Posted on June 8, 2022 ; in pete davidson first snl episode; by MALONE: One part of the solution then was to gently get that milk supply down. DUFFIN: Lever 1, lower the supply - you could do what they do in Canada and say - hey, no more milk - you can only produce so much milk. While the government-owned cheese hoards of the 1970s and 80s are largely a thing of the past, the U.S. has still never really figured out what to do with its excess dairy. warehouses in Germany, Belgium, and France. ASCHEBROCK: Nope. DUFFIN: Hello. With the economy spiraling, President Jimmy Carter promised to raise the collapsing price of milk, saying, Im giving dairy farmers an equal break., In the late 1970s, when energy prices went crazy and there was this unbelievable period of inflation, things got a little out of control, Novakovi says. But the bite came in terms of how much it cost for that opportunity. DUFFIN: Nevertheless, when Carter got elected, he goes all in. The walls themselves are limestone, of course. The U.S. has too much cheese 1.4 billion pounds of it to be exact. You need a hacksaw. The surplus dairy products now in storage have a market value of $3 billion. MALONE: So a campaign promise - that's what we call those. This little-known cave area in Kansas is the perfect opportunity to explore something that many Kansan's might not have heard of before. The United States Postal Service and the United States Environmental Protection Agency lease spaces within SubTropolis, the United States Postal Service for its collectible stamp operations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their Region-7 Training and Logistics Center. Although there are around 1.4 billion pounds of excess cheese in the form of large wheels kept in cold storage limestone caves hundreds of feet below the ground outside of Springfield, Missouri just off Interstate 435, it is not all controlled by the government (only about 300 million pounds). We can't find a market for it. According to USDA statistics, the average American eats 34.1 pounds of cheese every year and is projected to eat 36.5 pounds by 2024. Kraft Cheese Cave, Springfield. And while it might take up two stories above the ground, co-owner Heather Hamilton wonders if there are remnants of a tunnel leading out of the basement. The government tiptoed back into the cheese business in 2019 when the Trump administration said it was using the CCC program again to provide large subsidies to offset the effects of its trade. ASCHEBROCK: And that's what you grade. Secretive Experiences Sample spirits made by S.D. Word is the tunnel sustained water damage, so time will tell if it sees the light of day. DUFFIN: More graders grading more cheese that the government then buys. You just have to follow us on Instagram. They believe it was once part of the historic Heim Brewery, whose East Bottoms bottling plant theyd been renovating. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. CALLAHAN: So you'd be - it's 17 feet, 16 feet. Cheese-makers buy more milk. The New York Times declared that the bill would give poor Americans a slice of the cheese surplus.. MALONE: Bob Aschebrock spent 30 years as a USDA cheese inspector. The complex contains almost 7 miles of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. The Cheese Grotto isn't just about cheese storageit also allows you to age cheese at home. Then, in the 1970s, everything started to go haywire. NOVAKOVIC: One is it's really hard to balance what you want to do socially or politically with what you can get away with economically. Search Query Show Search Podcasts & Shows I'm Karen Duffin. Though its more a part of Midtown than Downtown, the space once known as Deans Downtown Underground is definitely down there. Over the years, the industry has found all sorts of ways to get rid of its excess supplysome more insidious than others. Add 16 oz of macaroni, or shells to the pressure cooker and enough water to cover the noodles completely. Love Missouri? NOVAKOVIC: It was pretty hard to predict that it would get as bad as it got. In the 1990s and early 2000s, even as U.S. nutritionists expressed growing concern about saturated fats and rising obesity levels, a marketing firm created and partially funded by the USDA gave millions to fast-food companies such as Taco Bell and Dominos to push them to increase the amount of cheese on menu items by as much as eightfold. Get more stories delivered right to your email. How we got to this point is a long story, and it starts during a national dairy shortage in the 1970s. We are not a government facility, but rather a multi-generational family business . SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. Back in 2018, The New York Times did a profile on Gene Peters, chief executive of Rosnet, a restaurant software company out of Parkville, Missouri. He says the government was buying powdered milk, butter and cheddar cheese - only grade-A cheddar, though. "If they haven't been used, no one knows what state of deterioration they are in," Hasan said. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. (Shouting) Government cheese. Along with Congress, Carter wanted to raise the price of milk 6 cents per gallon and keep raising it with inflation. NOVAKOVIC: We took a small amount of money from every dairy farmer, collected on every pound of milk they sold, and we created the National Dairy Board. Born from tragedy, the remote national park is bringing tourism and other changes. Here's a few you should know, A guide to discovering Kansas City's public art installations. [4]. NOVAKOVIC: But 99.9 percent wouldn't have the foggiest clue how to get started. Government agents were in uncharted territory. PHIL HARTMAN: (As character) Matt, we're ready for you. And to be fair, it was processed cheese kind of like a brick of Velveeta. Jimmy Carter has announced his plan to help farmers. At one point, the government was storing two pounds of cheese for every single American citizen. MALONE: Yeah. DUFFIN: Government cheese starts to show up in all kinds of popular culture. MALONE: Until there was no more room for you to be in this room. U.S. skyrocketed from 5.5 percent up to 14 percent, Im giving dairy farmers an equal break., boost cheese sales by more than 30 million pounds, 43 million gallons of milk down the drain, $20 million worth of cheese to cut the glut, 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in cold storage, currently has 7 million pounds of raw product, Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week. Nevertheless, dairy surpluses still very much exist. Specifically, the federal government had 560 million pounds of cheese, most of it stored in vast subterranean storage facilities. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider I mean ASCHEBROCK: We had cheese in every cold storage in the United States, including the caves in Kansas that were full of that stuff. MALONE: When we have a surplus of grain or soy or even powdered milk, we can send that stuff overseas as part of foreign aid. Andy Novakovic spent his summers as a kid working on his grandparents' dairy farm in Wisconsin. Makes sense, considering the natural limestone ledge bordering the river. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A state official estimated 300,000 people will get a taste of today's cheese. JIMMY CARTER: Now, although I am a farmer, I'm not in favor of guaranteeing farmers a profit. A cave (also known as a cavern) is a common terrain feature that generates in the Overworld and the Nether. Melt Two tbps of butter into a skillet, then add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Strong Distilling, the only known legal distillery operating in a cave, and catch a "Cave Concert" while you're there. Looking for more unusual places in Missouri? In 1976, Jimmy Carter got on a stage and said something seemingly innocuous. MALONE: And then within five years, the government was spending billions of dollars filling caves with cheese that they could not get rid of fast enough. Sign up for KCUR's Creative Adventure Email, Kansas City's new airport terminal carries on the legacy of a 10-year-old who fought for inclusivity, Want to explore Waldo? The Dairy Farmers of America, which has been using the facility, known as the Springfield Underground, for more than 30 years, currently has 7 million pounds of raw product.Some of this is normal inventory storage or cheese being aged. Central Plains Regional Archives Moves to Historic Downtown Location Spring 2009, vol. MALONE: And I'm Kenny Malone. The mine naturally maintains temperatures between 65 and 70 F year-round, making it a great space for a lot of different types of businesses. So these days, if the government wants to help farmers, what you'll generally hear about are direct subsidies as opposed to buying cheese. MALONE: Dan says that the cheese took up about half an acre of space. SNOOP DOGG: Martha's never had a bite of government cheese in her life. The USDA has a large presence in Kansas City, Missouri, and when it found itself with millions of pounds of surplus dairy and needed a safe, climate-controlled place to put it all, it started to search locally. SUBSCRIBE for Every Delicious Theory! No? Leilas Hair Museum, located in Independence, is one of the most unusual places in Missouri. San Francisco is 1 of 3 cities in which needy people lined up to get the surplus cheese. It has a grid of 16ft (4.9m) high, 40ft (12m) wide tunnels separated by 25ft (7.6m) square limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. No, it doesnt have to do with the disastrous flooding experienced there in 1903 and 1951. There's also a trail leading to the top of the area above the caves if you want to keep going! So how in the world did the U.S. end up with a mountain of slowly molding cheese? Unfortunately, your shopping bag is empty. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. SNOOP DOGG: You don't buy it. Let us know. I dont even need a coat in the winter.. 