, and Marris clicked over to its Facebook page, which was filled with pictures of velvety Nubian goats. The farm milked its animals twice daily, it said, so the dairy was “always the freshest and best quality.” It was only 10 miles away. Marris arranged a visit that afternoon.

There were no signs marking the farm, but Marris turned down a dirt road and spotted its 23-year-old owner, Courtney Baker, with long blond hair and a tan, standing by a metal gate near a white pickup truck. Baker and her husband had become interested in raising goats during the pandemic. They started selling raw milk to help animal rescues and breeders, Baker would later say, and got most of their customers by word of mouth.

Baker greeted Marris and handed over an unlabeled jug of raw goat milk, still warm to the touch.

Marris pointed to her daughter, asleep in the back seat of her SUV, and explained Brooklyn’s digestion struggles. “This is the sweet girl you’re helping,” she recalled telling the farmer.

Once home, Marris filled up a baby bottle and nervously handed it to Brooklyn. Her daughter didn’t hesitate.

“She is gobbling it down! ” Marris texted Baker.

“Yay!! I’m glad she likes it!” Baker responded, then later that day asked, “How’s her tummy handling the milk?”

By the next morning, Brooklyn’s problems seemed to ease. “She has had two great and more normal poops!!!!” Marris texted Baker.

Marris believed she had done her due diligence. She had researched raw milk, whose benefits were readily promoted by the local farmers and wellness influencers she followed. Shortly after that first pickup, she and her husband, Josh, visited Moonlight Ridge to inspect the herd. The goats appeared well-kept. And when they asked Baker about her safety practices, they recalled, the farmer repeatedly assured them her herd and milk were “clean and tested.” Marris trusted Baker and thought the farmer was doing everything possible to keep the milk safe.

For six months, Marris gave Brooklyn raw milk without incident.

Then, on June 2, it all began to unravel. On the way home from swim lessons, Brooklyn vomited all over the back seat.

That same day, another couple, navy veterans Iris and David Galindo, drove to Moonlight Ridge to pick up their first order of goat milk.

They had also been looking for alternatives for their 6-year-old daughter, Victoria, whose doctor recommended limiting dairy products from cows. They began to consider goat milk, which Iris drank as a child in Guatemala. She contacted Baker, who had tutored their son in math years earlier and was now advertising raw goat milk in a local Facebook group. “There was trust there,” Galindo said.

As Baker handed over an unlabeled jug that day, the Galindos said they made it explicitly clear the milk was for their young daughter.

That evening, Victoria drank her first cup.

The days after Brooklyn first threw up were a hellish blur: vomit that turned bilious yellow, then a tarry blackish-green, then bloodwork that so alarmed emergency room doctors that they called for transport to a pediatric intensive care unit 70 miles away.

Stunned and helpless, Marris and her husband waited as doctors at Rady Children’s Hospital fastened a web of wires to their barely conscious daughter: a tube down her trachea to help her breathe, dialysis lines into her blood vessels to support her failing kidneys.

Brooklyn had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare condition in which microscopic blood clots clog small vessels and destroy vital organs. Infectious disease doctors suspected it had been caused by a strain of E. coli and had Marris walk them through Brooklyn’s recent diet.

When she mentioned the raw milk, she said, they looked at her uneasily and told her that was the likely culprit. E. coli can thrive in animal intestines. As few as 10 cells , hidden in an infinitesimal fleck of feces, can contaminate raw milk and trigger a fatal infection .

Marris was terrified for her daughter and furious with herself. She had searched online for the benefits of raw milk and gotten the confirmation she needed from raw-milk proponents.

She wasn’t aware of the medical consensus that raw milk has no proven nutritional benefits compared with its pasteurized counterpart, or that it carries over 100 times the risk of foodborne illness . “I’m the one that gave it to her,” she thought. “Just how stupid could I be?”

From her daughter’s bedside, on June 5, Marris texted Baker. “They think Brookie got a strain of e-coli possibly from a bad batch of the milk … I just wanted to let you know in case you want to alert anyone that had milk from the week before this.”

“I am so incredibly sorry to hear she is going through this!!” Baker quickly responded. “None of my milk testing results have showed anything abnormal.”

Later that day, though, Marris learned while texting with Baker that the farmer hadn’t tested for E. coli; it seemed like she didn’t know how to. “All the tests I’m finding looks like it mainly comes from meat,” Baker wrote.

Marris was taken aback. How did Baker not know how to test for a common foodborne pathogen like E. coli? Still, Marris remained polite. “Please don’t beat yourself up either. You are a sweet kind person and I don’t want you or me to go there.”

Two days after Brooklyn arrived at the hospital, on June 6, doctors took her off the ventilator, but she struggled to wake up. For hours, as she continued on dialysis, her eyes drifted back into her head, her body occasionally convulsed and her breathing grew heavy and rapid.

That evening, her blood grew so acidic that it disrupted the electrical signals of her heart, which struggled to pump enough blood and oxygen to her brain. For hours, the medical team tried to stabilize her spiking pulse. Her parents didn’t know if she would survive the night.

As they awaited an update, a stool sample confirmed that Brooklyn had contracted E. coli O157:H7, one of the most dangerous strains. When Marris texted Baker about the diagnosis, the farmer detailed her equipment-cleaning process and said she would send a sample to a lab in Colorado.

After a couple of days, Brooklyn finally turned a corner. But in suburban Murrieta, not far from the Marris family home, Victoria was just starting to decline.

She’d grown lethargic over the past week, with bouts of bloody diarrhea. After two unhelpful urgent care visits, the Galindos drove her to Rady on June 13. Bloodwork revealed she had the same disorder as Brooklyn, brought on by the same E. coli strain; she was rushed into intensive care. “My world just dropped,” Iris Galindo said.

