NOVAKOVIC: (Laughter) That was the unintended consequence that was fun. 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. NOVAKOVIC: Well, probably, you know, close to a hundred percent are able. 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? China props up pork prices by buying surplus for its frozen pork reserve. 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. 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 certainly was on the edge of that. So just wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling CALLAHAN: Floor-to-ceiling - and then as you kept filling it, you just worked your way right back out. Thanks for listening. ASCHEBROCK: Well, I think cheese eating is better than dating sometimes. Grab a latte at the birthplace of modern American skateboarding. There are these massive columns, and it looks like something the "Lord Of The Rings" dwarves built. Basically the dairy industry is looking to expand its market and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is looking to expand the agricultural economy and they become very intertwined., It helped that the burgeoning field of nutrition science promoted dairy products as essential for both adults and children. ANDY NOVAKOVIC: Exactly. Limestone caves in the Kansas City area have been used to store immigration records for years. 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,. Farmers also used it to improve soil. Over the years, the industry has found all sorts of ways to get rid of its excess supplysome more insidious than others. Word is the tunnel sustained water damage, so time will tell if it sees the light of day. At one point, the government was storing two pounds of cheese for every single American citizen. You wont be bored on this one-of-a-kind road trip! SubTropolis is a 55,000,000-square-foot (5,100,000 m 2), 1,100-acre (4.5 km 2) artificial cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, that is claimed to be the world's largest underground storage facility.Developed by late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt via Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc., it has trademarked the phrase World's Largest . We don't do milk quotas - no Lever 1. SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. Oh, yeah. ", (SOUNDBITE OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK SONG, "YOU GOT IT (THE RIGHT STUFF)"). See. Pretty quickly the small opening expanded into a paved, two-lane road running through a cavern with ceilings high enough to accommodate a tractor-trailer. But what Andy Novakovic knew is that it's one thing to provide stability, it is another to step into the market in a big way at maybe the wrong time because playing with price controls is playing with fire. It is more than a food that. Government Cheese Over the years, the government has gravitated toward one method of unloading dairy surplus: giving it to the poor. Lever 2, more demand - you could try to convince the public that they want to drink more milk. MALONE: At one point, Donnie Wahlberg of the New Kids On The Block said, quote, "there's nothing like it. He's been working here since the 1970s, since the cheese debacle. https://bit.ly/2CdCooV Theorists, did you know the government is hiding caves full of cheese from us? Anyway, the government had its plan in place. And they go to their bosses. Each week, KCUR's Adventure! Yes, that is a lot of cheese. DUFFIN: So the basic question was, what kinds of milk products can the government buy and store? MALONE: Dan Callahan worked here in the 1970s and says one day, the U.S. government rented a ton of cave space, and a ton of cheddar cheese started to show up. SubTropolis is used by around 50 businesses and organizations, for a variety of purposes. In response to this dairy shortage and 30% inflation . MALONE: So to raise the price of milk, the government basically opened up the world's largest cheese shop - you know, and powdered milk and butter, too. Cheeseproclub.com. AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE: The White House is coming to the aid of farmers hurt by its own hard-line trade policies. SubTropolis is a 55,000,000-square-foot (5,100,000m2), 1,100-acre (4.5km2) artificial cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, that is claimed to be the world's largest underground storage facility. You don't want that? Its more than a hobby, its a passion.. SNOOP DOGG: (Rapping) And we ghetto like a [expletive] hot buttered toast in the mornin' with some government cheese. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. So to prevent this, the government said, look - if we're going to buy your cheese, first, you have to meet with Bob. sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday. SNOOP DOGG: Martha's never had a bite of government cheese in her life. It was created by digging into the Bethany Falls limestone mine and is, in places, 160 feet beneath the surface. Looking for more unusual places in Missouri? As strange as this predicament might seem, the U.S. is far from the only country to artificially stabilize agricultural prices by stockpiling food products. Extensive limestone mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s created the millions of square feet of caves that are scattered throughout metropolitan Kansas City, in Kansas and Missouri. 