A new report says Wisconsin, not California, leads the nation in specialty cheese production. But are our cows "happier?
You may have seen and even chuckled at those California cheese commercials. You know, the ones showing dairy cows living the good life under blue skies in a California pasture, with the announcer saying " Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California."
But Jeanne Carpenter at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture bursts the idyllic bubble. She says most of those California cows are sitting in feed lots and never see a blade of green grass.
In fact the animal activist group PETA tried to claim conditions were even worse but their lawsuit claiming the ads were false and misleading was thrown out of a San Francisco court in 2005.
Carpenter says it's different in Wisconsin. You'll see those black and white bovines grazing on green grass with plenty of pasture access. Even in winter, Carpenter says state dairy farmers do everything they can to make their cows comfortable.
Carpenter says Wisconsin cows can't help but be happier.