These Things May Seem The Same, But They Have Some Pretty Important Differences

The Butter Lobby Forced Margarine Into An Underground Black Market

Photo credit: Bettina BRINKMANN/Gamma-Rapho/Scott Olson/Getty Images

Butter is made from milk, and margarine is made of vegetable oil. It seems simple enough, but butter and margarine have been duking it out for centuries. Margarine was invented in France as a cheap substitute to feed the army and the masses. The vegetable oil substitute became a staple in most low-income households for centuries.

Travel across the Atlantic Ocean, and American dairy farmers didn’t want the cheaper substitute to take all their business. The butter lobby was successful, and for years, margarine had to be dyed bright colors (often pink) to make sure people could differentiate it. Only in the last 50 years have butter and margarine have become interchangeable.