1 flavor defect he had to look out for was acidity. MALONE: Even if that bite just looks like some delicious cheese. MALONE: When we have a surplus of grain or soy or even powdered milk, we can send that stuff overseas as part of foreign aid. Lemp Brewery, located in St. Louis, is another unique place to explore. I mean, it was really, really good product. It's deteriorating. NOVAKOVIC: So you can imagine, you know, you don't just kind of roll down one of these barrels down Seventh Avenue in New York City and say, anybody want some cheese? JAY-Z: (Rapping) After that government cheese, we eatin' steak. These days, units are available for business leasing or to store items that would benefit from the particular climate control found underground. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: A state official estimated 300,000 people will get a taste of today's cheese. President Jimmy Carter wanted to help the dairy farmers. And Andy had a ringside seat to it. Starting around the 1950s, investors started finding ways to use the abandoned underground space. Metallic, sour, whey taint, weedy, onion, barny, lipase and sulfide. The bunker complex was a secure U.S. government storage facility from World War II until 2013. The government has tended to stay away from buying cheese as a solution. There is a. Limestone mine in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City, MO, US, Learn how and when to remove this template message, United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, "SubTropolis | Industrial Space for Lease in Kansas City", "Bloomberg.com 2015-02-04 Welcome to Subtropolis The Business Complex Buried Under Kansas City", "Archives.gov 2018-02-26 Kansas City, MO Federal Records Center", SubTropolis Technology Center home site (Hunt Midwest), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SubTropolis&oldid=1140599869, Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri, Articles lacking in-text citations from January 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia cave articles with unreferenced coordinates, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:12. Makes sense, considering the natural limestone ledge bordering the river. CALLAHAN: So you'd be - it's 17 feet, 16 feet. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MARTHA AND SNOOP'S POTLUCK DINNER PARTY"). I am currently about 35 feet underground in an old converted limestone mine that is the size of 120 football fields. NOVAKOVIC: So we have, you know, this immense surplus, and now you have the political problem. 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. DUFFIN: Just this week, we finally learned some of the details. In the 1940s, there was a real concern that we were going to have a hard time keeping up with providing the necessities of life, Novakovi says. On the north edge of the complex Hunt developed the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun amusement park complex. MALONE: But this is America. And he started floating this idea. The idea of "government cheese" is an enduring blip in the American psyche. Want more adventures like this? While the government-owned cheese hoards of the 1970s and 80s are largely a thing of the past, the U.S. has still never really figured out what to do with its excess dairy. 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. [4]. 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. DUFFIN: It is a case study in what happens when price controls run full speed into the realities of the market. Rather, the "caves" are part of a 3.2-million-square-foot warehouse under part of Springfield.. In fact, if you see my shape, you would know that I eat enough to keep the tank full. Secretive Experiences Sample spirits made by S.D. Then, in the 1970s, everything started to go haywire. MALONE: He and his colleagues are drowning in cheese. Now heres a story that comes full circle. Let us know. You cansign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday. And so they pass a law saying that they want the price of milk to go up automatically every six months. Cheese-makers buy more milk. If youve been in the cheeky, sophisticated Campground bar, youve set foot where the original J. Rieger & Co. building stood. You've got to be on they special mailing list. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: The great cheese giveaway began today in California. Ashley Day. Working underground is no big deal to me, Peters says in the interview. 