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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Legislators look to repeal margarine law

Wisconsin legislators push to repeal decades-old ban on margarine. Photo by Erin Caughey/ [email protected]

Some state legislators think Wisconsinites should be able to choose more than just on which side their bread is buttered—they should be able to choose whether they’re spreading butter or margarine.

Twelve legislators are co-sponsoring a bill to repeal a decades-old law that makes it illegal for restaurants, prisons and schools to substitute margarine for butter, unless a customer specifically requests it.

Representative Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), who drafted the bill, Googled “stupid Wisconsin laws” and found this one at the top of the list. He has called the bill out-of-date and anti-free market.

Wisconsin initiated the ban on the sale and consumption of margarine in 1895, in order to protect the business of dairy production. Selling and using margarine in Wisconsin was considered a crime.

Margarine is defined as a fatty butter substitute made from vegetable oils or animal fats. Butter is a fatty substance made by churning cream.

The ban started a period of “spread smuggling” throughout the state. Archived photos from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel show ’50s housewives filling car trunks with colored margarine bought from the “oleo black market.” Selling and using margarine in Wisconsin was considered a crime.

This law was repealed to only ban the substitution of margarine in 1967, and now offenders will face a $100 to $500 fine and a jail sentence of up to three months. Subsequent offenses have a possible fine of $500 to $1,000, or a jail sentence of six months to a year.

However, it is clear the law prohibiting the substitution of margarine for butter in public places has rarely been enforced, at least in recent years.

Trevor Wuethrich, co-owner of Grassland Dairy in Greenwood, Wis., said he believes the law should be repealed because it is not policed and can infringe on the public’s right to consume the spread of their choice. However, he added that enforcing the law would make for healthier Wisconsinites.

“Margarine contains hydrogenated oils, which are just as deadly as tobacco,” he said. “The body cannot break them down and they linger in your system. Butter is an all-natural product the body can easily digest.”

Wuethrich said there is a definitive taste difference between margarine and butter, and that he believes butter to be the superior-tasting product. He said margarine manufacturers try to mimic the color and texture of butter, but the more than sixty flavor components naturally occurring in butter make it impossible.

Despite its original purpose, the repeal of the margarine law will not significantly affect dairy producers, said Maureen Hall, a dairy veterinarian.

“Butter is not a major contributing factor to the amount of dairy products consumed in the US,” Hall said. “The repeal will not seriously impact the price the dairy producer is paid for their milk.”

Wuethrich said he does not expect his dairy to suffer financially or lose jobs if the margarine law is repealed. The most significant impact, he said, will be on Kooyenga himself.

“Dale is a PR genius,” Wuethrich said. “He is a freshman legislator, and by repealing this obscure bill, everyone will know his name.”

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