Some recollect its odd texture, which made it less than desirable for snacking. To this day, most people that ate it remember the strong odor and the savory flavor. As for the palatability of the five-pound blocks, the verdict remained out. Some appreciated the extra help, while others saw it as socioeconomically stigmatizing. The people who received “government cheese” had varied responses. Soon, millions of pounds of cheese got distributed to the elderly, low-income families, and organizations who served them. It’s moldy, deteriorating … we can’t find a market for it, we can’t sell it, and we’re looking to try to give some of it away.” The war cry delivered Americans stepped up to do their part. Holding it aloft as he spoke to the press, he declared, “We’ve got 60 million of these that the government owns. Block brought a five-pound chunk of government cheese to the White House. The crisis reached its stinkiest moment when former U.S. In a Washington Post article from 1981, a USDA official diplomatically suggested that the most cost-effective solution to the dairy deluge would be to “dump in the ocean.” Anxiety ratcheted up with each passing year because no one knew how long the shelf life on those pungent blocks might be. Before long, the nation’s stockpile of dairy products had ballooned out of control, with stores holding more than 500 million pounds in warehouses spread across 35 states, per the Farm Link Project.Įmbed from Getty Images New Decade, Old Cheeseīy the early 1980s, the moldering cheese problem reached a breaking point in the United States. This raised an important question: What to do with all that creamy goodness? Soon, the Feds got into the business of butter churning, powdered milk making, and cheese processing. Suddenly, the government became the largest consumer of the nation’s dairy supply. This led to government intervention and $2 billion in subsidies awarded to dairy farmers over a four-year time span. And if that wasn’t enough, the decade also saw a drastic dairy shortage, resulting in price increases of 30 percent. On the one hand, this decade gave the world disco and Queen, but it also came with long gas lines, the Great Inflation, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The 1970s represented a mixed bag in America. Here’s what you need to know about the free cheese movement and why it left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.
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