4701 Wyandotte Street. MALONE: The government of the United States of America had caves full of cheddar cheese. The brick structure 9th & State calls home is one of a few left standing since those raucous Paris of the Plains days. ASCHEBROCK: There is a bung - what they call a bunghole up on the top. The government eventually tired of being involved in this . MALONE: Karen's doing the dance. The 55,000,000-square-foot, 1,100-acre underground storage facility is believed to be the worlds largest site of its kind. MALONE: The story of government cheese has become a kind of parable of how government intervention in markets can have this, like, butterfly effect. Very, very expensive cheese. Deep in converted limestone mines, caves kept perfectly at 36 degrees Fahrenheit store stockpiles of government-owned cheese comprising the country's 1.4 billion pounds of surplus cheese. Visit a sweet shop selling one of the first candies ever made and sold in America. SubTropolis is a 55,000,000-square-foot (5,100,000 m 2), 1,100-acre (4.5 km 2) artificial cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, that is claimed to be the world's largest underground storage facility.Developed by late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt via Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc., it has trademarked the phrase World's Largest . Today, the government still buys and stores cheese for food assistance programs; however, only about 300 . DUFFIN: Just this week, we finally learned some of the details. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. At a time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their Government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of food turn into waste, Reagan said in a written statement. It's got its flaws. MALONE: And so our country has a tradition of programs to help farmers. MALONE: Government cheese became a symbol of a crappy government handout. newsletter brings you a new way to explore the Kansas City region. If you loved visiting this stunning spot, take a trip to Fisher Cave in Meramec State Park. Oh, boy - here we go. NOVAKOVIC: You've got two levers you can pull on. Decades of propping up the dairy industryby buying up surplus milk and turning it into processed commodity cheesehad backfired, hard. It is estimated that Kansas has more than 700 and caves, and almost 350 are in the Red Hills. MALONE: So to raise the price of milk, the government basically opened up the world's largest cheese shop - you know, and powdered milk and butter, too. ASCHEBROCK: Will eat any cheese. Turns out, cave living is naturally energy efficient. Expand All. Westons downtown district was established in 1837, so theres a lot of history here. A grader, where you do quality checks on it. Experience History Aboard A Guided Trolley Tour Of St. Louis, Missouri, Few People Know About This Missouri Nature Area With Some Of The Midwests Largest Glades, Missouris Worlds Of Fun Has A Brand New Roller Coaster Thats Opening In 2023, This Candy Store in Missouri Was Ripped Straight From The Pages Of A Fairytale, This Ride Through An Old Lead Mine In Missouri Will Take You Back In Time, 10 Places In Missouri That Will Make You Wish You Lived Underground, Most People in Missouri Have No Idea This Unique Tunnel Exists, 12 Of The Most Enchanting Man-Made Wonders In Missouri, 13 weirdest places you can possibly go in Missouri, road trip to Missouris best abandoned places. Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. You may wonder why the government has a massive cheese stockpile. Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean., Instead, they decided to jettison 30 million pounds of it into welfare programs and school lunches through the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program. JUNOT DIAZ: Clear the government cheese from the refrigerator. Long situated in a warehouse-style facility far from the major business district of Kansas . You took away my customers. DUFFIN: OK. Born and raised Kansan, Clarisa has lived in both tiny towns and cities during their time here in the Sunflower State. Beneath the bar, theres a hollow place in the wall that looks to have been covered up. With the onset of wartime rationing and shortages leading into the Second World War, there were growing fears about the long-term stability of the United States food supply. We know there are a few places where youre allowed to explore public caves, but theyre sometimes hard to find or access. There are so many incredible abandoned businesses in Missouri. And in order to do this, they have to be willing to buy all of the cheese that anybody wants to sell them at this price. Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week. We also suggest picking up a digital hygrometer to measure cheese humidity, whether you're simply storing cheese in your Grotto or having fun with home cheesemaking. It was built by a German immigrant named John Georgian, who instead of relying on those trusty limestone caves weve come to know and love dug out his own brewery space beneath Weston. Its oddly fascinating! It was this spectacle of millions of pounds of expensive cheese being processed and given away that created a popular cultural icon and an example of bad government spending. China props up pork prices by buying surplus for its frozen pork reserve. Through the years, Kansas Citians have utilized a number of buried passageways for transportation, illegal (at the time) or otherwise. I mean, every warehouse in Wisconsin was full. