Background of the board members

André Mulder is the CEO of the Raw Milk Company in De Lutte. Until 2015, he was a pioneering dairy farmer on his own dairy farm in Wythmen (near Zwolle). Together with his wife Tonny, he made the first raw milk kefir in a 10-litre bucket.

As an organic farmer, André successfully raised a herd of mainly Brown Swiss cows for many years. Driven by his sense of quality, he abolished antibiotics early on and focused on preventive measures and means to keep his cows healthy. Chopped maize and certain types of concentrated feed were out of the question because of the quality of the milk.

In Wythmen (near Zwolle, Nl), André read Ron Schmid's book, The Untold Story Of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products. This book was an important inspiration for his livestock farming and his initial search for opportunities to sell raw milk to consumers.

Because the construction of a motorway completely divided the farm land, André and his wife decided to sell the business and devote themselves entirely to the production of raw milk dairy products, mostly kefir. A dairy factory was built in De Lutte and organic livestock farmers who were willing to comply with the Raw Milk Company's quality and safety requirements were contacted. By the end of 2025, more than 40,000 kg of raw milk per week will be processed at the De Lutte location.

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André Mulder

Johan Garssen is head of the Pharmacology division and an expert in Immunopharmacology with a strong focus on inflammation. Research in the Pharmacology group focuses on the basic mechanisms underlying chronic inflammatory diseases and their pharmacological manipulations via drugs, biologicals and/or medical food components. The objective of the division is to gain deeper insight into the pathways in which cells and mediators of the immune and/or central nervous systems interact, aimed to develop new concepts for prevention and/or treatment of (immune related) disorders with a strong focus on inflammation management and organ function restoration. Major target organs are the gastrointestinal, kidney, respiratory and nervous systems in both animals and man. The program follows an integrative multidisciplinary, translational approach: from molecular via in vivo animal models for disease towards proof of concept clinical studies in healthy volunteers and patients. The pharmacology group exists of three interactive research sections: Immuno-pharmacology is focused on the relationship between immune cells and their mediators in the development/maintenance and inhibition of immune-related diseases such as (food) allergy, asthma, COPD and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Neuro-immuno-pharmacology, integrated mechanistic research on the contribution of the gut-immune-brain axis in neurological as well as immunological disorders is performed. Recently kidney and metabolism research have been added to the group with a strong focus on regenerative medicine for which innovative tools, including organ on a chip technologies, are being developed. All sections interact creating unique concepts involving the diverse target organs. The Pharmacology group is aimed to develop, understand and validate new concepts for disease management.

Research

Johan Garssen studied medicine and biology at the Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands. He specialized in immunology, pharmacology and biochemistry and finished both studies in 1987 cum laude. He finished his PhD thesis at the University of Utrecht (Faculty of Pharmacy) in 1991 on the role of T cells in respiratory allergy, an immunopharmacological approach. This PhD program and a postdoc period was partly performed at Yale University, New Haven, USA. After the postdoc period (Yale New Haven, RIVM Bilthoven) he became senior scientist at the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands. There he coached many research projects, both preclinical as well as clinical research, in the field of immunomodulation induced by a.o. nutritional ingredients, drugs and environmental agents. In 2002 he became head of the section immunology at Numico-Research, Wageningen, Netherlands and in October 2008 he was appointed director of the immunology platform of Nutricia Research (formerly Numico and Danone). Since 2005 he was appointed at the Utrecht University as well in order to startup a strategic research alliance between Utrecht University and Nutricia research. Since 2007 he is Professor Immunopharmacology at the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences and still involved in managing a strategic alliance with Nutricia research (Utrecht/Singapore). He is managing and coaching many research programs at the interface between food and pharma including public private research programs with Nutricia, Friesland Campina, Bioceros, GSK, Johnson and Johnson and Bayer. Johan Garssen published over 400 peer reviewed papers/book chapters/patents in the field of “immunomodulation” with a strong focus on inflammation. He coached (promotor) over 40 PhD students in the Netherlands and abroad. He is editorial board member for several journals and founder of Elsevier’s “Pharma Nutrition”. He has contributed to various grants, a.o. NWO, EU, NIH, STW, TIP, TIFN, Inflame, CCC. RAAK-PRO and a Nutricia research strategic alliance. Budget > 2 MEuro per year including clinical trials.

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Prof.Dr. Johan Garssen

Dr. Anna Catharina (Cat) Berge is a Swedish veterinarian and epidemiologist with experience in animal food production from farm to fork. After a short time as a large animal veterinary practitioner, she worked in veterinary legislation and policy, at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the National Food Administration and the European Commission. Thereafter, she then spent 10 years in western United States researching zoonoses in dairy farming, in particular bacteria such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, and antibiotic resistance. She completed her Master’s study in preventive veterinary medicine and wrote her PhD research on comparative pathology. Nowadays she lives in Belgium and runs her own international consultancy. Dr Berge is also a scientific adviser at the University of Ghent for the Epidemiology department, where she is also involved in farm biosecurity, zoonotic bacterial and antibiotic reduction.

Cat’s interest in raw milk arose from her own allergy to pasteurized milk and milk products. After having lived with milk allergy for more than 20 years and the resulting reduction in quality of life, she wanted to make safe, raw milk available to other people with similar problems. She discovered that for raw milk, as for most other European foodstuffs, there are hygienic methods of production that does not need ‘final decontamination’ through pasteurization. Dr. Berge actively supports the work of raw milk producers to limit existing risks using a holistic approach where all aspects from grass to milk are taken into account. Her extensive knowledge of different dairy farming systems, combined with her epidemiological, microbiological and veterinary knowledge and her knowledge of human health provide unique skills to guide farmers in their daily work in order to run a safe and hygienic dairy farm.

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Anna Catharina Berge, DVM, MSc, MPVM, PhD

Berge Veterinary Consulting BVBA

Ton Baars is a retired researcher. Interest in raw milk has existed since 2005, when research began at the University of Kassel (Witzenhausen). Children with multiple allergies aged around 1.5 years were tested with raw milk and heated milk. The results showed that they did not have an allergic reaction to raw milk, but did to regular “shop milk” (pasteurised, homogenised). This led to a search for the possible secret of raw milk, raw fermented milk in relation to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. After a meeting with Johan Garssen, raw milk was tested in animal models for food allergies at Utrecht University. This led to Suzanne Abbring's PhD research (in December 2019) and further research into raw milk kefir in relation to immunology (part-time appointment at Utrecht University).

Previously, he was a senior researcher for milk quality and animal welfare at the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick (CH). He worked for 25 years as a researcher for organic grassland and livestock farming at the Louis Bolk Institute in Driebergen (NL), (1980-2005). He held the first chair in biodynamic agriculture at the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen (Germany) (2005-2011). In all these positions, research into various aspects of milk quality was a recurring theme in his work.

Ton Baars is a board member for the quality theme at the Stichting Aged Farm house Gouda (BGO). He is an advisor/researcher for the Raw Milk Company, De Lutte. He represents the FACE network for the Dutch umbrella organisation for farm house cheese producers 'Bond voor Boerderijzuivelbereiders' (BBZ) and is affiliated with the German Vorzugsmilchverband. Together with his colleague Catharina Berge, he has been writing scientific information about (raw) milk on the website milkandhealth.com for many years.

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Em.Prof.Dr. Ton Baars