Where you can buy unpasteurized (raw) milk depends almost entirely on where you live. Federal law prohibits selling raw milk across state lines, but individual states set their own rules, and they vary widely. Some allow retail store sales, others restrict purchases to the farm itself, and a number of states only permit workarounds like herd share agreements.
How State Laws Shape Your Options
There is no single national rule for raw milk sales. Some states allow unpasteurized milk on store shelves alongside pasteurized options. Others permit sales only at the farm where the milk was produced, or at farmers’ markets. A third group prohibits direct sales entirely but allows consumers to obtain raw milk through ownership arrangements with dairy farmers. And a handful of states ban all distribution of raw milk to consumers, full stop.
States where you can buy raw milk in retail stores, like California and Pennsylvania, make access relatively straightforward. In retail-legal states, raw milk must carry specific labeling. California, for example, requires a prominent warning on the label noting that raw milk may contain disease-causing microorganisms and listing groups at highest risk, including infants, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. The warning must appear in a contrasting color within a heavy border.
In states that allow only on-farm sales, you’ll need to visit the dairy directly. Some farms also sell through farmers’ markets or mobile delivery routes. These operations typically don’t ship milk to you since the federal interstate ban means raw milk cannot legally cross state lines, a regulation the FDA put in place in 1987.
Herd Shares: The Legal Workaround
If your state prohibits retail raw milk sales, a herd share may be your path. Under a herd share agreement, you purchase partial ownership in a cow or a herd rather than buying the milk itself. As a part-owner of the animal, you’re entitled to a portion of its milk. This sidesteps sales laws because you’re technically consuming milk from your own animal.
Ohio illustrates how this works in practice. State law clearly prohibits selling raw milk to consumers, but it does not prohibit animal owners from drinking milk from their own livestock. When Ohio’s Department of Agriculture challenged herd share agreements as illegal in 2006, the court declined to shut them down. Herd shares remain legally acceptable there as a result. A growing number of states have since passed laws explicitly recognizing these arrangements.
Practically speaking, a herd share involves paying a one-time buy-in for your ownership stake plus an ongoing boarding fee that covers the farmer’s costs for feed, care, and milking. You then pick up your share of milk on a regular schedule, typically weekly. Some farms offer delivery or designated pickup sites.
How to Find a Local Source
The most widely used tool is the Real Milk Finder at realmilk.com, maintained by the Weston A. Price Foundation. The directory lets you search by state and ZIP code, filter by type of source (retail store, on-farm, herd share, home delivery, farmers’ market, or pickup site), and find listings within a set radius of your location. It covers both U.S. and international sources.
Your local farmers’ market is another good starting point. Even if a vendor doesn’t sell raw milk at the market itself, they can often point you toward nearby farms that do. Some states restrict raw milk sales to the farm gate, so a market vendor may not be able to sell it there but can direct you to their farm. Searching for “raw milk” plus your county or region in local farming groups and forums is also effective, since many small producers rely on word of mouth rather than formal directories.
Raw Milk Outside the United States
In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, raw cow’s milk is legal but restricted to direct sales: at the farm gate (including through vending machines and online orders), at registered farmers’ markets, or via milk delivery rounds. It cannot be sold in supermarkets or shops. Scotland bans the sale of raw drinking milk and raw cream entirely.
In Canada, selling raw milk is illegal at the federal level, though some provinces have herd share arrangements similar to those in the U.S. The British Columbia Herdshare Association, for instance, is a non-profit that helps develop on-farm food safety plans for participating dairies. In much of the European Union, raw milk can be sold directly from farms, and Germany operates a formal certified raw milk program called Vorzugsmilch with monthly veterinary inspections and mandatory lab testing for pathogens.
What Higher-Standard Producers Do
Not all raw milk operations follow the same safety protocols. If you’re choosing a farm, it helps to understand what separates a careful operation from a casual one. The Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI), a North American organization, certifies farms that meet standards well above typical regulatory minimums. RAWMI-listed farms test milk at least monthly for bacteria levels in accredited labs, and their benchmarks are far stricter than standard European Union requirements: coliform counts at or below 10, and total bacteria counts at or below 5,000 per milliliter.
Some certified farms go further, running daily “test and hold” programs where each batch is checked for bacteria using benchtop lab equipment before it’s released for pickup. These farms also maintain biosecurity plans designed to reduce the chance of harmful organisms entering the herd or contaminating milk during milking, chilling, and bottling. Germany’s Vorzugsmilch program uses a similar system with warning values and upper limits: if bacteria counts exceed the upper limit, milk sales stop immediately, and they can only resume after corrective measures and clean follow-up tests.
When evaluating a farm, ask whether they test their milk regularly, what their bacteria count targets are, and whether they’ve had any positive pathogen results. Farms that are transparent about their testing are generally the ones investing in safety.
Safety Risks Worth Understanding
Pasteurization exists because raw milk can carry dangerous pathogens. The CDC has linked unpasteurized milk to outbreaks caused by Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and the parasite Cryptosporidium. Between 2009 and 2021, 143 outbreaks confirmed or suspected to be tied to raw milk consumption were reported to the CDC. Sixteen of those were Salmonella outbreaks, with a median of 10 illnesses each.
One of the largest raw milk outbreaks in recent U.S. history occurred in California in 2023 and 2024, linked to commercially distributed raw milk contaminated with Salmonella Typhimurium and spreading across five states. California, despite being one of the most regulated retail raw milk states, has seen four confirmed and three suspected outbreaks linked to raw milk since 2012. No outbreaks were linked to pasteurized milk in California during that same period.
Nutritional Differences Are Smaller Than You’d Think
A common reason people seek out raw milk is the belief that pasteurization destroys significant nutrients. A systematic review of 40 studies found that pasteurization does reduce levels of vitamins B1, B2, C, and folate, and slightly lowers B12 and vitamin E. Vitamin A actually increased after pasteurization. Vitamin B6 showed no significant change.
However, the practical nutritional impact is minimal because most of these vitamins are present in relatively low levels in milk to begin with. The one exception worth noting is vitamin B2 (riboflavin), since milk is an important dietary source of it and pasteurization does reduce its concentration. For most other nutrients, the difference between raw and pasteurized milk is not large enough to meaningfully change your diet.