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Government cheese is
processed cheese Processed cheese (also known as process cheese; related terms include cheese food, prepared cheese, cheese product, and/or government cheese) is a product made from cheese mixed with an emulsifying agent (actually a calcium chelator). Additiona ...
provided to
welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...
beneficiaries,
Food Stamp In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income persons to help them maintai ...
recipients, and the elderly receiving
Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, as well as to
food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...
s and churches. This processed cheese was used in military kitchens during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and has been used in schools since the 1950s. Government cheese is a commodity cheese that was controlled by the US federal government from World War II to the early 1980s. It was a byproduct of maintaining an artificially high (and stabilized) price of milk through dairy industry subsidies, which produced a surplus that was in turn converted into cheese, butter, and
powdered milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...
. The excess after designated uses was stored in over 150 warehouses across 35 states, creating a strategic Federal food reserve available for unexpected surges in demand (such as disaster relief) and crisis (such as potential nuclear conflict during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
).


History and impact

The cheese was bought and stored by the government's
Commodity Credit Corporation The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices" (federally chartered by the CCC Charter Act of 1948 (P.L. 80-806) ...
. Direct distribution of dairy products began in 1982 under the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program of the
Food and Nutrition Service The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The FNS is the federal agency responsible for administering the nation’s domestic nutrition assistance programs. The service helps to add ...
. According to the government, it "slices and melts well." The cheese was provided monthly, in unsliced block form, with generic product labeling and packaging. The cheese was often from food surpluses stockpiled by the government as part of milk
price support In economics, a price support may be either a subsidy, a production quota, or a price floor, each with the intended effect of keeping the market price of a good higher than the competitive equilibrium level. In the case of a price control, a pri ...
s. Butter was also stockpiled and then provided under the same program. Some government cheese was made of
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...
products. The cheese product is also distributed to victims of a
natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...
following a
state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...
declaration. Government cheese became an important topic for the press in the 1980s, when the press learned about the milk products that were being stored across the nation while millions of Americans felt
food insecurity Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Similarly, househo ...
. During the same time in the 1980s, President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
's administration cut the budget on the US federal food stamp program. On December 22, 1981, Reagan signed and authorized into law the finalized version of the
Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 The Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 (, also known as the 1981 U.S. Farm Bill) was the 4-year omnibus farm bill that continued and modified commodity programs through 1985. It set specific target prices for 4 years, eliminated rice allotments ...
, which called for of cheese stockpiled by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to be released, saying that it would "be distributed free to the needy by nonprofit organizations." Ronald Reagan, in his official statement about the distribution of the Cheese Inventory of the Commodity Credit Corporation, said,
"The 1981 farm bill I signed today will slow the rise in price support levels, but even under this bill, surpluses will continue to pile up. A total of more than of cheese has already been consigned to warehouses, so more distributions may be necessary as we continue our drive to root out waste in government and make the best possible use of our nation's resources."
As the bill stated, any state that asked for the cheese would get of it, in blocks. The logic behind the distribution was to remove waste effectively and to use all possible resources available in the United States. One representative from the
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...
remarked, "Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean." The bill, while initially receiving significant support from the divided Congress, just barely passed the Democratic-controlled House by a count of 205 for and 203 against. In the Senate, where Republicans had gained control following the 1980 elections, the bill passed much more easily with 68 votes for and 32 against.


21st century

On August 23, 2016, the
US Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...
stated that it planned to purchase approximately of cheese, worth $20 million, to give aid to food banks and food pantries from across the United States, to reduce a $1.2 billion cheese surplus that had been at its highest level in thirty years, and to stabilize farm prices. This purchase also added revenues for the dairy producers. Regarding the purchase, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "This commodity purchase is part of a robust, comprehensive safety net that will help reduce a cheese surplus that is at a 30-year high while, at the same time, moving a high-protein food to the tables of those most in need. USDA will continue to look for ways within its authorities to tackle food insecurity and provide for added stability in the marketplace." As of 2022, as part of the USDA Food Nutrition Service
Commodity Supplemental Food Program The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) provides supplementary United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food packages to the low-income elderly of at least 60 years of age. It is one of the fifteen federally-funded nutrition assis ...
(CSFP), eligible seniors over the age of 60 are provided one block of processed cheese food each month, supplied by participating dairies. This number had not changed since 2018.


Missouri cheese caves

Much government cheese is stored in "Missouri cheese caves", underground warehouses for storing and aging cheese in and around the Midwestern state of
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
, part of a national network of such facilities. An erroneous article by '' Modern Farmer'' began being circulated on
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
in 2022 implying all of the USDA's 1.5 billion pounds of cheese were stored in caves near
Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the List of cities in Missouri, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County, Missouri, Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...
.


