The Butter Wasn't From Washington—and the Dairymen Knew It
Creamerymen and farmers across Washington protest dealers who relabeled eastern butter as local creamery product, calling it a fraud on consumers and a threat to a young industry's hard-won reputation.
Editor Ranch and Range: As a dairyman, regarding the importation of eastern butter to our markets, rebranding and selling same as Washington creamery, I would say that it is clearly and indisputably a wrong. Those engaged in so doing are perpetrating a great fraud upon consumers of butter, and doing a great injustice to the dairymen of the state. These facts are self-evident. Honesty will not countenance such a practice, and those engaged in it will not, in my humble opinion, profit by it in the end. The dairymen of the state will become aroused and resent the wrong. — H. L. Blanchard, Hadlock, Wash.
W. J. Spillman of Pullman wrote that a dealer who sells poor butter under his own name injures himself, but a dealer who puts up goods under fictitious names or another established creamery's brand is committing a fraud that should be prohibited. J. H. Moore of Falls City said the state's dairymen had earned an enviable position and should be protected from others using their reputation. At the Enumclaw fair and farmers' institute, prominent dairymen endorsed Ranch and Range's stand. Letters from Yelm, Satsop and La Conner echoed the protest, and the Pleasant Ridge Creamery Co. said it had always thought it wrong for dealers to bring in Iowa butter and sell it for Washington butter.
“It is clearly and indisputably a wrong. Those engaged in so doing are perpetrating a great fraud upon consumers of butter, and doing a great injustice to the dairymen of the state.”
Before 'Made in Washington' became a marketing slogan, dairy farmers here were already fighting to keep outsiders from borrowing the label. Their complaint—imported goods sold under a local brand—anticipates today's fights over food labeling, country-of-origin rules, and who gets to profit from a regional reputation. It also shows how quickly a young industry learned that reputation is a form of property.
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