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. Pour the dissolved yeast into the well and add enough warm water to make a soft dough. NOVAKOVIC: It's really hard to balance what you want to do socially or politically with what you can get away with economically. ASCHEBROCK: Nope. It is estimated that Kansas has more than 700 and caves, and almost 350 are in the Red Hills. DUFFIN: The USDA figured out that if they paid about 39 bucks for a 40-pound block of cheese, then it would have this ripple effect. But one day, the government rented out a ton of cave space, and then cheddar cheese started to show up, massive blocks of the stuff, pallet after pallet. DUFFIN: In the pantheon of milk-related economic disasters, there is one that rises above the rest. MALONE: This is a cave full of cheese in Kansas City. The way it melts for a hamburger - there is nothing better. PHIL HARTMAN: (As character) Matt, we're ready for you. 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 . A cave in Kansas formerly used to store government cheese. And the resulting demand just pushes the price of milk up. Experience History Aboard A Guided Trolley Tour Of St. Louis, Missouri, Few People Know About This Missouri Nature Area With Some Of The Midwests Largest Glades, Missouris Worlds Of Fun Has A Brand New Roller Coaster Thats Opening In 2023, This Candy Store in Missouri Was Ripped Straight From The Pages Of A Fairytale, This Ride Through An Old Lead Mine In Missouri Will Take You Back In Time, 10 Places In Missouri That Will Make You Wish You Lived Underground, Most People in Missouri Have No Idea This Unique Tunnel Exists, 12 Of The Most Enchanting Man-Made Wonders In Missouri, 13 weirdest places you can possibly go in Missouri, road trip to Missouris best abandoned places. I'm Karen Duffin. He is now a dairy economist at Cornell University. MALONE: Now, to be fair, that's probably not enough to start filling caves again. Decades of propping up the dairy industryby buying up surplus. DUFFIN: You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook - also @planetmoney. SNOOP DOGG: You don't buy it. SUBSCRIBE for Every Delicious Theory! This is, you know, important to me. SubTroplis is definitely one of the most incredible underground places in Missouri. Starting in 1995, a government nonprofit has promoted a pro-dairy policy - in direct opposition to the Department of Agriculture and government nutritionists. The USDA has a large presence in Kansas City, Missouri, and when it found itself with millions of pounds of surplus dairy and needed a safe, climate-controlled place to put it all, it started to search locally. So these days, if the government wants to help farmers, what you'll generally hear about are direct subsidies as opposed to buying cheese. NOVAKOVIC: So the way this program works, literally, is the federal government puts out a piece of paper that says, we will buy as much cheese, butter or nonfat dry milk as you want to sell to us at these prices. MALONE: So instead, the cheddar cheese was processed - that helps it keep longer - and then it was repackaged in two and five-pound, like, bricks. What is cave cheese? U.S. skyrocketed from 5.5 percent up to 14 percent, Im giving dairy farmers an equal break., boost cheese sales by more than 30 million pounds, 43 million gallons of milk down the drain, $20 million worth of cheese to cut the glut, 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in cold storage, currently has 7 million pounds of raw product, Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week. Try the frozen treat that inspired Arrested Development's famous banana stand. NOVAKOVIC: (Laughter) Well, that was the unintended consequence that was fun, but the bite came in terms of how much it cost for that opportunity. Government . 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. $20.00 per adult Kansas City Segway Tour: Art and Glide 80 Recommended Segway Tours from $69.00 per adult SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium Admission Ticket 66 Aquariums from $23.65 per adult Kansas City Crossroads Art District and Westside Urban Hike 17 Recommended Adventure Tours from $39.00 per adult Strawberry Hill and Downtown KCK Hike 12 MALONE: Bob Aschebrock spent 30 years as a USDA cheese inspector. It was this spectacle of millions of pounds of expensive cheese being processed and given away that created a popular cultural icon and an example of bad government spending. Visit a sweet shop selling one of the first candies ever made and sold in America. The mine naturally maintains temperatures between 65 and 70 F year-round, making it a great space for a lot of different types of businesses. On a given day, kids scramble over its playground, neighbors walk their dogs through its green acres, and teens meet for pick-up games on its soccer fields and volleyball courts. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. To get some of that cheese off the market, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $47.1 million buying up roughly 22. It is huge. MALONE: For a lot of people who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, you cannot overstate how influential government cheese became. Expand All. Many companies are looking at ways to utilize the hundreds of millions of square feet created in this manner for everything from mushroom farming to crude oil stockpiling. 