The Butter Battle

Bootlegging margarine.

Katherine Mangu-Ward from the October 2011 issue

When someone predicts that “our soils will become barren” and “the dairy industry will be destroyed,” you might think a wrathful god is unleashing a cattle plague. But in 1886, the year those threats were registered in the Congressional Record, the source of deadly danger was no deity. It was margarine.

The cheap alternative to butter was taking France by storm. Fearing froggy competition, the American dairy lobby warned that the margarine menace would rob the red-blooded American public of “life promoting vitamins…without which human infants cannot continue to live.” Congress was thus persuaded to pass the Margarine Act of 1886. Butter alternatives became more expensive, thanks to high taxes and limited access to licenses for legal production, which remained in place until 1950.

Making a cheap thing artificially expensive is a great way to create a black market. And lo and behold, by 1915 the U.S. government was deep into the business of locking up folks like oleomargarine bootlegger Charles Wille (pictured above) in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Wille is one of a rogues’ gallery of bread-spread criminals on display in an exhibit, “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?,” scheduled to run through January 3, 2012, at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is a senior editor at reason.

Reason needs your support. Please donate today!

Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.

Suki|9.28.11 @ 12:03PM|#

Good afternoon reason!

|9.28.11 @ 12:05PM|#

Margarine love,
Ole-ole-o.
I think I wanna eat ya.

GroundTruth|9.28.11 @ 12:06PM|#

"Dudes, what er ya'll in fer?"

"Grand theft"

"Arson"

"Selling margarine without a license"

(Cellmates start to inch away.)

Not that Paul|9.28.11 @ 12:17PM|#

Go get the butter.

Realist|9.28.11 @ 12:21PM|#

He sure as hell looks like a threat to me.

Mainer|9.28.11 @ 12:26PM|#

Is that Sacco or Vanzetti ?

|9.28.11 @ 12:46PM|#

The eyes. You can see it in his eyes. He eats margarine.

Restoras|9.28.11 @ 12:09PM|#

Margarine is an abomination.

Tman|9.28.11 @ 12:19PM|#

Didn't we have this conversation like a week ago?

Margarine- the devils butter.

Old Mexican|9.28.11 @ 12:19PM|#

The cheap alternative to butter was taking France by storm.

Anything that comes from France is unamerican! So is fingerprinting(*)!

(*) Lizzie Borden Case.

Realist|9.28.11 @ 12:33PM|#

Borden....is that a pun on dairy products?

Shorter old mex|9.28.11 @ 1:16PM|#

lizzie borden axed the cows

Realist|9.28.11 @ 5:09PM|#

"lizzie borden axed the cows"
Is that a racist remark?

Mr. FIFY|9.30.11 @ 2:14AM|#

Everything's a racist remark.

Colonel_Angus|9.28.11 @ 4:05PM|#

"Margarine is an abomination."

If you're using it as a spread, yes.

If you're always using butter as a cooking oil, you're a dumbass. Stuff often tastes better when you use other things instead.

Incorrect|9.28.11 @ 7:27PM|#

"Stuff often tastes better when you use other things instead."

And not a single one of those things is margarine.

Why is there always some asshole like you in every thread?

Suki|9.28.11 @ 12:12PM|#

They seriously did this? I heard about the thing in ancient times where consumers had to mash a yellow dye packet into white margarine. It was white so the masses would not confuse it with real butter.

|9.28.11 @ 12:20PM|#

The dye jell capsule was red and it turned the white stuff yellow. Also, it wasn't ancient times - mashing the margarine packet was my job in the late 40's and early 50's.

Realist|9.28.11 @ 12:23PM|#

Same here, but some people consider that ancient times.

Brian|9.28.11 @ 1:01PM|#

That white paste with a dye capsule lasted in Quebec into the 1970's. Of course Quebec is the homeland of protectionism when it comes to the dairy industry. Think Canadian Milk Marketing Boards - still going strong!

Colonel_Angus|9.28.11 @ 4:04PM|#

The Canadian Wheat Board rate fixers, too.

Ezra Klein|9.30.11 @ 2:15AM|#

Margarine's as old as the Constitution?

mikey|9.28.11 @ 4:35PM|#

My first libertarian moment. I asked my mom why she mixing the coloring into the icky white stuff. She told me what and why the gov't made it necessary. I said "That's stupid!".
Ancient Times??? WTF!
Never mind.

Some Guy|9.28.11 @ 12:13PM|#

the American dairy lobby warned that the margarine menace would rob the red-blooded American public of “life promoting vitamins…without which human infants cannot continue to live.”

That's why my 7-month-old gets fed a strict diet of 2 sticks of butter a day.

Old Mexican|9.28.11 @ 12:16PM|#

Did I mention that regulations and licensing laws and other sort of hurdles are really meant to keep the competition of the favored industries at bay?

I guess I did.

