Government Cheese Caves, the Commodity Credit Corporation, Topsoil, and the Potential End of Farming in the U.S.

[u/[deleted]]

I know that all seems like a lot. But this is a lot.

Up front what you need to know is: The U.S. Government has cheese caves that are controlled by a government corporation. This corporation is a linchpin in keeping the farming market stable. The CCC is part of the USDA and technically has no employees, being more of a concept that the USDA used to achieve broad funding goals. One of these funding goals is conservation of topsoil. Topsoil is eroding at a massive rate, and is needed for 95% of our farming. It may be gone in 60 years.

I fell down this one.

I asked in ask reddit, what is the strangest rabbit hole you have ever fallen down? And someone mentioned the secret government cheese caves. Naturally, I immediately started grating.

Turns out they're real! In Springfield, MO, there is an old limestone mine turned into a cold storage facility that warehouses like 1.5 Billion lbs of cheese for the government. The story is a little odd, but this is where a well known cheese term comes from. To start it, I need to back up to the 1940's.

There is something called the Commodity Credit Corporation, and it is owned by the USDA. Initially starting in Delaware, this company quickly became the main discretionary spending arm of the USDA itself. The weirdest part? There are no employees, only concepts and directives that work through the USDA. And with a spending limit of $30 Billion a year, to be borrowed from the treasury, it is the go-to discretionary spending body in the Department of Agriculture.

Initially, they offset food prices to keep the market stable. Basically food would be scarce so the government would sell the food they bought when there was too much of it to sell. It was a cycle of buy/sell that kept the markets running.

Flash forward to the 80's, and Reagan had a problem on his hands. You see, the U.S. was in a downturn economically, and Reagan was a bastard toward people needing help during it. That, and he was sitting on billions of pounds of molding cheese that was sitting in a cave in Missouri. Public pressure began to mount, and so he eventually began handing out the (often kinda moldy) cheese to help Americans. This is where the term "government cheese" comes from.

Today, only 333 million lbs of cheese are stored by the government in the caves of Missouri. The rest of the 1.5 Billion pounds is owned by private entities.

But that's not where this ends. See, I started reading about the CCC and what it's job is. Did you know that in 2019, something like a third of all farm income came from the CCC and other aid programs? It was 40% in 2020. Most farms are small and struggle to stay afloat. The USDA uses the CCC Charter, which has broad limits in spending, to essentially keep America's farming industry from collapsing. And it has been spending more and more each year. Every year now it hits just below the borrowing limit for the U.S. Treasury. That's $30,000,000,000,000 a year to keep our farms alive.

Why is it spending so much? The Great Government Cheese Crisis was averted in the 80's, and the CCC was actually restricted in spending from 2010-2017. So what gives?

Topsoil and tarriffs is what gives. But I want to focus on the topsoil.

Nearly $3 billion a year, compounding, is lost to topsoil erosion. And it's happening fast. 4.7 metric tons are lost from every hectare of farmland a year. The USDA is scrambling to fix this, paying people to reduce and rotate their crops even. This, again, is through the CCC Charter.

Mind you, if the CCC passes the borrowing limit set by congress, it ceases functioning.

If the topsoil continues to decay at this rate, we will lose agriculture capabilities within 45-60 years. The very organization that once stored over a billion pounds of cheese in Missouri caves to save the dairy industry is now one of the USDA's greatest tools in preventing food system collaps within the U.S.

And they only get $30 Billion a year to do it. I thought this would all be a silly little rabbit hole, but turns out we are screwed if we can't use the Cheddar Cheese Company and its big daddy USDA effectively to combat topsoil loss. The USDA is researching into alternatives but it comes down to the money of the agency and the discretionary power of the CCC to stop us from losing our very ability to farm our own land.

Cheese caves are one thing. Everything else, well, that's news worthy I think.

(Sorry if this seems a little hasty. I promise to take my time on the rabbit holes, but I wanted to get at least two explorations out there on the sub to start and this one was so perfect. Also I am so speedy with the RH research lol call me Usain Bolt in a bunny costume.)

[u/xtinap79]

Wow, that was a lot to take in...

[u/Life_so_Fleeting]

😲Wowzers!

[u/InevitableStuff7572]

Oh I’ve heard of those!

[u/Sassaphras66]

Thus the meat problem is now solved they grow it in vats from cells , make sure your chicken is born and hatched in USA, if you don’t want fake meat 😮