On June 14, after Marris learned that another child had fallen sick after drinking raw milk, she texted Baker again: “Maybe hold off on selling any until we know if there is a common thread.”

The next day, however, Marris saw that Baker had recently responded to someone in the Facebook group looking for raw goat milk: “I have raw goat milk from a clean tested herd in wine country … We milk 2x a day so it is always super fresh.”

Marris was aghast, squeezing the sides of her phone to capture what was on the screen.

“Out of respect, I’m giving you a heads up,” she texted Baker. “I wasn’t going to EVER post anything, but I’m appalled that you’re advertising the milk as tested and safe when you haven’t been able to test for that deadly strain of e-coli.”

Marris then typed up a detailed description of what had happened to her daughter.

“My 17 month old almost died this week,” she wrote. “I NEVER WANTED TO have to call her out on this, but it’s prudent that she take a break, make sure she tests for THIS SPECIFIC strain and ensure the milk is safe before resuming sales.”

She hit the post button, heaved a sigh of relief and watched the responses roll in.

“Praying for your sweet baby.”

“Omg I almost bought milk from her a couple weeks ago.”

“Thank you for protecting the rest of us.”

And then her phone buzzed. Baker had finally replied.

At first, she apologized for the slow response, explaining that she’d also been hospitalized with an unrelated illness. She said that, despite her Facebook comment, she had stopped selling milk while she waited for test results.

And then she asked Marris to take down her post. “As much as I hate and feel bad for what happened to Brooke [sic] I really really do,” she said, “I really don’t appreciate my name being thrown out there like that.”

Reluctantly, Marris deleted what she wrote.

She’d already spoken with state regulators about the outbreak and handed over her text messages.

Surely, she believed, they would do something.

On June 20, three regulators paid an unannounced visit to Moonlight Ridge, according to internal records from the investigation obtained by ProPublica.

The farm was located within a larger horse ranch, and they didn’t see anyone at the entrance. They walked along the fenceline until they spotted Baker’s husband, who asked if they were there because of the goat milk. Baker showed up 20 minutes later.

She told them something she hadn’t said to the parents or the undercover investigator : The milk was for pets only and advertised as such on Facebook.

“Of course, she insisted that she only sells the goat milk for pet food,” Jill Soares, a regional supervisor with the Food and Agriculture Department, later wrote in an email to the team .

Although California requires licenses to sell raw milk for human consumption, unlicensed farms can sell it as long as they label it as pet food . Sellers have seized on the loophole to avoid scrutiny and prosecution, a health official familiar with Baker’s case told ProPublica, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly. “There is a gap in regulation,” the official said.

The gap is magnified in 13 other states, where raw milk can be sold only as pet food, but regulators know people are still drinking it. Outbreaks this year in Louisiana and last year in Florida sickened multiple children, including at least one who developed the same life-changing kidney condition as Brooklyn. No dairy got in trouble. State officials said the milk was legally sold and clearly labeled.

In Baker’s case, the investigative report makes no mention of California regulators interrogating her about the pet food defense, despite the text messages they’d read. “She clearly knew the milk was going to a child,” Soares wrote to her team .

With such evidence in hand, they could have referred the case to local prosecutors. Instead, before the site visit, supervising special investigator Jeffrey Eggert wrote in an email to the team that pursuing charges was not the priority.

“The immediate goal here is to get the goat farm to stop all milk related-product manufacturing, and keep the community safe,” he wrote. His unit “typically pursues the criminal route; however, the legal process is lengthy.”

That decision appeared to inform how the regulators approached their visit to Baker’s farm.

They handed Baker a cease-and-desist order and a violation notice for operating as a food facility without a valid permit; neither carried penalties, but both threatened consequences if she didn’t comply.

Then, they told Baker they would return the next morning to collect a milk sample for testing, as the families whose children had fallen sick did not have any leftover milk.

The next day, they met Baker at the gate and accepted a half-gallon jug of raw milk she assured them had been collected the previous night from 11 goats.

Department officials told ProPublica that California law does not permit investigators to enter unlicensed properties, even when they receive reports of unlicensed activity.

At licensed farms, California investigators have collected the milk themselves. And because newer batches might not have the same contaminant that sickened consumers, they have also combed the farmland for the pathogen, sampling dirt, groundwater and animal droppings. In some cases when they haven’t found a pathogen strain in the milk, they have found it in the surroundings .

Eleven days after regulators left with the sample Baker collected, the state’s limited test results came back negative for several pathogens, including E. coli.

Regulators then pivoted to helping Baker get approval to start selling her milk again — still without a license, inspections or testing — so long as she labeled and registered it as pet food.

Baker soon wrote back to the undercover investigator to see whether they were still interested. “I have gotten confirmation from CDFA that I’m in full compliance for pet consumption milk!”

On Aug. 1, the Food and Agriculture Department closed its case, finding that Baker had “promoted raw milk for sale and sold unapproved milk products in commerce without a CDFA license.” She was given no penalty.

County of Riverside/ProPublica

“I was unable to show that she sold milk intended for human consumption,” wrote special investigator Nancy Del Cid. “If this had been proven, the case would have been referred to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office for potential prosecution.”

The department didn’t respond to ProPublica’s specific questions about the investigation, including why officials had come to this conclusion despite evidence that had made at least one supervisor remark that Baker “clearly knew the milk was going to a child.”

Officials told ProPublica that seeking criminal charges would have slowed down their effort to stop Baker from selling more milk.

“Issuing a cease-and-desist order almost always results in a product being removed from the market more rapidly than a criminal referral,” said Devon Keeler, a spokesperson for the department, in an emailed statement. “In this case, CDFA acted to protect public health as quickly as possible by taking steps to stop this product’s distribution based on the evidence and information investigators collected and confirmed.”