Distribution

In response to dairy industry concerns that the distribution of government cheese potentially had an adverse effect on the market for commercial cheese, the U.S. government held first that ''they'' had originally purchased the cheese (in the form of dairy subsidies) to keep farmers and cheese companies afloat, and thus producers had already been paid for it; second, that while recipients would be willing to eat free cheese they were unlikely to otherwise purchase it. The government also sold cheese at discounted prices (or distributed it as aid) to foreign countries, with the same arguments applying. At the time of Ronald Reagan's signing of the
Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 The Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 (, also known as the 1981 U.S. Farm Bill) was the 4-year omnibus farm bill that continued and modified commodity programs through 1985. It set specific target prices for 4 years, eliminated rice allotments ...
, Federal cheese stockpile equaled more than 2 lb (1 kg) per capita in the U.S.. Government cheese was provided through the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program at no cost to recipients of welfare, food stamps, and Social Security, with no impact on food stamp eligibility or use. California was the first state to receive surplus inventory, a lot. The first shipments of government cheese were frequently moldy. Government cheese subsidies were removed in the 1990s when the dairy market stabilized.


Ingredients

Government cheese is " pasteurized process American cheese", a term with a standard of identity. It is produced from a variety of cheese (
Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar in ...
,
Colby cheese Colby is a semi-hard cheese, semihard orange cheese made from cow's milk. It is named after the city of Colby, Wisconsin, USA, where it was first developed in 1885 and quickly became popular. Today the cheese is typically used in snacks, sandwic ...
,
cheese curd Cheese curds are moist pieces of curdled milk, eaten either alone as a snack, or used in prepared dishes. They are most often consumed throughout the northern United States and Canada. Notably, cheese curds are popular in Quebec, as part of th ...
, or
granular cheese Granular cheese, also known as stirred curd cheese and hard cheese, is a type of cheese produced by repeatedly stirring and draining a mixture of curd and whey. It can refer to a wide variety of cheeses, including the Grana (cheese), grana cheese ...
), made meltable using
emulsifiers An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Although ...
and blended. Other ingredients specified in the standard of identity may be used.USDA Commodity Requirements - PCD5 Pasteurized Process American Cheese for Use in Domestic Programs
- description of government cheese


Nutritional value and flavor

It has been argued that people in poverty, such as those entitled to government cheese, are more likely to become obese. Between 1988 and 1994, people below the poverty line had an obesity rate of 29.2 percent. The
Food Security Act of 1985 The Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99–198, also known as the 1985 U.S. Farm Bill), a five-year omnibus farm bill, allowed lower commodity price, income supports, and established a dairy herd buyout program. This 1985 farm bill made changes in ...
(the 1985
farm bill In the United States, the farm bill is a comprehensive omnibus bill that is the primary agricultural and food policy instrument of the federal government. Congress typically passes a new farm bill every five to six years.Johnson, R. and Monke, ...
) attempted to reduce milk production, but has been labeled as a "hodgepodge of misdirected political compromise." The nutrition facts on government cheese suggests a serving size of , or two slices, of cheese per serving. It also notes that the nutritional information represents the average nutritional value of "Processed American cheese" which was offered by the commodity food program. Per serving, the total fat content is 9 g, of which 6 g are
saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone, and fatty acids that each cont ...
. Per serving, there are 30 mg of cholesterol and 380 mg of sodium. The flavor of government cheese has been compared as ranging from mild cheddar to
Velveeta Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese similar to American cheese. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey (1867–1951) of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separat ...
cheese due to variations in ingredients. Some people reminisce both good or bad opinions concerning the flavor of government cheese. Affinity for government cheese is correlated with low
socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is a measurement used by economics, economists and sociology, sociologsts. The measurement combines a person's work experience and their or their family's access to economic resources and social position in relation t ...
; however, this correlation also overlaps with who was most likely to receive and consume it.


See also

*
Velveeta Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese similar to American cheese. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey (1867–1951) of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separat ...
*
Butter mountain The butter mountain is a supply surplus of butter produced in the European Union because of government interventionism that began in the 1970s. The size of the surplus changed significantly over time and mostly disappeared by 2017, which led to ...
* Dairy and poultry supply management in Canada * Emergency Food Assistance and Soup Kitchen-Food Bank Program * Special Milk Program


References

{{Cheese, state=collapsed American cheeses Charity in the United States Historical foods in American cuisine Political terminology of the United States Processed cheese United States Department of Agriculture