The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoard’s Dairyman.

Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) stands in opposition to a bill draft from State Representative Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) proposing the redesign of Wisconsin’s license plates.

Rep. Allen’s co-sponsorship memo to legislators, circulated in the wake of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce head Kurt Bauer’s suggestion that the slogan “America’s Dairyland” be replaced, notes that, “Our national advertisement should reflect where we are going as a state and not where we have been.”

In response, WCMA Executive Director John Umhoefer shared this statement:

“Dairy generates $43.4 billion of economic activity and directly supports tens of thousands of jobs in Wisconsin. Cheese manufacturing has steadily grown in Wisconsin, with an annual average growth of 2.8 percent since 1970. Wisconsin cheesemakers lead the nation, producing more than three billion pounds of cheese each year, and expect to increase their production by more than 250 million pounds by 2019.

“Dairy isn’t ‘who we were.’ It is, without question, where we are going as a state.

“All across Wisconsin, new factories are opening with hundreds of new, family-supporting jobs available, not only in cheese manufacturing, but also in cutting and packaging cheese products, warehousing cheese, and distributing cheese to markets around the world.

“It’s disappointing that Rep. Allen would fail to celebrate Wisconsin’s hardworking dairy farm families and cheesemakers.”