In response to questions about why it did not pursue prosecution in parallel to its attempt to enforce a cease-and-desist, department officials told ProPublica that local law enforcement often does not pursue criminal charges unless a cease-and-desist order has been violated.

Earlier this year, Baker moved out of California and reopened her farm in Arizona. But before she left town, I visited Moonlight Ridge.

Heading down the same road the inspectors did months before, I came upon the same gate. This time, it was open, so I drove through it, past the sprawling estate of horse corrals and stables. I parked near a grove of peeling eucalyptus trees where I saw a small pen with a large herd of goats protected by a barking farm dog. About 30 yards away was an aging trailer. I climbed the dusty stairs and knocked.

Baker opened the door, in leggings and a tank top, her hair held back with sunglasses. After I explained why I was there — regulators had connected her farm with a recent outbreak — she told me that the case had been dismissed and urged me to call the state’s Food and Agriculture Department. “Everything was negative,” she said. “There were no pathogens.” She added that the results from her own private lab test had also come back clean.

Baker touted the resolution of the case as a total vindication, and the negative test results — from samples she had gathered unsupervised , weeks after the infections started — as proof that her milk had not caused the outbreak.

If her animals had carried E. coli, she said, she and her husband would have been infected at some point. “Quite frankly, we don’t care if we’ve cleaned the pen and then go grab a sandwich,” she told me. “We’ll eat with our hands filthy.”

She said she tested her herd for some goat diseases, but said she never claimed to have tested the milk for foodborne pathogens.

She also stressed that families had knowingly bought milk that was not for human consumption. “Everything is sold as pet milk,” she said. “What they choose to do with it is not my business.” She added that Marris made a poor decision and was “trying to find someone to take the blame for it.”

She suggested she didn’t know the Galindo family well, or that they were drinking the milk. It was just a coincidence, she maintained, that the two families, who hadn’t met each other, both had children who fell ill with the same rare strain of E. coli — one strongly associated with raw-milk consumption — after drinking her product.

Regardless, she said, she stopped selling it after Marris’ daughter fell ill.

“I was nice to Emily,” Baker told me in a sharp tone, describing how she gave the family special privileges by allowing them to visit her farm. “She has completely ruined it.”

Several of her assertions didn’t line up with what the families had shared with me, or what I had read in their text messages and the state’s internal records. When I followed up this summer and asked her about what I had learned, she refused to respond to my questions.

Through Facebook Messenger, Baker said she “vehemently” disagreed with ProPublica’s “distortion and mischaracterization of the facts,” but did not point out any specific errors.

When Brooklyn came home from the hospital, she barely resembled the active toddler who had started to cruise and speak simple words before falling ill. The disease had substantially interrupted her development. “It just all sort of stopped and stalled,” Marris said.

Brooklyn began physical therapy right away, but she walked with a slight limp and couldn’t sleep through the night without terrors. Doctors also warned that she would likely face long-term kidney issues. She would need to be seen every six months by a nephrologist and would not ever be able to drink alcohol.

Victoria, too, will require ongoing medical monitoring.

Not long after both girls had been discharged, a mutual acquaintance connected their two families, who gathered in Marris’ backyard. Sitting over a spread of cheese, crackers and blueberry jam, they compared the text messages that Baker had sent them.

It became evident, recalled Marris, that Baker had known that both children had become sick after drinking her raw milk, but had not informed the hospital or told the families that they weren’t alone. Together, they decided to file a lawsuit against Baker and her farm in Riverside County Superior Court, alleging they had negligently sold the families contaminated raw milk that was presented as “fit for human consumption.” The case is ongoing. Baker told ProPublica that the farm will “fully defend against the allegations by Plaintiffs.”

Marris said she felt she needed to hold Baker accountable for what she’d done, given that regulators had squandered their chance to do so. But she also carries her own heavy burden of guilt.

“I’m going to hate myself to the day I die for having allowed that to happen,” she said. Now more fearful of harming her children, she agonizes over whether meat is undercooked or pasteurized milk has been sitting out on the counter too long.

Hoping to spare other families the same pain, Marris posted another warning when she saw someone else advertising raw milk in her chiropractor’s Facebook group that summer.

“Just PLEASE PLEASE educate yourself and make choices about raw milk carefully. My 17 month old baby and one other little girl almost died last month from raw goats milk,” she began. “I’m posting this so you know what can truly happen if the milk has bacteria….know the risks, and make your own personal choices.”

When she later logged back in to see whether people had responded, she saw a notification at the top of the feed: “Your profile is suspended from this group.”

She texted the office of her chiropractor, Boman, one of the group’s three administrators. “I’m now banned from the group Chris runs, despite knowing what has happened,” she wrote. “I’m pretty disappointed.”

Boman texted back with his condolences but said he wasn’t a mediator. “You shared your story, we appreciate it, and people can read it and decide for themselves if they want to assume the risks or not,” he said. “Are you wanting anything else from the group?”

I visited Boman this January at his office in a Murrieta strip mall where he specializes in pediatric and prenatal chiropractics. I found him leaning on the front desk of his waiting room, wearing a sweatshirt that said “PRAY” across the chest. His neatly clipped facial hair framed a welcoming smile. He agreed to speak outside.

After Marris was suspended from the group, Boman said, he hoped it would calm down the conversation. She was “just drumming up a bunch of fear,” he said. “She’s coming out of this traumatic experience. … People need to see all perspectives.”

