The Wisconsin Oleo Wars

From a great article by Reid Epstein in the September 18, 2004 edition of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

All Nels Harvey wanted was a good baked potato to go with his meat at the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Menomonee Falls. Like anyone else might, he ordered it with butter.

The chain restaurant not only didn't bring him what he asked for, it broke Wisconsin law.

"I received this baked potato and it was lathered with margarine," Harvey said of his dining experience last weekend. "I find margarine to be quite repulsive."

So he made the request that proved the restaurant's guilt.

"I told the girl that I wanted butter," said Harvey, a 71-year-old retired television engineer from Mequon. "She said, 'We don't have any butter.' "

A remnant of the decades-long tussle in Wisconsin known as the oleo wars, an obscure state law prohibits serving margarine instead of butter at a restaurant unless a customer specifically requests it.

And though the oleo wars officially ended in 1967 when Gov. Warren P. Knowles signed legislation legalizing colored margarine, the fight never ended for true believers such as Harvey who continually turn in restaurants that flout the state's enduring butter laws.

Yes, even today there are still echoes of Wisconsin's unique laws about oleomargarine that turned parents into smugglers, sneaking colored margarine across state lines. Dairy-minded historians might want to check out this oleo wars timeline as well as this comprehensive history from the Wisconsin Historical Society.