Shorter old mex|9.28.11 @ 1:19PM|#

cheaters like em some govt regs

Sparky|9.28.11 @ 12:17PM|#

And here we are a mere 125 years later with a market awash in butter flavored spreads. Thank you Mr Wille for thumbing your nose at the government and continuing to provide the sweet healthy goodness that is margarine to thankful consumers. Just think, if people kept eating butter on everything we might end up with an obesity problem.

|9.28.11 @ 12:41PM|#

And lots of heart disease!

reality|9.28.11 @ 7:29PM|#

there is no obesity problem, i laugh heartily at the morons who are too stupid to realize that

Mr. FIFY|9.30.11 @ 2:17AM|#

The real morons are the ones who refer to the "obesity epidemic", as if it were a communicable disease.

Paula Dean|9.28.11 @ 12:20PM|#

that sonofabitch got off lucky.

Mainer|9.28.11 @ 12:24PM|#

I thought this was a joke at first:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/rec.....index.html

Realist|9.28.11 @ 12:27PM|#

You spelled your name wrong!

Anal Vanneman|9.28.11 @ 3:30PM|#

What?

Realist|9.28.11 @ 5:12PM|#

It's Deen!

omg|9.28.11 @ 12:23PM|#

Its like that old government food chart posted a while back where "butter" had its own category. Or "milk" still having its own category in the current "myplate" garbage.

Eduard van Haalen|9.28.11 @ 1:30PM|#

I'm surprised ethanol and corn whiskey aren't on that food pyramid. Have to win those Iowa primaries, after all.

Realist|9.28.11 @ 12:30PM|#

Charles Wille.
Is this guy related to a coyote?

Old Mexican|9.28.11 @ 12:33PM|#

Fearing froggy competition, the American dairy lobby warned that the margarine menace would rob the red-blooded American public of “life promoting vitamins…without which human infants cannot continue to live.” Congress was thus persuaded to pass the Margarine Act of 1886.

Who assured me that it is academic types who come up with these schemes after I had posted that it was corporate lobbyist and pressure groups who convince Congress to pass these stupid regulations? I think it was Baked Penguin who countered my argument with that. Guess I was not wrong, after all.

Shorter old mex|9.28.11 @ 1:23PM|#

bribes from business = stoopid regs

BakedPenguin|9.28.11 @ 2:25PM|#

Nope.

Rhywun|9.28.11 @ 1:04PM|#

You'd think the government would keep a lid on this stuff - it just fills people's heads with crazy ideas like "gee, this is exactly how they operate today".

Ventifact|9.29.11 @ 8:16AM|#

It almost makes you wonder if the government is not a perfectly run conspiracy but is made up of diverse persons with independent goals.

|9.28.11 @ 1:07PM|#

So Geraldo was arrested for counterfeiting margarine?

|9.28.11 @ 1:17PM|#

"What's Cookin', Uncle Sam"? Are you fucking shitting me?

Juice|9.29.11 @ 9:51AM|#

Nope, there are ads for it all over Metro. It's an exhibit about the "federal government's influence on what we put on our dinner tables." Influence, he he.

|9.28.11 @ 1:27PM|#

Since most margarine contains trans-fat, it's still illegal in some places.

you're an idiot|9.28.11 @ 7:30PM|#

"Since most margarine contains trans-fat"

"it's still illegal in some places."

Also nope.

|9.28.11 @ 1:36PM|#

Charles Wille looks a lot like a chick in drag.

George V|9.28.11 @ 2:25PM|#

Julie Child looks like a man in drag. She used butter.

|9.28.11 @ 2:08PM|#

FDA regulations still prohibit margarine from being sold in containers larger than one pound.

H. Reardon|9.28.11 @ 2:29PM|#

An H&R poster directed me to this a month ago. It's appropriate here.
http://billstclair.com/DoingFr.....eggin.html

Mayor Bloomberg|9.28.11 @ 4:32PM|#

Now this is the kind of thing America needs more of!!!!

Dan|9.29.11 @ 10:04AM|#

Gov then promoted margarine as healthy alternative before the powers that be noticed transfats were not healthy, in fact they are a health villain. A good test for what eat is to test it with alternative on true dog. In my experience the dog stays clear of Katherine when butter is there.

Related, there is still the Eau Claire WI fed law that results in taxpayer subsidized air conditioned barns in CA for dairy cows and screws wi diary farmers.

We are far from a free market.

Dan|9.29.11 @ 10:07AM|#

Is the author trying to bump her google rating in auto correct? Or is Jobs too smart for me?

Dan|9.29.11 @ 10:09AM|#

Go grab a statin too. Eat lots of margarine and take lots of statins. Your brain will thank you, not.

UGG boots classic|10.5.11 @ 2:38AM|#

Your essay is good, I like it very much. Here I would like to share with you some things :
Cheap UGG Boots http://www.classicuggs-uk.com ----- ercai

cheap jordan 2U|11.28.11 @ 9:59PM|#

good

Reason.com