Boman said he had spoken with Baker to understand hers. “I don’t want someone in the group that’s doing shady things,” he told me. “People have been kicked out for selling bad cows.” But Baker assuaged his concerns. “From everything I understand, her standards are super high,” he said, citing her negative pathogen results. “Her milk came back squeaky clean.”

Boman said he connected Baker with the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that assists raw-dairy sellers, which Baker said last January was representing her. Boman said the referral wasn’t, “You did something wrong, make sure you lawyer up,” adding that he has a membership that allows him to access the fund’s services. “If something arises, it’s nice to have someone in that corner.” The organization said it is not representing Baker in the lawsuit.

Boman still believed in raw milk, he told me. He’d only stopped selling it in his office because he had dried up his cow. He said he was supportive of what Marris had been through, but “I don’t want a product to get blamed if it wasn’t that.” Boman did not respond to follow-up questions sent by email.

For Marris, his response was a betrayal. But the experience didn’t keep her away from Facebook groups where people continue to spread misinformation about raw milk and advertise it for sale. At night, after tucking her children into bed, Marris scrolls through them, tracking the posts.

From time to time, she steps back into the comments and shares her story, hoping to prevent other mothers from making the worst mistake of their lives. Sometimes, she is attacked and accused of lying by raw-milk absolutists. And sometimes, the groups delete her posts.

图片由Emily Marris/ProPublica提供

编者按：本文最初由非营利新闻机构ProPublica发布，该机构致力于调查滥用职权的行为。订阅Dispatches新闻简报，每周即可在您的邮箱中收到聚焦全美各地不法行为的报道。

去年，艾米丽·马里斯坐在儿科重症监护室里，看着呼吸机维持着她 17 个月大的女儿的生命，她翻遍了手机里的内容，寻找证据提供给加州卫生和食品安全调查人员。

她从一位脊椎按摩师在脸书群组里推荐的农场购买了生羊奶。玛丽斯原本希望这种未经加工的天然羊奶能缓解女儿布鲁克林的便秘。但医生们现在怀疑，这种未经巴氏消毒（没有加热杀死病原体）的羊奶才是导致布鲁克林严重大肠杆菌感染的罪魁祸首。

对于联系过马里斯的监管机构来说，这起案件是头等大事。这家农场似乎违反了州法律，向毫不知情的家庭出售未经监管的生牛奶；不久之后，另一名饮用了同一农场牛奶的6岁女孩也住进了圣地亚哥的同一家医院，患上了同样的可能致命的疾病，需要输血。

随着社交媒体影响者和唐纳德·特朗普总统的白宫不断吹捧生牛奶未经证实的益处并淡化其风险，类似的案例在全国各地不断涌现。仅在过去两年里，就有九个州的数百人因饮用生牛奶或食用生牛奶制品而患病。

加州意识到人们仍然希望拥有购买生牛奶的自由，因此采取了一种平衡措施：它向出售供人类食用的生牛奶的农场颁发许可证，检查它们的卫生状况，并要求它们定期对牛奶批次进行病原体检测。

正如ProPublica此前报道，这套系统并未阻止疫情爆发。但它的目的至少是确保消费者了解自己购买的产品可能存在的问题；在该州合法销售的牛奶必须贴有清晰的警告标签。

而这正是此次疫情爆发更令监管机构担忧的地方。

导致女孩们生病的牛奶并非来自该州十几家持证农场中的任何一家。这家奶牛场完全不正规，出售数量不明、未贴标签的牛奶。

而马里斯的手机里还藏着更令人震惊的信息。几个月的短信记录显示，农场主从一开始就知道有个幼儿在喝她的牛奶。后来，当农场主得知布鲁克林感染了严重的食源性疾病，医生认为是由牛奶引起的，她却继续在脸书上做广告：“来自经过检测的干净羊群的生羊奶”。

经过许多个不眠之夜，马里斯截取了这些信息的屏幕截图，并将它们发送给了调查人员，希望在疫情蔓延之前将其遏制住。

在至少四个州和县级机构之间一系列的邮件往来中，加州食品和农业部的调查人员主导了调查。他们需要确认该农场是否确实在销售供人食用的牛奶。在加州，无证销售牛奶属于违法行为，最高可处以1万美元的罚款和一年的监禁。

2025年6月17日晚，一名卧底调查员向该农场的Facebook账号发送了一条消息：

“想买一加仑”

农场有人回复说，他们按加仑出售羊奶，并解释说他们暂时没有奶瓶了，并表示一旦货物到达就会立即通知您。

监管机构现在拥有了一个难得的机会。

他们掌握了确凿的证据：两个配合的家属、直接短信报案记录以及医院记录，这些都证实了两个年轻生命遭受的摧残。

他们采取行动的理由很明确。生牛奶消费正日益成为一个危险因素，而且他们所在的州和其他州一样，充斥着黑市奶制品店，这些店的生存依赖于受错误信息刺激的消费者需求。

他们本可以根据一项旨在防止此类行为的法律追究处罚，以此向其他卖家发出国家绝不容忍此类行为的信号。

但实际情况并非如此。

那年一月的一个下午，玛丽斯正在南加州的家中给女儿喂奶，这时Facebook上的一个帖子吸引了她的目光。

在一个家庭农场主的私人群组里，她的脊椎按摩师克里斯·博曼分享了一张照片，照片上是一个冰箱，里面装满了刚收集的新鲜牛奶。在玛丽斯去他诊所就诊的这些年里，她经常看到他在诊所的候诊室里出售自家奶牛产的生牛奶。

她以前从未想过自己尝试，但最近她一直在想着母乳的事。她正在尝试给布鲁克林断奶，但目前为止进展并不顺利。

布鲁克林是她的“奇迹宝宝”。玛丽斯48岁时怀上了她——这是她梦寐以求的第三个孩子。然而，布鲁克林早产了七周，由于出生体重偏低和肺部发育不全，她在出生后的第一个月都在重症监护室接受治疗。

