Wisconsin just can’t get too cheesy, can it? State lawmakers are again proposing that an official state microbe, the bacterium Lactococcus lactis, join Wisconsin’s roster of 20 similar state symbols.
The bill, Assembly Bill 408, has bipartisan support and was approved 10-0 by the Assembly Committee on State Affairs last fall after a not-exactly-contentious public hearing.
That convening at the Capitol included a heartwarming appearance by a 9-year-old named Amira Shabaneh (accompanied by her mom, a recent UW-Madison microbiology grad). She spoke, yes, in favor of the bill. “Wouldn’t it be cool if every kid in Wisconsin learned about a state microbe?” Amira told legislators. “Imagine sitting in class, talking about the state bird or flower, and then your teacher says, ‘And here’s our state microbe!’ It sounds funny – but it’s also awesome, because it mixes science and Wisconsin pride at the same time.”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
As the bacterium that’s primarily responsible for turning milk into cheese, L. lactis is indeed doing the lord’s work. Andrew Hanus, director of the Illuminating Discovery Hub at UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, made the case for recognizing the microbe in a letter to lawmakers: “Without Lactococcus lactis, Wisconsin would not have 65,000 cheesemakers producing an annual 3.5 million pounds of cheese, accounting for 600 types of cheese, which sum to nearly $10 billion in revenue to the state. Without Lactococcus lactis, these figures and our state’s signature craft simply wouldn’t exist.”
We love cheese! But dairy is already well-tilled symbolic soil: It’s the source of our state beverage (milk), dairy product (cheese) and domesticated animal (dairy cow) – not to mention the official state slogan, America’s Dairyland.
So, at the risk of running afoul of the state’s powerful cheese lobby, may I counterpropose a microbe from another of Wisconsin’s, ahem, signature crafts: Sacchromyces cervisae, brewer’s yeast.
Brewing is as central to Wisconsin’s history, culture and economy as cheese, and yet has not been honored by any state symbol. Plus, a cold beer catalyzed by S. cervisae pairs very well with a few slices of the state’s official dairy product.
On, Wisconsin!
