News coverage has elements of both the serious and the comical.
What is the Government Doing With Billions of Pounds of Cheese?
All that government cheese, but there's still a cream cheese shortage.
ByAngela L. Pagán
Today 12:00PM
https://thetakeout.com/secrect-governme ... 1848548360
Quote:
"... As grocery prices continue to rise and supply chain issues run rampant, you’d think the U.S. government would put a pause on its cheese stockpiling, but apparently not. As recently as August of 2020, the Department of Agriculture announced the Cheese Purchase Program. The program is meant to “purchase Mozzarella, Process and Natural American Cheddar Cheese for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal food nutrition assistance programs.” Though the announcement came in 2020, the actual cheese deliveries were intended for the entire year of 2021.
Now that I think about it, a government conspiracy makes a lot more sense to me than celebrities genuinely just wanting people to drink more milk. "
and
What Will the U.S. Government Do With 1.4 Billion Pounds of Cheese?
The USDA's support of the dairy industry has changed the American diet and welfare state forever.
Emily Moon
Jan 10, 2019https://psmag.com/economics/what-will-t ... -of-cheeseQuote:
" ... The nation eating this much cheese is not only mind-boggling: It's growing less and less likely. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, Americans have cut their milk consumption down from 35 pounds to an average of 15 per person annually. The excess is turned into cheese for storage and longevity (and the enjoyment of delicious cheese products). At the same time, government subsidies have continued to support dairy production, buying up surplus to keep prices steady. That leaves us with more cheese than anyone, even the experts, knows what to do with.
"What has changed—and changed fairly noticeably and fairly recently—is people are turning away from processed cheese," Cornell University agriculture economist Andrew Novakovic said in an interview with NPR. "It's the same as it is for everything else: If you've got too much of something, the price has to go down until consumption rises."
In the past, the U.S. government has supported dairy farmers through various programs and agencies, accumulating a staggering surplus with policies unique to this industry. What it's done with that surplus has changed the American welfare state and diet forever."
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"There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good."
Tom Mueller of SpaceX, in Air and Space, Jan. 2011
16 Feb 2022, 4:18 pm