ProPublica 的莎拉贝斯·马尼

那次痛苦的生产经历彻底激发了玛丽丝的保护本能。她自称是一位“自然妈妈”，此前她已经对位于河滨县内陆小镇温彻斯特郊区的家进行了彻底的清洁，清除了所有有害化学物质和合成材料，并限制了家人摄入超加工食品。作为一名受过专业训练的助产士和前教师，她的大部分时间都用来照顾孩子，而她的丈夫则经营着一家体育科技初创公司。和她之前的两个孩子一样，她决心尽可能长时间地母乳喂养布鲁克林。

但女儿刚满一岁时，玛丽斯开始服用一种治疗慢性髋关节疼痛的新药，这种药会通过母乳传递给孩子。她尝试过有机婴儿配方奶粉，但其中的添加剂数量让她感到担忧；而市售的牛奶又让布鲁克林严重便秘。玛丽斯曾考虑过停药，但那样一来，她就无法正常行走，疼痛难忍。

她急于寻找替代方案，于是在她的脊椎按摩师的 Facebook 帖子下评论道：“这种奶粉适合小 Brookie 喝吗？”

群里的成员们纷纷留言。“我不得不给我的宝宝喝生羊奶，”一位母亲写道，“宝宝很快就好了……羊奶比牛奶更容易消化。” Meta 的一位发言人表示，虽然 Facebook Marketplace 禁止销售生牛奶，而且此类广告一旦被举报就会被删除，但讨论生牛奶的内容仍然是被允许的。

评论者推荐了一家名为“月光岭”的农场，马里斯点击进入了它的Facebook主页，上面满是毛茸茸的努比亚山羊的照片。农场每天挤奶两次，所以奶制品“始终保持最新鲜、最优质的状态”。农场离她家只有10英里。马里斯当天下午就安排了参观。

农场没有任何路标，但马里斯拐进一条土路，看到了农场23岁的女主人考特尼·贝克。她有着一头金色长发和一身古铜色肌肤，正站在一辆白色皮卡车旁的金属大门边。贝克和她的丈夫在疫情期间开始对养山羊产生了兴趣。贝克后来回忆说，他们开始出售生羊奶，以帮助动物救助机构和养殖户，而且他们的大部分客户都是通过口碑介绍来的。

贝克向玛丽斯打招呼，并递给她一罐没有标签的生羊奶，摸起来还温热着。

玛丽斯指着睡在SUV后座上的女儿，解释了布鲁克林的消化问题。“这就是你正在帮助的那个可爱的女孩，”她回忆起当时对那位农场主说的话。

回到家后，玛丽斯灌满奶瓶，忐忑地递给布鲁克林。她的女儿毫不犹豫地接了过去。

“她狼吞虎咽地吃完了！”玛丽斯发短信告诉贝克。

“太好了！！我很高兴她喜欢！”贝克回答道，然后当天晚些时候又问道：“她的肚子对牛奶的反应怎么样？”

第二天早上，布鲁克林的问题似乎有所缓解。“她已经拉了两次很棒的、正常的便便了！！！”玛丽斯发短信告诉贝克。

玛丽斯认为自己已经做了充分的调查。她研究过生牛奶，当地农民和她关注的健康博主都大力宣传生牛奶的好处。第一次提货后不久，她和丈夫乔什就去了月光岭农场考察羊群。山羊看起来都得到了很好的照料。他们回忆说，当他们询问贝克关于安全措施的问题时，这位农场主反复向他们保证，她的羊群和牛奶都是“干净且经过检测的”。玛丽斯信任贝克，认为这位农场主正在尽一切可能确保牛奶的安全。

六个月来，玛丽斯一直给布鲁克林喂生牛奶，没有发生任何意外。

然后，6月2日，一切开始崩溃。布鲁克林在游泳课回家的路上，把后座吐得一塌糊涂。

同一天，另一对夫妇，海军退伍军人艾瑞斯和戴维·加林多，开车前往月光岭领取他们的第一批羊奶。

他们一直在为6岁的女儿维多利亚寻找替代品，因为医生建议她限制食用牛奶制品。他们开始考虑羊奶，艾瑞斯小时候在危地马拉就喝过羊奶。她联系了贝克，贝克几年前曾辅导过他们的儿子数学，现在正在当地的一个Facebook群组里宣传生羊奶。“我们之间有信任，”加林多说。

那天，当贝克递给他们一个没有标签的罐子时，加林多夫妇说他们明确表示，这些牛奶是给他们的小女儿喝的。

当晚，维多利亚喝了她的第一杯酒。

布鲁克林第一次呕吐后的那几天简直是噩梦：呕吐物先是变成了胆汁黄色，然后变成了焦油状的黑绿色，血液检查结果让急诊室医生大为震惊，他们叫人将她送到 70 英里外的儿科重症监护室。

玛丽斯和她的丈夫震惊而无助地等待着，雷迪儿童医院的医生们将一堆电线连接到他们几乎失去意识的女儿身上：一根管子插入她的气管以帮助她呼吸，透析管插入她的血管以支持她衰竭的肾脏。

布鲁克林患上了溶血性尿毒综合征，这是一种罕见疾病，患者体内微小的血栓会堵塞血管，破坏重要器官。传染病医生怀疑是由一种大肠杆菌引起的，于是让马里斯详细询问了布鲁克林近期的饮食情况。

她说，当她提到生牛奶时，他们不安地看着她，告诉她那很可能是罪魁祸首。大肠杆菌能在动物肠道内大量繁殖。即使只有10个细菌细胞，隐藏在极少量的粪便中，也能污染生牛奶，引发致命感染。

