Trans-Industrial Cooperation to Navigate Surplus to Scarcity
Exploring America’s Cheese Surplus
There is a 1.4 Billion pounds of cheese surplus in the United States (as of 2019) .
The cheese surplus, that is privately owned, has been growing since a subsidy policy was passed by Federal government in 1977.
The highly processed cheese stored in caves underground throughout the midwest and with a long shelf it will be there for a long time.
The surplus is driving costs of milk and cheese down to such a point that farmers in Missouri have had to sell off large portions of their farms or shut down operations that have been in the family for generations with no support for next steps.
There are numerous tax write-offs and incentives available for corporations who donate a certain percentage of their product.
The Goal:
Create connections and facilitate mutually beneficial networks between communities in order to put the cheese to good use (somehow); affect dairy subsidy laws to appropriately value the dairy produced; reduce harm to animals; increase quality of life for farmers and their families; identify opportunities for narrative storytelling as the cheese is distributed; increase public awareness and engagement in ways that encourage community building.
Potential Next Steps:
Re-connect with various contacts in dairy, transportation, and NGO communities to clearly identify need and catch up on the developments post-pandemic
Develop models for transporting food from surplus to scarcity within the United States, or processed “food product” to something like construction materials
Continue to read and understand the abundance of data, content, and information surrounding dairy production, government subsidies, industry trends over generations, global transportation networks, and what the cheese is truly made of
Image of workers distributing 'Government Cheese' in the 1980's – the last time there was a concerted effort to manage the surplus.(Credit: Dave Buresh/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
A forklift moving boxes of processed American cheese (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Barrels of Kraft Cheese storage in Springfield, MO that exceed 400,000 square feet (Credit: Christoph Morlinghaus, Wired Mag)
Screen capture of a YouTube video showing the cave entrance in Carthage, Missouri where passageways are large enough for semi-trucks to drive through. (Courtesy: HonestEd, YouTube)
A simple map of how we might begin to build connections moving a surplus of product towards spaces and communities experiencing scarcity.
Map Showing Top 100 Dairy Producers in the US (2019)
Major Trucking Routes of the US
US Map of Low-Income and Low-Access Communities (2019)