Euthanized cows and caves full of cheese: the government policies DUFFIN: In the pantheon of milk-related economic disasters, there is one that rises above the rest. Search Query Show Search Podcasts & Shows DUFFIN: The thing about price controls is that once you start them, they are really, really hard to unwind. BOB ASCHEBROCK: Yes. And then on the other side, the government tried to replace some of their artificial demand for milk with new real demand for milk. Ashley Day. 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. 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. Government cheese, as the orange blocks of commodity cheese came to be called, wasnt exactly popular with all of its recipients. As we unloaded the caves full of this stuff, government cheese started to show up everywhere - food banks and schools, military mess halls. government cheese caves kansas city. DUFFIN: Or you can try to get your surplus goods to people who were not going to buy it anyway. Pretty quickly the small opening expanded into a paved, two-lane road running through a cavern with ceilings high enough to accommodate a tractor-trailer. Weve written about the 8th Street Tunnel before, and who can blame us? SubTropolis Is The Largest Underground Business Complex In Missouri So how in the world did the U.S. end up with a mountain of slowly molding cheese? In the 2000s, you could still take an official tour and potentially find a way in for a D.I.Y. Since that requires capital, the dairy industry starts consolidating, says Andrea Wiley, author of Re-Imagining Milk. The net result of that was overcompensating in using this program to help out farmers, to the point where we wound up creating the most massive dairy surplus in U.S. history.. Over the years, the industry has found all sorts of ways to get rid of its excess supplysome more insidious than others. All rights reserved. Weve looked and looked at ways to deal with this, but the distribution problems are incredible, a USDA official was quoted as saying. MALONE: That did some good. Its more than a hobby, its a passion.. How Government Cheese Became Welfare For Farmers - YouTube Thanks for listening. Its first FRC opened in 1997 beneath Lee's Summit, and another opened in 2003 under Lenexa. The complex contains almost 7 miles of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. This story was first published in KCUR's Creative Adventure newsletter. NOVAKOVIC: Well, I think there's two basic lessons. government cheese caves kansas city - s227879.gridserver.com Along with Congress, Carter wanted to raise the price of milk 6 cents per gallon and keep raising it with inflation. MALONE: The government cheese caves started to empty out. DUFFIN: So the basic question was, what kinds of milk products can the government buy and store? Born from tragedy, the remote national park is bringing tourism and other changes. Have you seen these caves before? Pour the dissolved yeast into the well and add enough warm water to make a soft dough. Melt Two tbps of butter into a skillet, then add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. NOVAKOVIC: It's really hard to balance what you want to do socially or politically with what you can get away with economically. NARA Is Up to Date in Kansas City | National Archives NOVAKOVIC: But 99.9 percent wouldn't have the foggiest clue how to get started. Makes sense, considering the natural limestone ledge bordering the river. DUFFIN: OK. But cheese doesn't travel well, so the government landed on a third option. [4]. MALONE: You were hired as someone to show up with a metal ASCHEBROCK: Where you do quality checks on it. And he tells me, these were never government-owned caves. In addition, the Federal Government will spend $40 million to $50 million this year to transport even more dairy . Cheddar, England, Is Home to the World's Original Cheddar Cheese Caves The Rieger family went into banking and the West Bottoms distillery was paved over. As strange as this predicament might seem, the U.S. is far from the only country to artificially stabilize agricultural prices by stockpiling food products. Specifically, the federal government had 560 million pounds of cheese, most of it stored in vast subterranean storage facilities. DUFFIN: You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook - also @planetmoney. USDA Keeps 1.4 Billion Pounds of Cheese in Missouri Caves - Newser MALONE: Dan Callahan worked here in the 1970s and says one day, the U.S. government rented a ton of cave space, and a ton of cheddar cheese started to show up. You don't want that? Theres evidence the second story was a ballroom, complete with a stage, dumbwaiter and box office window. And the United States Postal Service's Philatelic Sales Divison, the national distribution center for . The Little Known Cave In Kansas That Everyone Should Explore - Only In Feast Your Eyes: Kraft's Massive Underground Cheese Cave Photo - GOOD The same year, the USDA bought up $20 million worth of cheese to cut the glut. I was hired as a cheese grader. 