Some in Wisconsin’s business community are calling for a change to the state slogan, “America’s Dairyland.” But when a news channel caught Kurt Bauer, head of the advocacy group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, arguing for a more “contemporary” phrase at a statewide meeting for business leaders, the public outcry was quick and loud. So much so that Bauer refused to be interviewed for a story on NPR.
“It’d be a crisis, wouldn’t it? An identity crisis?” says Lisa Torkelson, “who has worked in the Wisconsin cheese industry for more than 30 years. She says the average Wisconsinite still feels connected to the dairy community,” reports NPR. “You tell them what you do for a living, they’ll say, oh, my grandpa milked cows or my aunt or uncle milked cows, or my aunt or uncle worked in a cheese factory,” says Torkelson. While California produces more milk than any other state, Wisconsin still makes the most cheese.