It's a result of Jimmy Carter's dairy subsidies. There was a Planet Money episode about it, and the origin of the phrase "government cheese":
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/31/643486297/episode-862-big-government-cheese
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
592 points (97.7% liked)
memes
10286 readers
2698 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.
Sister communities
- [email protected] : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- [email protected] : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- [email protected] : Linux themed memes
- [email protected] : for those who love comic stories.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Everyone makes fun of it, but that shit was sooooo damn good. My aunt and uncle got government cheese when I was really little, and I loved going over for visits and grilled cheese, lol.
They're preparing for the Dragonborn. He will need all 1.4 billion pounds of cheese to heal mid fight.
Ok who’s been messing with their Skyrim console commands?
You should see South Dakota's strategic cabbage chamber.
Idaho has potato caverns
I thought, "1.4 billion pounds of cheese can't be a real number, right?" Turns out, it kinda is. 1.4 billion pounds (actually generally 1.45-1.5 billion) is the amount of cheese the USDA stores in cold storage warehouses across the US. And indeed, much of that seems to be in caves in Missouri. But any particular cave probably only stores a few million pounds, although getting specific numbers is rather difficult.
Okay, see, if this were most of what the government did; I'd happily pay taxes.
I'd pay extra and ask how I could help. I'd be painting american flags on shit, instead of saying 'smash the state'.
That's just my emergency stash. I try to keep at least two week's worth of cheese there at any time.
load more comments
(2 replies)
A moon-sized pizza to feed the Devourer of Worlds and save the Earth that way.
All they're doing is making earth's crust cheese stuffed.
Or it’s the government propping up Big Dairy
That's just the weekly stash
I replied with this lower down then figured it might as well be a top level comment.
Here is a great YouTube video that explains not only this cheese cave, but the reason it even exists and then where we get the phrase "government cheese" from and the whole government program of propping up the dairy industry.
There’s a bunch of these huge warehouse-like caves in Missouri, some are more natural, but many have been developed. They are super valuable because of the natural climate consistency.
An example near Kansas City: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubTropolis
Wait until you see Iowa's yogurt lagoon.
Wisconsin is invading next week
This is my retirement plan. When the time comes, I'll hide in the vast caves and eat cheese the rest of my existence.
Ever wonder where the phrase "government cheese" comes from?
Not this, it comes from the free blocks of Velveeta style "cheese" the us government would give low income families in the 1980's
load more comments
(1 replies)
Make believe they're home for a captured south European spy.
I'd like to order an XL New York triple cheese pizza please... ummm, make that 2.
Cheesy plans
I would empty that place in an evening of "just one more slice and I'll go to bed"
Diabetes 3
Is American cheese any good? TV shows seem to imply it isn't but it seems weird you wouldn't have good cheese by now
Edit: I meant cheese made/available in the US, rather than the type called "American cheese". But thanks for the answers
There's a lot of incredible American- made cheeses, usually from more local cheese makers. Wisconsin and Vermont are the most fampus for their cheeses, but every state probably has good cheesemakers and there are some pretty good national brands. But the main cheese section at your typical grocery store is mostly just mass-produced cheap cheese that is probably more what you're referring too, which is fine for most uses (e.g. cooking) but eaten alone i would describe as perfectly fine but not great. A lot of grocery stores have a nicer cheese section, but it's usually in a section of the store more with other small bites.
We have normal cheese here too. American cheese is a specific kind of cheese, the same way Swiss cheese is. If you ask me, American cheese is nasty, but we do have good cheese in America
load more comments
(1 replies)
If you're talking about the cheese called "American cheese", then it's somewhat polarizing in preferences. But just like all cheeses, it's made for a very specific purpose: in this case, being amazing at melting. As a result, it's best on cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, etc. But it also has a distinct, mild flavor that some don't like.
I thought the purpose of it was to do something with the milk the government garunteed it would buy from dairy farmers?
It also stabilizes cheese sauces made with other cheeses amazingly. If you cannot get a hold of pure sodium citrate, throw a single slice of American Singles into the pot. That will melt, mix in and not change the flavor at all. What it does do is make your cheese sauce stable enough you can refrigerate it, and the oil won't break out of the sauce.
I was a chef for 15 years, and a short order cook for 10
load more comments
(1 replies)
I wouldn't go eat a slice of it, but it's good on burgers.
load more comments
(5 replies)
Being fat and full of cheese. Bliss.
El queso del gobierno
They're planning on selling a lot of cheese...
Giving everyone either horrible constipation or violent diarrhea.
If they start trucking in cornchips and jalapenos...
view more: next ›