Once the nation's leading butter producer, Minnesota fought hard against the "abomination" of margarine.
MINNEAPOLIS — A century ago, Minnesota produced more butter than any other state, a legacy that lives on in Land O' Lakes and our prized State Fair butter sculptures. But our dairy dominance also fueled the state's involvement in a successful, nationwide effort to quash the fatty spread's archrival: margarine.
Initially known as oleomargarine, the cheap butter alternative rapidly grew in popularity after it arrived in the United States from Europe following the Civil War. And it just as quickly found enemies among the politically powerful dairy lobby, which used regulations and taxes to undercut margarine's success for more than 70 years.
