President Ronald Reagan holding a 5-pound block of “government cheese” in 1981
A true treasure of around 635 million kilograms of cheese lies a few hundred meters underground in the United States, guarded by the government. But why? Well, the story is long.
The peculiar origins of the so-called “Government Cheese”, as , go back to the 1970s, when shortage of dairy products and 30% inflation in associated products caused a kind of cheese gold rush by the American government.
Under the presidency of Jimmy Carterthe United States decided that the only way to resolve the issue was give a boost financial support to the country’s dairy industry and stimulate production.
The problem is that, as they say, when you ask, you receive.
to generous injection of 2 billion dollars in federal funds worked — perhaps even too well. Dairy farmers began producing as much as they could, confident that any excess would be purchased by the North American government.
Cheese has become particularly interesting because it is easier to store and in the early 1980s the government found itself with about 227 million kg in excess, explains .
Large surpluses of dairy products were then stored in more than 150 warehouses spread across 35 statess, writes anthropologist Bradley N. Jones in his book ““, and it wasn’t long before the press was faced with a scandal.
At a time when Many families depended on food stampsthere were mountains of unconsumed dairy products that were beginning to spoil.
The bitter taste left in Americans’ mouths would, however, be alleviated when the Special Dairy Distribution Programimplemented by the president Ronald Reagandistributed 14 million kg of cheese for non-profit organizations.
Although much of the cheese distributed was already moldy, it was delivered to people in need.
The solution was far from ideal, not only because of the cheese’s questionable suitability for human consumption, but also because it began to disrupt sales of the industry that produced it.
Still, it was probably a more sensible solution than the one suggested by a government official when: “probably the cheapest and most practical way would be to throw it overboard”.
Instead, cheese has become a symbol of socioeconomic statusas families under financial pressure They took advantage of the sliceable and easy-to-melt dairy products to prepare macaroni and cheese or grilled sandwiches.
The government only abandoned the cheese business in the 1990sbut that wouldn’t be the last time the cheese would be state property.
Em 2016, cheese storage has resumedand the government has accumulated more than 600 million kilograms of surplus cheese, which is stored hundreds of meters underground, in old limestone mines converted into “cheese caves”.
An investigation into these caves concluded that they actually exist, even if it is not entirely clear where they are located exactly.
But there is method in this madness: stable and cool temperatures from the caves keep the cheese in good condition. Although it delays degradation for some time, the caves require maintenanceand the disposal of surplus appears to be more complicated in a country where consumption of dairy products is falling.
And a determination by the Department of Agriculture of the United States in keeping Americans eating cheese became clear in 2010when the government offered part of its reserves to save Domino’s pizza company, then in difficulty — ensuring that the country continued to eat cheese.
