The Rant-Say Cheese?

The United States government has a massive cheese stockpile beneath Springfield, Missouri, containing 1.4 billion pounds of cheese. This is part of the Dairy Price Support Program, a policy designed to stabilize milk prices and ensure fair prices for dairy farmers. The program, dating back to the Great Depression, involves the Department of Agriculture purchasing surplus dairy products, such as cheese, butter, and nonfat dry milk, to artificially inflate demand and raise prices. Springfield, Missouri, operates an underground commercial storage facility for long-term cheese storage, with consistent temperature and humidity levels to preserve the cheese's quality. The USDA periodically releases portions of the stockpile back into the market, providing nutritious food and supplementing school meals with dairy products. However, critics argue that the program artificially inflates prices, distorts the market, and encourages overproduction, leading to the massive cheese surplus.