玛丽丝既担心女儿，又对自己感到愤怒。她曾在网上搜索生牛奶的好处，并从生牛奶支持者那里得到了她需要的证实。

她并不知道医学界的共识，即生牛奶与巴氏杀菌牛奶相比，没有任何已证实的营养价值，而且生牛奶引发食源性疾病的风险是巴氏杀菌牛奶的100多倍。“是我给她喝的，”她想，“我到底有多蠢？”

6月5日，玛丽斯在女儿床边给贝克发短信说：“他们认为布鲁基可能因为喝了一批变质的牛奶而感染了大肠杆菌……我只是想告诉你一声，万一你想提醒一下之前一周喝过这种牛奶​​的人。”

“听到她正在经历这些，我感到非常难过！”贝克迅速回应道。“我的所有牛奶检测结果都显示一切正常。”

然而，当天晚些时候，玛丽斯在与贝克发短信时得知，这位农场主并没有进行大肠杆菌检测；看来她也不知道该怎么做。“我找到的所有检测结果都显示，这种细菌主要来自肉类，”贝克写道。

玛丽斯大吃一惊。贝克怎么会不知道如何检测像大肠杆菌这样常见的食源性病原体呢？尽管如此，玛丽斯仍然保持礼貌。“你也别太自责。你是个善良的人，我不想你我为此难过。”

布鲁克林入院两天后，也就是6月6日，医生撤掉了她的呼吸机，但她却难以苏醒。在接下来的几个小时里，她继续接受透析治疗，但眼珠却不断后移，身体偶尔抽搐，呼吸也变得沉重而急促。

当晚，她的血液酸性过强，扰乱了心脏的电信号，导致心脏难以泵出足够的血液和氧气输送到大脑。医疗团队连续数小时试图稳定她极高的脉搏。她的父母不知道她能否熬过那一夜。

在等待最新消息期间，粪便样本检测结果证实布鲁克林感染了大肠杆菌O157:H7，这是最危险的菌株之一。当马里斯将诊断结果发短信告诉贝克时，这位农场主详细描述了她的设备清洁流程，并表示她会将样本送往科罗拉多州的一家实验室进行检测。

几天后，布鲁克林的情况终于好转。但在离马里斯家不远的郊区穆列塔，维多利亚的情况才刚刚开始恶化。

过去一周，她变得越来越虚弱，还时不时出现血性腹泻。两次急诊就诊均无果后，加林多一家于6月13日开车送她去了雷迪医院。血液检查显示，她和布鲁克林患有同样的疾病，是由同一种大肠杆菌引起的；她被紧急送入重症监护室。“我的世界瞬间崩塌了，”艾瑞斯·加林多说道。

6 月 14 日，玛丽丝得知另一个孩子喝了生牛奶后生病了，她再次给贝克发短信说：“也许应该等到我们知道是否存在共同点后再出售。”

然而，第二天，马里斯看到贝克最近在 Facebook 群组中回复了一位寻找生羊奶的人：“我有来自葡萄酒产区经过检测的干净羊群的生羊奶……我们每天挤奶两次，所以总是非常新鲜。”

玛丽丝惊恐万分，紧紧抓住手机两侧，想要拍下屏幕上的内容。

“出于尊重，我先提醒你一下，”她发短信给贝克说。“我本来根本不打算发任何消息，但你竟然在无法检测出那种致命的大肠杆菌菌株的情况下，就宣传牛奶经过检测且安全，这让我感到非常震惊。”

玛丽斯随后详细地描述了她女儿身上发生的事情。

“我17个月大的孩子这周差点没命，”她写道。“我从来不想在这件事上指责她，但她应该暂停生产，确保检测出这种特定菌株，并在恢复销售前保证牛奶安全，这是明智之举。”

她按下发布按钮，松了一口气，然后看着回复纷至沓来。

“为你的宝贝祈祷。”

“天哪，我几周前差点就从她那儿买牛奶了。”

“感谢你保护了我们其他人。”

然后她的手机震动了一下。贝克终于回复了。

起初，她为回复迟缓道歉，解释说自己还因其他疾病住院治疗。她表示，尽管她在脸书上发表了评论，但在等待检测结果期间，她已经停止销售牛奶。

然后她要求马里斯删除帖子。“尽管我非常痛恨布鲁克（原文如此）的遭遇，也为她感到难过，但我真的非常非常不喜欢我的名字被这样公开。”她说。

玛丽丝很不情愿地删除了她写的内容。

她之前已经和州监管机构谈过疫情爆发的情况，并交出了她的短信记录。

她坚信，他们一定会采取行动。

根据 ProPublica 获取的调查内部记录显示，6 月 20 日，三名监管人员对月光岭进行了突击检查。

农场位于一个更大的马场内，他们在入口处没看到任何人。他们沿着围栏走，直到看到贝克的丈夫，贝克的丈夫问他们是不是来买羊奶的。贝克20分钟后出现。

她告诉他们一些她没有告诉家长或卧底调查员的事情：这种牛奶仅供宠物饮用，并在 Facebook 上做了相应的广告宣传。

“当然，她坚称自己只把羊奶卖给宠物食品公司，”食品和农业部区域主管吉尔·苏亚雷斯后来在给团队的电子邮件中写道。

尽管加州规定销售供人类食用的生牛奶必须持有许可证，但未获许可的农场只要将其标注为宠物食品即可出售。一位熟悉贝克案件的卫生官员告诉ProPublica，一些卖家利用这一漏洞逃避审查和起诉。这位官员要求匿名，因为他没有被授权公开谈论此事。“监管存在漏洞，”这位官员说。

