In June 2025, a 17-month-old toddler named Brooklyn nearly lost her life after contracting a severe E. coli infection from unpasteurized goat milk purchased from an unlicensed California dairy. Despite evidence connecting the farm to multiple hospitalizations, state agricultural regulators closed the case without issuing financial penalties.
The Hospital Room and the Search for Answers
Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit last year while a ventilator kept her young daughter alive, Emily Marris reviewed her phone for records to provide to food safety investigators. Marris had bought raw goat milk from Moonlight Ridge, a farm recommended in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor, Chris Boman, hoping the natural product would ease Brooklyn’s constipation. Instead, doctors at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego determined the unpasteurized milk was the source of a dangerous E. coli infection that triggered hemolytic uremic syndrome, a rare and life-threatening condition causing microscopic blood clots and organ failure.
Investigators from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) soon learned that Brooklyn was not the only victim. A 6-year-old girl had also been hospitalized in the same intensive care unit with the same life-threatening condition after drinking raw goat milk from the same unlicensed dairy. Text messages recovered from Marris’ phone showed that the farm’s owner, Courtney Baker, continued to market raw goat milk online even after learning of Brooklyn’s diagnosis.
Regulatory Limits and the Pet Food Loophole
Under California law, selling raw milk for human consumption requires a state license, strict sanitation inspections, and regular pathogen testing. Operating without a license can lead to fines of up to $10,000 and a year in jail. 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.
Internal agency emails noted that Baker clearly understood the milk was intended for a child. Yet, special investigator Nancy Del Cid wrote in the closing report that investigators were “unable to show that she sold milk intended for human consumption.”
On August 1, the CDFA 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.
The Human Toll and Ongoing Legal Battles
Hoping to spare other families the same pain, Marris posted a warning when she saw someone else advertising raw milk in her chiropractor’s Facebook group that summer. When she later logged back in, she saw a notification: “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.