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 video is private Watch on There are several other cave warehouse locations in the U.S., including one in Bonner Springs, Kansas, Springfield, Missouri, and the the SubTropolis underground complex located in northeastern Kansas City, Missouri. NOVAKOVIC: But 99.9 percent wouldn't have the foggiest clue how to get started. The USDA helped "cut the glut" then by purchasing $20 million worth of fresh cheese. So how in the world did the U.S. end up with a mountain of slowly molding cheese? As recently as August of 2020, the Department of Agriculture announced the Cheese Purchase Program. The cheese was processed and made into 2 and 5 pound bricks and given away as food aid to the poor of America. The government was buying 1 in every 4 pounds of the country's cheddar cheese. ASCHEBROCK: Now, I'm not sure if you know - if you've ever seen a 500-pound steel barrel of cheese. Currently, more than 7,300,000 square feet (680,000m2) is occupied and 6,700,000 square feet (620,000m2) are available for future expansion. MALONE: Yes. I started in 1967 with the USDA, and I was hired as a cheese grader. (SOUNDBITE OF FREDERIC AUGER'S "SUNBURN"). We know there are a few places where youre allowed to explore public caves, but theyre sometimes hard to find or access. THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE MAY 21, 2022, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURAS FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. CALLAHAN: So it'd be all the way to the ceiling. Here's a few you should know, A guide to discovering Kansas City's public art installations. I was hired as a cheese grader. MALONE: OK. OK. We're not here to make fun of Velveeta. Caves are usually found underground. They actually had to rent out space in multiple caves. YOU CAN, Argentina's El Impenetrable Opens Up New Options For Its People, How Laos Got Its First Buffalo Dairy Farm, How the Capones Strong-Armed Their Way Into the Dairy Business, The French Art of Cheese-Label Collecting, The Last Cheesemakers of the Eastern Himalayas, Show & Tell: Inside a House of Hot Sauce With Vic Clinco, The Secret to China's Bounciest Meatballs. JIMMY CARTER: Now, although I am a farmer, I'm not in favor of guaranteeing farmers a profit. There you go. Government buys more cheese. SubTropolis, a 55 million-square-foot limestone cave which houses a range of businesses underground in Kansas City. How would you like to work underground? MALONE: Bob Aschebrock spent 30 years as a USDA cheese inspector. The Missouri Penitentiary in Jefferson City is rumored to be riddled with spirits. 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. DUFFIN: More graders grading more cheese that the government then buys. The New York Times declared that the bill would give poor Americans a slice of the cheese surplus.. You need a hacksaw. You just have to follow us on Instagram. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. You took away my customers. In 1887, J. Rieger & Co. distillers of top-notch whiskey, vodka and gin put down roots in the Livestock Exchange district of West Bottoms. How we got to this point is a long story, and it starts during a national dairy shortage in the 1970s. The U.S. has too much cheese 1.4 billion pounds of it to be exact. The reason why the dairy industry gets such preferential treatment is its status as this uncontested food in the diet, Wiley says. [2], The mine naturally maintains temperatures between 65 and 70F (18 and 21C) year-round. 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. And the European Union has a long, scandalous history of accumulating butter mountains, wine lakes, and milk lakesthe latter of which consisted of vast quantities of skim milk powder housed in warehouses in Germany, Belgium, and France. The 55,000 sq ft underground storage facility is the world's largest underground business complex. DUFFIN: So much cheese that Bob starts having to spend more and more time on the road because he has to actually go to the cheese to grade it. The former limestone mines house about 400 businesses, many of which specialize in storage or warehousing because they are protected from extreme weather and can boast stable, year-round temperatures and humidity. Al and Ralph may have influenced food safety labeling and your pizzas cheese. Love Missouri? As we unloaded the caves full of this stuff, government cheese started to show up everywhere - food banks and schools, military mess halls. MALONE: As the government bought more and more cheese, sure, the price of milk went up. Slice a package of sausages or dice some ham, or both, you do you. The government eventually tired of being involved in this . Food Caves in Missouri SubTropolis, Kansas City. ASCHEBROCK: Will eat any cheese. [1] The complex contains almost 10.5 miles (16.9km) of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Uncover the finest, most undercover experiences in Kansas City. The third cave is much smaller and contains a natural spring that often sends clean water running over the ground. DIRECTIONS: Dissolve the yeast in the hot water and let stand until foamy, about ten minutes. In 2016, dairy farmers resorted to simply dumping 43 million gallons of milk down the drain. The easier solution - maybe - the government could just start buying a ton of milk themselves. Long situated in a warehouse-style facility far from the major business district of Kansas . Have you seen these caves before? And he tells me, these were never government-owned caves. