How Wisconsin Became The Cheese Capital Of America (And The World)

It seems nearly impossible to talk about Wisconsin without saying "Go Packers" and catching a craving for cheese. Indeed, America's Dairyland has held a leading position in the dairy industry for nearly 200 years. From Kenosha's Mars Cheese Castle to the mid-inning "Beat the Cheese" races at Milwaukee Brewers games, foodies are saying "yes, please" to cheese. But, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Wisconsin, so how did the state's world-famous dairy dominion come to be?

Like many culinary innovations, Wisconsin' cheesemaking tradition began as a function of necessity. Before the advent of refrigeration, cheese had a hardier, longer-lasting shelf life than milk or butter, creating greater access to dairy products. First-wave Wisconsin cheesemakers hit the scene in the early 1840s on relatively small-scale individual farms — an inception responsible for the state's enduring roots in personal craftsmanship and dedication to quality. Production operations started getting larger in 1858, when J.I. Smith of Sheboygan County obtained a cheese vat. 

Before long, an exponentially-growing cheesemonger scene was cranking out a wide array of different cheeses using different methods. The 1850s saw production techniques tighten with strides in temperature control, proper storage, uniform textures, food-safety practices, and dairy cow raising methods to yield higher-quality milk. By 1921, Wisconsin became the first state to begin grading its cheeses, once again leading the cheese industry by establishing quality standards.

As Wisconsin's cheesemaking industry began picking up speed in the 1850s, America's national wheat industry was simultaneously fading, leading many farmers to turn their attention to raising cattle. The Industrial Revolution was in motion, and two main railroad lines (the Michigan Southern and the Michigan Central) linked Chicago and New York City. A series of smaller railroad lines connected Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa. Trade became mobile. Now, the farming and ranching areas of the Midwest and Great Plains could ship produce faster, farther, and in greater quantities than ever before. However, this increased efficiency effectively lowered crop prices, and farmers began losing money on raw wheat.

The number of Wisconsin cheesemakers quickly outnumbered the local demand, so the cheesemongers expanded their horizons beyond state borders. Smith, the aforementioned cheese-vat-owner, started the expansion by shipping barrels of cheese to Chicago. Further markets emerged in New York and England, sparking Wisconsin cheese's international push and putting American dairy on the map as a world player.

During the second wave of the American Industrial Revolution, Wisconsin cheesemaking moved from farms to industrial factories and production scale rose further to meet increased demand. Factories also mean employment opportunities, and employment-seeking immigrants brought global cheesemaking traditions with them (i.e. Swiss cheese, Italian gorgonzola and mozzarella, French blue cheese). Call it the melting pot, or perhaps more accurately, the fondue pot.

In 1864, Chester Hazen opened one of the first Wisconsin cheese factories in Fond du Lac. By 1870, the state was home to 54 cheese factories, and by the 1920s, the figure increased to more than 2,800. This boom created Wisconsin's unique cheesemaking intersection of local artisanal businesses serving the immediate community and larger-scale operations shipping to customers around the world.

Nowadays, Plymouth is revered as the Cheese Capital of the World's unofficial epicenter. At least 14% of all cheese consumed in the U.S. comes from Plymouth. In 1918, the rural Sheboygan County town was home to the National Cheese Exchange, and today, Plymouth remains home to major cheese giants Sargento and Sartori. "Roughly at peak season, we're probably (packaging) 3.5 million pounds a week, so on any given day we're probably (packaging) 800,000 pounds," Dean Geraldson, Sargento's Plymouth Plant Manager, told Wisconsin news outlet WTMJ4 in 2024.

In 2023 alone, Wisconsin cranked out a whopping 3.5 billion pounds of cheese, making it the largest cheese-producing state in the nation (via Statista). California trailed in a far-behind second-place with just under 2.5 billion pounds. On a global scale, the United States is the single largest cheese-producing country in the world, producing an estimated 6.35 million metric tons every single year, according to the data analytics firm.