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MALONE: Releasing a tsunami of surplus cheddar the wrong way would push the price of cheese and milk way down. There was an incredible press conference where Agriculture Secretary John Block went before reporters and held up a giant hunk of cheese like it was a national emergency. Heap the flour on your countertop and make a well in the center. It sounds amazing. Specifically, the federal government had 560 million pounds of cheese, most of it stored in vast subterranean storage facilities. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The young people do - they say, well, I can't go out with a girl or I can't go out with a guy because I'm on the road all the time. Cheese-makers buy more milk. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. NOVAKOVIC: You can imagine the cheese company that's in the business of selling cheese is going to say, hey, what's the deal here? In addition to serving as a records center, Lenexa has two archival cold storage rooms. ANDY NOVAKOVIC: Exactly. We've got 60 million of these that the government owns with mold. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE"). Unlike corn or wheat, however, milk needed to be converted into more shelf-stable forms, specifically butter, dehydrated skim milk powder, and cheese. On the north edge of the complex Hunt developed the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun amusement park complex. MALONE: There will be a cave in Kansas City, a van down by the river and a touching exchange between Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg. The walls themselves are limestone, of course. And it took a few years, but a flood of cheese starts to come in. SNOOP DOGG: You don't buy it. Throw two tbps of butter into a pressure cooker and melt them. And they go to their bosses. Weve looked and looked at ways to deal with this, but the distribution problems are incredible, a USDA official was quoted as saying. A slice of Kraft cheese is going to be less about. But as Kansas Citians began to rely more on buses and their own vehicles in the 1940s and 1950s, the 8th Street tunnel ceased operations. government cheese caves kansas citysr latch using nor gate truth table. HOME; INTERIORS; EXTERIORS; OFFICE & PORTRAITS; PUBLICITY/EVENTS; CONSTRUCTION; INFO Have you fallen in love with amateur spelunking? There's something instinctive in us that makes us want to leave a mark on the world. 's homemade newspaper, Neighborhood News. Using Kansas City's underground caves to age cheese could be boon to region's cheese makers It still didn't seem right but I went ahead and drove into the cave. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Original reels of Hollywood blockbusters "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind" are stored in the caves. While the popular cheese has changed a lot since then, from access limited to royalty in 1625 to the confinement of "government cheddar" during World War II, the caves are constant . By 1984, the U.S. storage facilities contained 1.2 billion pounds, or roughly five pounds of cheese for every American. And what percentage of economists would you say are able to milk a cow by hand? Its more than a hobby, its a passion.. Westons downtown district was established in 1837, so theres a lot of history here. The 55,000,000-square-foot, 1,100-acre underground storage facility is believed to be the worlds largest site of its kind. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. as well as other partner offers and accept our, http://eapcontent.ap.org/jpg/2015/20150914/16/be46cf305fa20029820f6a70670013cf.jpg?contentid=be46cf305fa20029820f6a70670013cf/fmt=jpg/role=Preview/reldt=2015-09-14T16:35:59/media=Photo/recordid=a772a7d9f93f488487ec5a05e64f976a/itemid=a772a7d9f93f488487ec5a05e64f976a/objfilename=preview.jpg/authToken=eNotikEKwyAURE%2bkzNf4NQuhV4lWwUVj0Ei78PC10FnM48Gb6eNZG%2bsIO4OwRg4zFh%2fSxjFrCJMPJQC1C6eQBR8WbFemY56j%2b1jPu5Uw7tr6I4xeztTX9fJMTcb6mtfb%2f5UMZrk8b5LAkn4k8wXMhif%2b&token=1442512801_9D4E1758BD6D116C2F559647389B3542, NOW WATCH: Incredible video inside Hang Son Doong the largest cave in the world. We walk inside. DUFFIN: You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook - also @planetmoney. Deep under Springfield, Missouri, lies a cheese cave of industrial proportions, a 2-million-square-foot refrigerated warehouse called Springfield Underground.Since 2008, Kraft Foods has rented . MALONE: (Laughter) And you just have a big knife. This little-known cave area in Kansas is the perfect opportunity to explore something that many Kansan's might not have heard of before. A teeny bit was allowed but not too much. [1] The complex contains almost 10.5 miles (16.9km) of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. Jimmy Carter's campaign promise to help farmers in 1976 not only gave us government cheese but also milk mustaches. The United States Postal Service and the United States Environmental Protection Agency lease spaces within SubTropolis, the United States Postal Service for its collectible stamp operations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their Region-7 Training and Logistics Center. It can fit a train car. DUFFIN: After the break - how the government finally got out of this mess and why the government may be getting back into the cheese game. Youve heard about the subterranean chamber beneath the land near Worlds of Fun, right? And the Ronald Reagan team was stuck dealing with these caves full of cheese. Government cheese arrived at our home in enormous uncut yellow blocks wrapped in white nondescript cardboard. When the Trump administration decided to pay subsidies to farmers hurt by trade, it reminded NPR's Planet Money podcast team about the time another president tried to help farmers. Weve written about the 8th Street Tunnel before, and who can blame us? The New York Times declared that the bill would give poor Americans a slice of the cheese surplus.. SUBSCRIBE for Every Delicious Theory! It also could have tried to send it overseas as foreign aid, like we do with other surplus commodities. Each year, several foot races are run in the cave system. Demand for dairy in the U.S. has plummeted 42 percent since 1975, but that hasnt stopped American farmers from producing more and more of it. DUFFIN: Bob's job was to make sure that all of the cheese met USDA grade A cheddar standards - the right moisture level, the proper shade of yellowish-orange, the correct flavor profile. [4]. It was - some of it almost taste like natural cheddar. Farmers also used it to improve soil. Back in 2018, The New York Times did a profile on Gene Peters, chief executive of Rosnet, a restaurant software company out of Parkville, Missouri. For example, the United States Postal Service uses the space for its collectible stamp operations, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency leases spaces within for their Region-7 Training and Logistics Center. MALONE: The theory was that if you give cheese away to people who can't afford it, then you're not stealing business from real cheese sellers. MALONE: Novakovic says the government could have destroyed the cheese. Kansas City even has special ordinances that govern the use of underground space, including how the roofs must be supported, and about 3,000 to 4,000 people work full-time in the cave system, Hasan said. We're highlighting some of the wonders inside. +44 (0)7540 787812 frances@constructionandbuildingphotography.com. Offer subject to change without notice. Start with this beginner's guide to the neighborhood, Kansas City's new airport terminal carries on the legacy of a 10-year-old who fought for inclusivity, Local public health officials fear a Kansas bill would undercut work to contain diseases, A federal lawsuit against Missouri's 'dysfunctional' SNAP call center has gotten bigger. Today on the show, the story of what happened when the president of the United States decided he was going to help America's farmers by buying milk, lots of milk. NOVAKOVIC: As you can imagine, the cheese company that's in the business of selling cheese is going to say - hey, what's the deal here? They also house a massive frozen-food storage complex, a paintball business, and a US Postal Service facility that stores and distributes new stamps. 7 Awe-Inspiring Drone Views That Will Show Off Kansas Like Never Before, Theres An Incredible Meteor Shower Happening This Summer And Kansas Has A Front Row Seat, The Underrated Natural Wonder Every Kansan Should See At Least Once, The Breathtaking Overlook In Kansas That Lets You See For Miles And Miles, 8 Roads With The Best Windshield Views In All Of Kansas, Theres A Geological Wonder That Youd Never Expect To Find In Kansas, The Beautiful Spot In Kansas Where You Can See Into Three Other States At Once, 9 Amazing Natural Wonders Hiding In Plain Sight In Kansas No Hiking Required, this cool hiking trail that has another cave. Who knows? MALONE: I'm Kenny Malone. Caves . Through the years, Kansas Citians have utilized a number of buried passageways for transportation, illegal (at the time) or otherwise. You just have to follow us on Instagram. Its first FRC opened in 1997 beneath Lee's Summit, and another opened in 2003 under Lenexa. To see the best of them, embark on this road trip to Missouris best abandoned places. We use to plug through that bunghole to get our sample. ASCHEBROCK: But then we had the issue with storing the stuff. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. ASCHEBROCK: It was 10 times better than - I hate - you know, Velveeta is OK. Yes, the Government Really Does Stash Billions of Pounds of Cheese in Missouri Caves The USDA has kept cheese and other dairy products in cold-storage caves for decades. I'm Karen Duffin. Behold the power of cheese. MALONE: This is a cave full of cheese in Kansas City. The surplus dairy products now in storage have a market value of $3 billion. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. Known as the Springfield Underground, this is a cheese cave of epic proportions covering a . Through our sister company, Cold Zone, we are able to store refrigerated food, such as cheese for our tenants. It certainly was on the edge of that. MALONE: Are you pretty annoying to eat cheese with? ", (SOUNDBITE OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK SONG, "YOU GOT IT (THE RIGHT STUFF)"). The massive. Cave Tours Missouri, long known as the "Cave State," has almost 6,400 caves, and Missouri State Parks showcases four of the best for public tours. And you turn it, and you pull out a core of cheese. Missouri has more than 7,000 caves under its ground, though fewer than 20 are easily accessible to most people. ASCHEBROCK: And that's what you grade. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A state official estimated 300,000 people will get a taste of today's cheese. So getting people to do it was always a challenge. Back in the 1880s, after a year of toiling through the bluffs dividing Downtown from West Bottoms, rapid transit pioneer Robert Gillham and a team of workers managed to push the last underground bricks into place. DUFFIN: With a few other programs and some time, things eventually got under control, and the government put the milk support program on a kind of permanent suspension. MALONE: The story of government cheese has become a kind of parable of how government intervention in markets can have this, like, butterfly effect. This restaurant serves wood-fired fare served in a natural cave with a live spring. So the thing that the government was concerned about is what's called commercial displacement. So to prevent this, the government said, look - if we're going to buy your cheese, first, you have to meet with Bob. The cheesy story all started in 1949, when the Agricultural Act of 1949 gave the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government-owned corporation dedicated to stabilizing farm incomes, the authority. MALONE: Now, to be fair, that's probably not enough to start filling caves again. Home; About; Gallery; Blog; Shop; Contact; My Account; Resources JIMMY CARTER: Now, although I am a farmer, I'm not in favor of guaranteeing farmers a profit. Thank you! And it's the most government packaging you will ever see - just, like, brown cardboard, some black USDA stamps on it. Kraft Foods, the multinational conglomerate that makes countless grocery products in addition to cheese, is about none of that, however. The Atchison Storage Facility, commonly known as the Atchison Caves is a 2.7 million square foot underground storage facility in a former pillar limestone mine 50 to 150 feet (15 to 46 m) below the ground in the Missouri River bluffs at Atchison, Kansas. DUFFIN: Or you can try to get your surplus goods to people who were not going to buy it anyway. Like anything you grow up with and then lose subsequently access to, government cheese is parked in a prominent spot in the memories of its former consumers. The government eventually tired of being involved in this . Government cheese, as the orange blocks of commodity cheese came to be called, wasnt exactly popular with all of its recipients. Family-run for more than a century, this pizzeria makes a unique mustard pie. And do you, like, smack your forehead? By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider With these historical details in mind, whos to say there isnt a tunnel beneath 9th & State that was used to ferry booze between Missouri and Kansas? The National Archives' Central Plains regional archives is moving into the heart of Kansas City's cultural and historic area. A NASA employee needing an area to test sensitive navigational instruments was among the first official cave occupants. In 1976, Jimmy Carter got on a stage and said something seemingly innocuous. You wont be bored on this one-of-a-kind road trip! It's deteriorating. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. The Dairy Farmers of America, which has been using the facility, known as the Springfield Underground, for more than 30 years, currently has 7 million pounds of raw product.Some of this is normal inventory storage or cheese being aged.