Margarine Was Legally Required to Be Pink in Some US States

The war between butter and margarine got colorful in the United States during the late 19th century. When margarine arrived from France in the 1870s, dairy farmers saw it as an existential threat to their livelihoods. By 1902, 32 states had imposed color constraints on margarine. Vermont, New Hampshire, and South Dakota took it to the extreme, passing laws that demanded margarine be dyed an off-putting pink. The Supreme Court eventually overturned these pink laws on the grounds that it is illegal to enforce the adulteration of food. Wisconsin, the Dairy State, held out the longest, only repealing its margarine color ban in 1967. The battle was so fierce that Senator Joseph Quarles of Wisconsin thundered that he wanted butter with the natural aroma of life and health, not caul fat matured under the chill of death.