The City’s Campaign Against ‘Swill Milk’
A new Seattle ordinance cracks down on impure milk production and the use of 'distillery waste' as feed.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Ordinance No. 2110 is designed to prevent the sale of adulterated and unwholesome milk within the city of Seattle. No person shall bring milk into the city for sale in any open or uncovered wagon; all milk must be transported in a manner that protects the cans from sun, rain, and street dust. The ordinance strictly prohibits the sale of milk from which cream has been removed or to which water or other substances have been added unless clearly labeled 'skimmed milk.' Furthermore, no person shall keep cows for milk production in an overcrowded or unhealthful condition, or feed them on distillery waste—commonly known as 'swill'—or any substance in a state of putrefaction. Violators face a fine of up to one hundred dollars or imprisonment in the city jail for up to thirty days.
“No person shall feed cows on distillery waste, usually called 'swill,' or vinegar slop, or upon any substance in a state of putrefaction or rottenness.”
Long before modern food safety regulations, Seattle’s early government had to manually legislate against the 'swill milk' trade, a common urban scourge where dairies fed cows brewery runoff. Today’s debates over supply chains and food purity have evolved, but the tension between industry profit and public health remains a persistent civic thread.
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