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The 55,000 sq ft underground storage facility is the world's largest underground business complex. In response to this dairy shortage and 30% inflation . There is currently about $85 million earmarked to buy dairy and distribute it to places like schools and food banks. Like SubTropolis, the strangely sterile space is separated by humungous numbered pillars. The government was demanding an unnatural amount of milk and so farmers were supplying an unnatural amount of milk. DUFFIN: Yes, this is a real job. Currently, more than 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) is occupied and 8,000,000 square feet (740,000 m2) are available for future expansion. DUFFIN: But maybe government cheese's most surreal moment came on a television show where Martha Stewart cooks stuff with Snoop Dog. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. And Congress is like wait - no, we also love the farmers. The main brewing cellar, now outfitted with seating areas, a bar and raised stage, reaches 55 feet underground. MALONE: Novakovic says the government could have destroyed the cheese. BOB ASCHEBROCK: Yes. And there are 17 flavor defects that could happen in cheddar cheese. It was created by digging into the Bethany Falls limestone mine and is, in places, 160 feet beneath the surface. That is, until last month. Missouri's caves can . KENNY MALONE, BYLINE: The year was 1977. KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) A mother is in custody after her two children were found barefoot, dirty, and living in a wooden shipping crate in an underground cave part of a massive subterranean network carved out beneath Kansas City. DUFFIN: You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook - also @planetmoney. DUFFIN: But the problem, Andy says, was that a lot of this was not easy-to-give-away cheese. Cheeseproclub.com. There you go. That's because it maintains the proper humidity that cheese needs to ripen to peak flavor and texture, just like a real cheese cave. We're highlighting some of the wonders inside. Start with this beginner's guide to the neighborhood, Local public health officials fear a Kansas bill would undercut work to contain diseases, A federal lawsuit against Missouri's 'dysfunctional' SNAP call center has gotten bigger, Escape your house with this list of outdoor adventures around Kansas City, Kick off your summer with outdoor music and movies in Kansas City, Kansas City is home to a lot of offbeat and fun museums. The cheese came in handy for Ronald Reagan's "government cheese" program, which released 30 million pounds of the lactose-laden dairy product (paywall) to any state that applied. NOVAKOVIC: So it's fundamental economics. So just wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling CALLAHAN: Floor-to-ceiling - and then as you kept filling it, you just worked your way right back out. It is more than a food that. And the United States Postal Service's Philatelic Sales Divison, the national distribution center for . I mean, it was really, really good product. The Missouri River town is known for its charming main drag and castle-like college, Park University. The Giant Animal Cluster, located in Bonne Terre is another wacky attraction in Missouri. Many companies are looking at ways to utilize the hundreds of millions of square feet created in this manner for everything from mushroom farming to crude oil stockpiling. Why Did the U.S. Government Amass More Than a Billion Pounds of Cheese? Last year, the U.S. produced nearly 12 billion pounds of cheese -- an all-time high, according to the USDA. We use to plug through that bunghole to get our sample. By 1984, the U.S. storage facilities contained 1.2 billion pounds, or roughly five pounds of cheese for every American. Other facilities like SubTropolis exist although not on the same scale, such as the abandoned mine in Butler, Pennsylvania used by Corbis and the US Federal Government for secure storage. NOVAKOVIC: So you can imagine, you know, you don't just kind of roll down one of these barrels down Seventh Avenue in New York City and say, anybody want some cheese? How would you like to work underground? That was pretty good. Throw two tbps of butter into a pressure cooker and melt them. G. DEP: (Rapping) Can't buy trees with government cheese. 's homemade newspaper, Neighborhood News. It is an enormous artificial cave situated above the Missouri River. As a busy mother of one crazy kid, two cats, and two geckos, they write whenever there is spare time. Even after the demand for dairy declined in the wake of World War II, the program functioned reasonably well for years. government cheese caves kansas city. The second lesson is you got to pay attention to the unintended consequences because they can come back and bite you and bite you hard. The bar stools are original and survived some of the flooding. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. What are the most unusual places in Missouri? https://bit.ly/2CdCooV Theorists, did you know the government is hiding caves full of cheese from us? HOME; INTERIORS; EXTERIORS; OFFICE & PORTRAITS; PUBLICITY/EVENTS; CONSTRUCTION; INFO The underground industrial park known as SubTroplis opened for business in 1964 in an excavated mine below Kansas City, Mo., attracting tenants with the lure of lower energy costs and cheap rents . DUFFIN: But that does not work for milk because milk starts going bad the minute it comes out of the cow.