Queen Cow and the Eau Claire Rule: Eau Claire as the New Deal Base Point for the Federal Milk Marketing Order

Abstract

As a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, Eau Claire quietly was labeled the base point, or the geographical site at which minimum fluid milk prices are set for the federal milking marketing order. This research seeks to identify the reasons why the federal government labeled Eau Claire as a point of national minimum milk prices, both geographically and economically speaking. It will use contemporary governmental documents before and during FDR’s administration and New Deal legislation, as well as agricultural yearbooks to analyze and evaluate statistical data on fluid milk. This paper is seminal research in the agricultural history of both Wisconsin and the US, as this topic has yet to be approached by historians in any capacity.