在其他13个州，这种差距被进一步放大。在这些州，生牛奶只能作为宠物食品出售，但监管机构明知人们仍在饮用。今年路易斯安那州和去年佛罗里达州爆发的疫情导致多名儿童患病，其中至少有一名儿童患上了与布鲁克林相同的、足以改变人生的肾脏疾病。没有一家乳制品企业因此受到处罚。州政府官员表示，这些牛奶是合法销售的，并且标签清晰。

在贝克的案件中，调查报告并未提及加州监管机构就宠物食品辩护对她进行质询，尽管他们已经阅读了相关短信。“她显然知道牛奶会给孩子喝，”索亚雷斯在写给团队的信中说道。

掌握了这些证据，他们本可以把案件移交给当地检察官。然而，在实地考察之前，主管特别调查员杰弗里·埃格特在给团队的电子邮件中写道，提起诉讼并非当务之急。

他写道：“眼下的目标是让这家养羊场停止所有奶制品生产，保障社区安全。”他的部门“通常会采取刑事诉讼途径；然而，法律程序漫长。”

这一决定似乎影响了监管机构对贝克农场的访问方式。

他们向贝克递交了一份停止营业令和一份违规通知书，理由是她无证经营食品场所；虽然两份通知书都没有规定处罚，但都威胁说如果不遵守将会面临后果。

然后，他们告诉贝克，他们会在第二天早上回来收集牛奶样本进行检测，因为生病的孩子的家庭没有剩余的牛奶了。

第二天，他们在门口遇到了贝克，并收下了半加仑的生牛奶。贝克向他们保证，这些牛奶是前一天晚上从 11 只山羊身上收集的。

加州执法部门官员告诉 ProPublica，加州法律不允许调查人员进入无证经营场所，即使他们收到有关无证经营活动的报告。

在获得许可的农场，加州调查人员亲自采集了牛奶样本。由于新批次的牛奶可能不再含有导致消费者患病的同一种污染物，他们还对农场进行了彻底的勘察，采集了土壤、地下水和动物粪便样本，以寻找病原体。在某些情况下，即使没有在牛奶中发现病原体，他们也会在周围环境中发现它。

监管机构带着贝克采集的样本离开 11 天后，该州有限的检测结果显示，包括大肠杆菌在内的几种病原体检测结果均为阴性。

监管机构随后转而帮助贝克获得批准，让她可以再次开始销售牛奶——尽管仍然没有许可证、检查或测试——只要她将牛奶贴上宠物食品的标签并注册为宠物食品即可。

贝克很快回复了卧底调查员，询问他们是否仍然感兴趣。“我已经从加州食品和农业部（CDFA）确认，我的宠物食用奶完全符合规定！”

8月1日，食品和农业部结案，认定贝克“在没有加州食品和农业部许可证的情况下，推广销售生牛奶和未经批准的乳制品”。她没有受到任何处罚。

河滨县/ProPublica

“我无法证明她出售的是供人食用的牛奶，”特别调查员南希·德尔·西德写道。“如果情况属实，此案将移交河滨县地方检察官办公室，以进行可能的起诉。”

该部门没有回应 ProPublica 关于调查的具体问题，包括为什么官员们在至少有一名主管表示贝克“显然知道牛奶是给孩子喝的”的情况下，仍然得出这样的结论。

官员们告诉 ProPublica，寻求刑事指控会减缓他们阻止贝克继续销售牛奶的努力。

“发出停止销售令几乎总能比提起刑事诉讼更快地将产品从市场上移除，”加州食品和农业部发言人德文·基勒在一份电子邮件声明中表示。“在本案中，加州食品和农业部根据调查人员收集和确认的证据和信息，采取措施阻止该产品的分销，以尽快保护公众健康。”

针对为何在执行停止令的同时没有提起诉讼的问题，该部门官员告诉 ProPublica，地方执法部门通常不会在停止令被违反之前提起刑事诉讼。

今年早些时候，贝克搬离了加利福尼亚州，在亚利桑那州重新开办了她的农场。但在她离开小镇之前，我拜访了月光岭农场。

沿着几个月前检查员走过的同一条路，我来到了同一扇大门前。这次大门敞开着，于是我开车穿过它，经过一片广阔的马厩和围栏。我把车停在一片桉树林附近，那里有一个小羊圈，里面养着一大群山羊，一条狂吠的农场犬守卫着它们。大约30码外是一辆老旧的拖车。我爬上布满灰尘的台阶，敲了敲门。

贝克穿着紧身裤和背心，头发用太阳镜束在脑后，打开了门。我解释了来意——监管机构将她的农场与最近的疫情联系起来——之后，她告诉我案件已经撤销，并敦促我致电州食品和农业部。“一切检测结果都是阴性，”她说，“没有病原体。”她还补充说，她自己做的私人实验室检测结果也显示正常。

贝克称此案的解决是彻底的平反，并表示在感染开始数周后，她在无人监督的情况下采集的样本的检测结果呈阴性，证明她的牛奶没有引起疫情爆发。

她说，如果她的牲畜携带大肠杆菌，她和她丈夫迟早都会被感染。“坦白说，我们不在乎是不是已经把畜栏清理干净了，然后就去拿三明治吃，”她告诉我，“我们就算手脏了也会吃。”

她说她对羊群进行了一些山羊疾病的检测，但她说她从未声称对牛奶进行过食源性病原体的检测。

她还强调，有些家庭明知故犯地购买了不可供人食用的牛奶。“所有东西都标榜为宠物奶，”她说，“他们怎么处理这些牛奶与我无关。”她补充说，马里斯做出了一个错误的决定，并且“试图找人替她背锅”。

