government cheese caves kansas city

SNOOP DOGG: You don't buy it. The same year, the USDA bought up $20 million worth of cheese to cut the glut. MALONE: OK. OK. We're not here to make fun of Velveeta. SNOOP DOGG: Martha's never had a bite of government cheese in her life. Emily Standlee is a freelance writer at KCUR and a national award-winning essayist. DUFFIN: And this is what people will remember as government cheese because when a government starts to give away hundreds of millions of pounds of cheese, people notice. Make sure to come up for fresh air, as well as bangers and mash. The government was demanding an unnatural amount of milk and so farmers were supplying an unnatural amount of milk. NOVAKOVIC: Well, probably, you know, close to a hundred percent are able. MALONE: Government cheese became a symbol of a crappy government handout. Kraft Cheese Cave, Springfield. Today, the government still buys and stores cheese for food assistance programs; however, only about 300 . The brick structure 9th & State calls home is one of a few left standing since those raucous Paris of the Plains days. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Oh, yeah. Winner will be selected at random on 04/01/2023. Other facilities like SubTropolis exist although not on the same scale, such as the abandoned mine in Butler, Pennsylvania used by Corbis and the US Federal Government for secure storage. Add 16 oz of macaroni, or shells to the pressure cooker and enough water to cover the noodles completely. The 55,000 sq ft underground storage facility is the world's largest underground business complex. JAY-Z: (Rapping) After that government cheese, we eatin' steak. You'll receive your first newsletter soon! The third cave is much smaller and contains a natural spring that often sends clean water running over the ground. This area is also a great place to go hiking, camping, and fishing. MALONE: This footage is amazing - just massive crowds of people being handed bricks of cheese. How we got to this point is a long story, and it starts during a national dairy shortage in the 1970s. Imagine watching lines of people wait around to be handed a giant block of moldy, bright orange cheese. History is a mystery. MALONE: Within five years, the government was storing two pounds of cheese for every single American citizen. ANDY NOVAKOVIC: Oh, yeah. Uncover the finest, most undercover experiences in Kansas City. How do we - how do we get this cat out of the tree? Missouri has more than 7,000 caves under its ground, though fewer than 20 are easily accessible to most people. NOVAKOVIC: So it's fundamental economics. And Congress is like wait - no, we also love the farmers. The government eventually tired of being involved in this . Deep in converted limestone mines, caves kept perfectly at 36 degrees Fahrenheit store stockpiles of government-owned cheese comprising the country's 1.4 billion pounds of surplus cheese. DUFFIN: But cheese just doesn't travel well. Its at the same park! Have you seen these caves before? MALONE: Again, our dairy economist Andy Novakovic. It is huge. It has a grid of 16ft (4.9m) high, 40ft (12m) wide tunnels separated by 25ft (7.6m) square limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. In fact, if you see my shape, you would know that I eat enough to keep the tank full. ASCHEBROCK: There is a bung - what they call a bunghole up on the top. The government would buy as much milk as it took to move that price. And do you, like, smack your forehead? Youll have to climb down to get to it, led mysteriously by a sequence of ramps and labyrinthine walkways. Oh, boy - here we go. By 1984, the U.S. storage facilities contained 1.2 billion pounds, or roughly five pounds of cheese for every American. If you havent spent a day wandering the streets of Weston, Missouri, youre missing out. NOVAKOVIC: One is it's really hard to balance what you want to do socially or politically with what you can get away with economically. But that does not mean the government had fixed the problem. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. DUFFIN: Hello. The net result of that was overcompensating in using this program to help out farmers, to the point where we wound up creating the most massive dairy surplus in U.S. history.. MALONE: And then within five years, the government was spending billions of dollars filling caves with cheese that they could not get rid of fast enough. Fortunately, the rock here is soft enough to scratch something out without a lot of effort. [3] The National Archives and Records Administration also leases space for a Federal Records Center. Are there any fascinating abandoned buildings in Missouri? SUBSCRIBE for Every Delicious Theory! Through the years, Kansas Citians have utilized a number of buried passageways for transportation, illegal (at the time) or otherwise. Government buys more cheese. We literally paid them money to stop producing milk. 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. 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. The New York Times declared that the bill would give poor Americans a slice of the cheese surplus.. Central Plains Regional Archives Moves to Historic Downtown Location Spring 2009, vol. MALONE: Dan says that the cheese took up about half an acre of space. It sounds amazing. (SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE"). According to The Washington Post, the U.S. has the largest domestic reserve of cheese of all varieties, including cheddar, Swiss and American . ASCHEBROCK: Now, I'm not sure if you know - if you've ever seen a 500-pound steel barrel of cheese. This is, you know, important to me. 4701 Wyandotte Street. DUFFIN: Or you can try to get your surplus goods to people who were not going to buy it anyway. These are the 13 weirdest places you can possibly go in Missouri. Strong Distilling, the only known legal distillery operating in a cave, and catch a "Cave Concert" while you're there. Anyway, the government had its plan in place. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. Farmers also used it to improve soil. Who knows? NOVAKOVIC: Yeah. Sprawling beneath 31st Street (and beyond) for more than two million square feet, the nations first subterranean business park was blasted into existence by prolific businessmen Lester Dean Sr. and Lester Dean Jr. We say blasted because in 1973, the duo expanded an existing mine on the property using what else? It is more than a food that. Throw two tbps of butter into a pressure cooker and melt them. MALONE: Until there was no more room for you to be in this room. There's something instinctive in us that makes us want to leave a mark on the world. Although other facilities like SubTropolis exist, there are none on the same such scale. 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? And he says the government could not just release a flood of surplus cheese onto the market because it would crush cheese producers. Well, sort of. A teeny bit was allowed but not too much. Buoyed by items like Wendys dual Double Melt sandwich concept and Taco Bells steak quesadilla, the organization helped boost cheese sales by more than 30 million pounds. We know there are a few places where youre allowed to explore public caves, but theyre sometimes hard to find or access. Sign up for KCUR's Creative Adventure Email. And he tells me, these were never government-owned caves. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. Youll want to check out this cool hiking trail that has another cave youre welcome to explore. A cave in Kansas formerly used to store government cheese. When maple syrup supplies run low, Canada taps into its strategic reserve. Out of 25 buildings, a whopping 24 were saloons. Word is the tunnel sustained water damage, so time will tell if it sees the light of day. MALONE: Andy is still in the dairy world. In fact, it has trademarked the phrase "World's Largest Underground Business Complex." So the thing that the government was concerned about is what's called commercial displacement. Accuracy and availability may vary. With the economy spiraling, President Jimmy Carter promised to raise the collapsing price of milk, saying, Im giving dairy farmers an equal break., In the late 1970s, when energy prices went crazy and there was this unbelievable period of inflation, things got a little out of control, Novakovi says. The surplus dairy products now in storage have a market value of $3 billion. Which makes for a thriving underground business community, as unnerving as a giant hole in the side of a bluff may be. Lever 2, more demand - you could try to convince the public that they want to drink more milk. Jimmy Carter's campaign promise to help farmers in 1976 not only gave us government cheese but also milk mustaches. This one-of-a-kind display showcases a wide variety of hair art, historic hair pieces, and more. The underground industrial park known as SubTroplis opened for business in 1964 in an excavated mine below Kansas City, Mo., attracting tenants with the lure of lower energy costs and cheap rents . Embark on a wonderful cave tour and learn all about its history. Though its more a part of Midtown than Downtown, the space once known as Deans Downtown Underground is definitely down there. DUFFIN: OK. Kenny Malone is a correspondent for NPR's Planet Moneypodcast. It has a grid of 16 feet high, 40 foot wide tunnels separated by 25 foot square limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. MALONE: So this leaves a couple of options. Metallic, sour, whey taint, weedy, onion, barny, lipase and sulfide. To see the best of them, embark on this road trip to Missouris best abandoned places. ASCHEBROCK: It was 10 times better than - I hate - you know, Velveeta is OK. And the resulting demand just pushes the price of milk up. I'm Karen Duffin. Even the beverage distributors, they had cheese in the storage. However, when Prohibition was enacted in 1919 via the 18th Amendment, the alcohol purveyor shut its doors. It is an enormous artificial cave situated above the Missouri River. Well, its called SubTropolis, is owned by Hunt Midwest yes, the same Hunt family that owns the Kansas City Chiefs and is wide enough to hold 42 Arrowhead Stadiums. Theres even a train track winding through the colossal complex, and many, many exit signs. Home; About; Gallery; Blog; Shop; Contact; My Account; Resources MALONE: The government asked economists, including Andy Novakovic, to figure out how it could get out of the cheese buying business without devastating the farmers they were trying to help in the first place. MALONE: The Trump administration announced that in order to help farmers being hurt by Trump's tariffs, the government may be making some food purchases again. JIMMY CARTER: Now, although I am a farmer, I'm not in favor of guaranteeing farmers a profit. 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. We are not a government facility, but rather a multi-generational family business . I mean, we had cheese in every cold storage in the United States, including the caves in Kansas that were full of that stuff. 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. 1 By Kimberlee N. Ried Enlarge Plan for the National Archives at Kansas City. SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. MALONE: The story of government cheese has become a kind of parable of how government intervention in markets can have this, like, butterfly effect. Born from tragedy, the remote national park is bringing tourism and other changes. One particularly large pile of it resides in the former limestone quarries underneath Springfield, Missouri, where Kraft Heinz keeps a considerable cache of cheese in these temperature-controlled facilities.