Trevor Wuethrich, co-owner of Greenwood-based Grassland Dairy, can’t help but laugh at the margarine debate being waged in Madison.
With butter in his blood — Grassland has made butter since 1904 — Wuethrich said he finds a decades-old unenforced law that restricts the use of margarine amusing and symbolic, because in a sense it pays respect to the importance of the dairy industry.
By law, Wisconsin restaurants can’t serve margarine tableside, unless a customer makes a special request. And, if the restaurant does serve margarine, it also has to have butter available.
While some lawmakers continue to battle about whether to repeal the law, Wuethrich and central Wisconsin restaurant owners chuckle at the idea that the law actually protects butter sales.