Ahh, behold the power of cheese.
The catchy phrase made popular by a national dairy ad campaign nearly a decade ago proved true in Wisconsin last week, when an effort to legalize raw milk sales on a trial basis was quashed at the final stage of approval after an 11th-hour push by the state’s $26.5 billion dairy industry.
Raw milk supporters — including small-dairy farmers that sold the product, consumers and one of the bill’s primary sponsors — say they are upset the dairy industry was able to change the course of the bill’s momentum by swinging in after the end of the legislative session, prompting Gov. Jim Doyle to veto it.
He did so on Wednesday, one month after the Senate passed it on a 25-8 vote and the Assembly passed it on a 60-35 vote.
“We had insiders watching this thing,” says Joe Plasterer, a raw milk consumer and the consumer representative on a state raw milk study group. “They told us to rally the troops. Doyle was backing out.”
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