Request 056 — 2/24/2026

Tonight, foiaday is all-natural, unpasteurized and unfit for human consumption

It’s Tuesday, happy foiaday!

ICYMI, yesterday I published a massive mega email with every request from week eight of foiaday. You can check it out here.

On Saturday, I’ll publish a big ol’ monthly roundup of everything in February. Not gonna lie, I’ve really got some oddball requests in here so far, especially from the past week. It’ll be fun!

Tonight’s request, as I jam out to Fatboy Slim and tackle some draft edits, is all-natural, unpasteurized and unfit for human consumption: raw milk!!

If there's a coworker or friend you think would benefit from this newsletter, feel free to forward it to them! If they subscribe, they'll also get a link to a template for the tracker I like to use to keep tabs on requests I've filed.

Last month, there was uproar — devastation! — on r/Chicago, as a resident posted some shocking news: Amish & Healthy Foods, a corner store, had its license suspended.

The OP was aghast. The best eggs he’s ever tasted!

It turns out that Amish & Healthy Foods was put out of commission because they bombed their health inspection in December, something that came with a laundry list of violations, including witnessing no handwashing and sink issues.

Amish & Healthy Foods ended up failing another inspection in January, then passed (and re-opened) earlier this month. But a comment on the original post reminded me of the wild world of the raw milk market.

One, a waiver is crazy. Two, a waiver is crazy.

In Illinois, raw milk can be sold for human consumption, but only from a dairy farm. That means, legally, prospective raw milk buyers have to physically be on the property of a farm to purchase the milk.

Easy to do if you’re in about 85% of the state. Hard to do if you’re in the city, where nary a dairy farm is in sight.

Any raw milk for sale outside of dairy farms is officially, legally, not fit for human consumption. But it doesn’t stop people from buying nor consuming, and it certainly doesn’t stop places from selling.

Farms looking to sell raw milk have to file a specific permit with the state public health department. But with raw milk, loopholes are a-plenty.

Similarly with those weird cafes that are just fronts for Herbalife, some raw milk distributors take advantage of the model of a buyers club or membership program to ship raw milk directly to one’s front door.

In the case of Harmony Acres, for example, they’re a private membership club that does not sell anything, don’t you dare say they sell anything, but instead offers milk in exchange for donations to the ministry.

It’s almost like a CSA or farm-share program, which allows for community investment and profit/resource sharing. Just… without health regulations.

Let’s get back to buyers and sellers. In Chicago, “getrawmilk.com” only offers up delivery programs for residents. But we know, based on this very official Reddit post, that stores do, in fact, sell raw milk that they reasonably anticipate people (not pets) will drink.

So is anyone getting ratted out?

Let’s request a few types of records, including from the Illinois, Chicago and Cook County public health departments.

To start, let’s request for dairy farm permits, including for raw dairy farms. This is something that has to be filed with the state, and is described in this very helpful packet!

- Data, documents, or records sufficient to show all raw dairy farm permit applications filed in 2025 and 2026 so far. Please release .pdf versions of the permits filed by companies, with any necessary PII redacted. Please include the company name, as well as other necessary records included here (https://dph.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idph/publications/idph/topics-and-services/food-safety/dairy/raw-dairy-farm-permit-packet_2023.pdf)

- Data, documents, memos, field reports, notes, or logs of inspections done by IDPH sanitarians for raw dairy farm permit applications. Please include the outcome of the inspection, the name and address of the farm inspected, and any related notes or observations, as well as milk sample data.

- A list of all permitted dairy farms in Illinois, including all permitted raw dairy farms, in 2025 and 2026. Please include the name of the business, the address of the business, the date the permit was filed and any associated metadata. Please release the list in a .csv or .xlsx format if possible; if not, a digital format like a .pdf is fine.

Then, let’s request for any complaints called in to 311 (in Chicago), or either the state, city or county health departments that involve the phrase “raw milk.”

- Data or documents sufficient to show all 311, public health and/or food establishment complaints filed in 2025 and 2026 about the sale of raw milk. In the case of data, like a list of complaints, please release records in a .csv or .xlsx format; in the case of documents, like narrative reports, please release records as a .pdf.

- Data, field notes, inspection records, memos, or logs of inspections of food establishments, businesses or nonprofits, as well as cottage businesses, that involve the sale or human consumption of raw milk, in 2025 and 2026. In the case of data, like a list of complaints, please release records in a .csv or .xlsx format; in the case of documents, like narrative reports, please release records as a .pdf.

I think that should be sufficient — it might be too broad, but I can always narrow. I have no frame of reference for how many permitted farms there are (10? 50? 100? 500?) for raw milk in the state, and nooooo idea of who’s selling. (Other than Amish & Healthy Foods, of course.)

We’ll see what gets turned up, and narrow if needed!

Alrighty. Night everyone, happy filing!

Cam

_{Social preview photo is titled “Champaign Sanitary Milk Co.”, from the Historic Champaign County - Neighborhoods and Homes collection housed at the Illinois Digital Archives, contributed by the Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library. No photographer listed, but it was taken in the 1920s!}