她暗示自己并不熟悉加林多一家，也不知道他们喝过她的牛奶。她坚称，这两个素未谋面的家庭，在喝了她的牛奶后，都出现了同一种罕见的大肠杆菌感染症状，这纯属巧合——这种大肠杆菌与生牛奶的摄入密切相关。

她说，尽管如此，在玛丽斯的女儿生病后，她就停止销售这种产品了。

“我对艾米丽很好，”贝克语气生硬地告诉我，她允许艾米丽一家参观她的农场，给了他们特殊的待遇。“她把一切都毁了。”

她的几项说法与家属们告诉我的情况，以及我从他们的短信和州政府内部记录中了解到的信息都不符。今年夏天我再次联系她，询问我了解到的情况时，她拒绝回答我的问题。

贝克通过 Facebook Messenger 表示，她“强烈”反对 ProPublica 对事实的“歪曲和错误描述”，但没有指出任何具体的错误。

布鲁克林出院回家时，几乎看不出生病前那个活泼好动、开始扶着东西走、会说简单词语的小女孩的样子了。这场疾病严重阻碍了她的发育。“一切都停滞不前了，”马里斯说。

布鲁克林立即开始了物理治疗，但她走路时略微跛行，而且夜里总是惊恐不安，无法安睡。医生还警告说，她很可能面临长期的肾脏问题。她需要每六个月去看一次肾脏科医生，而且永远不能饮酒。

维多利亚也需要持续的医疗监测。

两个女孩出院后不久，一位共同的朋友牵线搭桥，促成了两家人的见面。他们聚集在玛丽斯家的后院，一边享用着奶酪、饼干和蓝莓果酱，一边比较着贝克发给她们的短信。

马里斯回忆说，很明显，贝克明知两个孩子喝了她农场的生牛奶后生病了，却既没有通知医院，也没有告诉家属他们并非个例。于是，他们决定在河滨县高等法院对贝克及其农场提起诉讼，指控他们疏忽大意地向家属出售了受污染的生牛奶，并声称这些牛奶“适合人类饮用”。此案仍在审理中。贝克告诉ProPublica，农场将“全力反驳原告的指控”。

马里斯表示，鉴于监管机构错失了追究贝克责任的机会，她觉得自己有必要追究贝克的责任。但她自己也背负着沉重的罪恶感。

“我会恨自己一辈子，恨自己竟然让这种事发生，”她说。现在，她更害怕伤害自己的孩子，她总是纠结于肉是不是没煮熟，或者巴氏杀菌奶是不是在台面上放太久了。

为了避免其他家庭遭受同样的痛苦，玛丽斯在那年夏天看到有人在她的脊椎按摩师的 Facebook 群组里宣传生牛奶时，又发布了一条警告。

“请务必了解生牛奶的相关知识，谨慎选择。上个月，我17个月大的宝宝和另一个小女孩差点因为喝了生羊奶而丧命，”她写道。“我发帖是想让大家知道，如果牛奶里有细菌，会发生什么……了解风险，做出自己的选择。”

当她后来重新登录查看是否有人回复时，她在动态顶部看到一条通知：“您的个人资料已被暂停访问此群组。”

她给她的脊椎按摩师博曼的办公室发了短信，博曼是这个群组的三位管理员之一。“尽管我知道发生了什么事，但我现在还是被克里斯管理的群组除名了，”她写道。“我非常失望。”

博曼回复短信表示慰问，但表示他并非调解人。“你分享了你的故事，我们很感激，其他人可以阅读后自行决定是否愿意承担风险，”他说。“你还需要我们做些什么吗？”

今年一月，我去拜访了博曼，他的诊所位于穆列塔一家购物中心内，专长于儿科和孕期脊椎矫正。我发现他倚在候诊室的前台，穿着一件胸前印着“祈祷”字样的运动衫。他修剪整齐的胡须衬托着一张和蔼的笑容。他同意到外面和我谈谈。

博曼说，玛丽斯被停职后，他希望这能平息这场风波。他说，她“只是在散播恐慌”。“她刚刚经历了一场创伤……人们需要看到所有不同的观点。”

博曼说他曾和贝克谈过，想了解她的情况。“我不想让做不正当勾当的人留在团队里，”他告诉我，“有人因为卖劣质奶牛而被踢出团队。”但贝克打消了他的顾虑。“据我了解，她的标准非常高，”他说道，并提到了她牛奶的病原体检测结果呈阴性。“她的牛奶检测结果非常干净。”

博曼表示，他联系了“农场到消费者法律援助基金”（Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund），这是一个为生乳制品销售商提供援助的非营利组织。贝克曾表示，该基金在去年一月代表她出庭。博曼强调，他介绍贝克并非是“你做错了什么，一定要找律师”，并补充说，他本人是该基金的会员，因此可以使用其提供的服务。“如果出现什么问题，有人在身边总是好的。”该组织表示，他们并未在诉讼中代表贝克。

博曼告诉我，他仍然相信生牛奶。他之所以不再在办公室出售生牛奶，只是因为他的奶牛已经绝育了。他说他理解马里斯的遭遇，但“我不想让产品因为其他原因而受到指责。” 博曼没有回复我通过电子邮件发送的后续问题。

对玛丽斯来说，他的回应是一种背叛。但这段经历并没有让她远离脸书群组，在那里，人们仍在散布关于生牛奶的虚假信息，并兜售生牛奶。每天晚上，哄孩子们睡下后，玛丽斯都会浏览这些群组，追踪帖子内容。

她时不时会在评论区分享自己的故事，希望能避免其他妈妈犯下人生中最严重的错误。有时，她会遭到生乳至上主义者的攻击和指责，被指责撒谎。有时，这些群体还会删除她的帖子。