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. Springfield Underground, an Erlen Group Company is a commercial industrial park with the advantage of underground storage. But this was not putting even a dent in the surplus. Government cheese is processed cheese provided to welfare beneficiaries Food Stamp recipients and the elderly receiving Social Security in the United States as well as to food banks. DUFFIN: This is why there is also a community of people who are still obsessed with government cheese - Internet chat boards trying to find something comparable, restaurants claiming they have a recipe for it. I'm Karen Duffin. MALONE: Even if that bite just looks like some delicious cheese? I mean, there was all kinds of tricks that you - that we had to be looking for. Start with this beginner's guide to the neighborhood, 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, Escape your house with this list of outdoor adventures around Kansas City, Kick off your summer with outdoor music and movies in Kansas City, Kansas City is home to a lot of offbeat and fun museums. The complex contains almost 7 miles of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. Since 1916, when James Lewis Kraft patented American cheese, the U.S. had the technology to create a cheese product that could last for years. 41, no. dynamite. 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. In 2003 the Archives opened an underground FRC facility in Lenexa, Kansas. A teeny bit was allowed but not too much. Offer subject to change without notice. We walk inside. But remember; the raw ingredients were grade A cheddar cheese, some of it personally certified by Bob Aschebrock. Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. Government cheese, as the orange blocks of commodity cheese came to be called, wasnt exactly popular with all of its recipients. DUFFIN: OK. This will be about 3/4 to a cup of water. Leading up to the Second World War, dairy was used in this very patriotic waystrengthening our bodies to fight the war.. A grader, where you do quality checks on it. The government would buy up, say, massive amounts of corn or wheat and then just throw it into a silo until we needed it for some reason. A NASA employee needing an area to test sensitive navigational instruments was among the first official cave occupants. That doesn't look great. Roanoke Cave . Central Plains Regional Archives Moves to Historic Downtown Location Spring 2009, vol. MALONE: This footage is amazing - just massive crowds of people being handed bricks of cheese. MALONE: Yeah. When maple syrup supplies run low, Canada taps into its strategic reserve. (SOUNDBITE OF KAZAM'S "ROMANTIQUE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. Developed by late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt via Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc., it has trademarked the phrase World's Largest Underground Business Complex. JOHN BLOCK: You see that cake of cheese? All rights reserved. The government would buy as much milk as it took to move that price. There's something instinctive in us that makes us want to leave a mark on the world. SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. MALONE: Right. There are literally train tracks leading into it. MALONE: And I'm Kenny Malone. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. government cheese caves kansas city. MALONE: Releasing a tsunami of surplus cheddar the wrong way would push the price of cheese and milk way down. Leilas Hair Museum, located in Independence, is one of the most unusual places in Missouri. Along with Congress, Carter wanted to raise the price of milk 6 cents per gallon and keep raising it with inflation. Imagine watching lines of people wait around to be handed a giant block of moldy, bright orange cheese. The government was demanding an unnatural amount of milk and so farmers were supplying an unnatural amount of milk. So the thing that the government was concerned about is what's called commercial displacement. Posted on June 8, 2022 ; in pete davidson first snl episode; by In a blog post by writer Libbie Bond, the Deans are described as among the first in America to visualize abandoned mines as commercial real estate.. Thank you! Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. You could destroy the surplus, but that looks pretty bad. 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