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's only about a 3-inch-in-diameter hole. You'll receive your first newsletter soon! Youve heard about the subterranean chamber beneath the land near Worlds of Fun, right? KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and powerful storytelling. The 55,000,000-square-foot, 1,100-acre underground storage facility is believed to be the world's largest site of its kind. All rights reserved. SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. Missouri's cheese caves store more than 7 million pounds of dairy. Here By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider ANDY NOVAKOVIC: Exactly. 41, no. Springfield Underground, an Erlen Group Company is a commercial industrial park with the advantage of underground storage. CHRIS FARLEY: (As Matt Foley) I'm here to tell you that you're going to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river. Born and raised Kansan, Clarisa has lived in both tiny towns and cities during their time here in the Sunflower State. DUFFIN: But the problem, Andy says, was that a lot of this was not easy-to-give-away cheese. History Springfield Underground UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A state official estimated 300,000 people will get a taste of today's cheese. NOVAKOVIC: As you can imagine, the cheese company that's in the business of selling cheese is going to say - hey, what's the deal here? San Francisco is 1 of 3 cities in which needy people lined up to get the surplus cheese. MALONE: As the government bought more and more cheese, sure, the price of milk went up. DUFFIN: OK. The young people do - they say, well, I can't go out with a girl or I can't go out with a guy because I'm on the road all the time. Youll want to check out this cool hiking trail that has another cave youre welcome to explore. "If they haven't been used, no one knows what state of deterioration they are in," Hasan said. It's deteriorating. By Emily Baron Cadloff Global Research, May 30, 2022 Modern Farmer 25 May 2022 Region: USA Theme: Global Economy MALONE: There will be a cave in Kansas City, a van down by the river and a touching exchange between Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg. Each week, KCUR's Adventure! The reason why the dairy industry gets such preferential treatment is its status as this uncontested food in the diet, Wiley says. Government cheese arrived at our home in enormous uncut yellow blocks wrapped in white nondescript cardboard. But every instinct I had said, oh, this - I'm not so sure this is going to work out so well. 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). 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. 7 Awe-Inspiring Drone Views That Will Show Off Kansas Like Never Before, Theres An Incredible Meteor Shower Happening This Summer And Kansas Has A Front Row Seat, The Underrated Natural Wonder Every Kansan Should See At Least Once, The Breathtaking Overlook In Kansas That Lets You See For Miles And Miles, 8 Roads With The Best Windshield Views In All Of Kansas, Theres A Geological Wonder That Youd Never Expect To Find In Kansas, The Beautiful Spot In Kansas Where You Can See Into Three Other States At Once, 9 Amazing Natural Wonders Hiding In Plain Sight In Kansas No Hiking Required, this cool hiking trail that has another cave. I can tell you what we had to reject it for - flat, bitter, yeasty, malty, old milk, fruity MALONE: That sounds lovely. Syed E. Hasan, a geosciences professor emeritus at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, said the "very pure" limestone was ideal for cement production to shore up the city's rapid expansion at that time. Yes, the Government Really Does Stash Billions of Pounds of Cheese in Missouri Caves The USDA has kept cheese and other dairy products in cold-storage caves for decades. Gastro Obscura covers the worlds most wondrous food and drink. Why Did the U.S. Government Amass More Than a Billion Pounds of Cheese? You need a hacksaw. Besides those already mentioned, other businesses include Cerner, NextPage, Hallmark Cards, Hantover, Clore Automotive, and Knapheide. Blackwell Motors showcases a variety of fiberglass animals, and people come from all around just to see them. I'm Karen Duffin. The Missouri Penitentiary in Jefferson City is rumored to be riddled with spirits. SubTropolis, a 55 million-square-foot limestone cave which houses a range of businesses underground in Kansas City. Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. The Cheese Grotto isn't just about cheese storageit also allows you to age cheese at home. DUFFIN: But maybe government cheese's most surreal moment came on a television show where Martha Stewart cooks stuff with Snoop Dog. Over the course of the decade, inflation in the U.S. skyrocketed from 5.5 percent up to 14 percent. MALONE: Are you pretty annoying to eat cheese with? You may wonder why the government has a massive cheese stockpile. To see the best of them, embark on this road trip to Missouris best abandoned places. Westons downtown district was established in 1837, so theres a lot of history here. He is now a dairy economist at Cornell University. That was pretty good. government cheese caves kansas city - WPC