President Jimmy Carter wanted to help the dairy farmers. It doesn't take long to see the three caves, but once you're here, you'll spend a long time looking and exploring. He says the government was buying powdered milk, butter and cheddar cheese - only grade-A cheddar, though. "If they haven't been used, no one knows what state of deterioration they are in," Hasan said. The complex contains almost 7 miles of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track. It is huge. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: The great cheese giveaway began today in California. These days, units are available for business leasing or to store items that would benefit from the particular climate control found underground. A cave in Kansas formerly used to store government cheese. This restaurant serves wood-fired fare served in a natural cave with a live spring. They also house a massive frozen-food storage complex, a paintball business, and a US Postal Service facility that stores and distributes new stamps. does st martin parish have school tomorrow. A native Midwesterner with a love for family, friends, and learning new things. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. I get in my car in my garage at home and drive underground here, so its all temperature controlled. NOVAKOVIC: You've got two levers you can pull on. Then, in the 1970s, everything started to go haywire. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. In fact, it has trademarked the phrase Worlds Largest Underground Business Complex. It was developed by late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt via Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc. Read on to learn more about the largest underground business complex in Missouri. Long situated in a warehouse-style facility far from the major business district of Kansas . ANDY NOVAKOVIC: Oh, yeah. Government . There are these massive columns, and it looks like something the "Lord Of The Rings" dwarves built. DAN CALLAHAN: No, I've never thought about it. 1. 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. Behold the power of cheese. 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. MALONE: Again, our dairy economist Andy Novakovic. Kansas City Chiefs Home: The official source of the latest Chiefs news, videos, photos, tickets, rosters, and gameday information Remember Government cheese? The year was 1981, and President Ronald Reagan had a cheese problem. Cheese-makers buy more milk. KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and powerful storytelling. There is an argument that our country has to be able to produce its own food because if our farmers go out of business and we become reliant on other countries for food, then that is a kind of national security risk. Share your experiences in the comment section below. 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. 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. government cheese caves kansas citysr latch using nor gate truth table. 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. Kenny Malone hails from Meadville, PA where the zipper was invented, where Clark Gables mother is buried and where, in 2007, a wrecking ball broke free from a construction site, rolled down North Main Street and somehow wound up inside the trunk of a Ford Taurus sitting at a red light. Looking for more unusual places in Missouri? Like so many things in American public policy, this traces to the New Deal, but actually goes even a little bit before that, says Andrew Novakovi, a professor of Agricultural Economics at Cornell University. Youve heard about the subterranean chamber beneath the land near Worlds of Fun, right? CARTER: But I am in favor of giving farmers an equal break. 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. And thus, you won't be flooding anyone's market. I'm Karen Duffin. Missouri's caves can . 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. We are @planetmoney. Central Plains Regional Archives Moves to Historic Downtown Location Spring 2009, vol. MALONE: (Laughter) And you just have a big knife. 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. 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. 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. DUFFIN: Hello. On the north edge of the complex Hunt developed the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun amusement park complex. What is cave cheese? DUFFIN: In the pantheon of milk-related economic disasters, there is one that rises above the rest. "Kansas City is a world leader in the use of underground space for human occupancy," he said. So they created a brand-new special program to give the cheese away through food banks. NOVAKOVIC: To persuade farmers to produce less. MALONE: Yes. Cheeseproclub.com. It was ready to start buying cheese. Oh, boy - here we go. Al and Ralph may have influenced food safety labeling and your pizzas cheese. DIRECTIONS: Dissolve the yeast in the hot water and let stand until foamy, about ten minutes. A grader, where you do quality checks on it. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. San Francisco is 1 of 3 cities in which needy people lined up to get the surplus cheese. 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. Rather, the "caves" are part of a 3.2-million-square-foot warehouse under part of Springfield.. And in order to do this, they have to be willing to buy all of the cheese that anybody wants to sell them at this price. To get some of that cheese off the market, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $47.1 million buying up roughly 22. MALONE: And you can taste all of those things in a piece of cheese? NOVAKOVIC: So it's fundamental economics. But this is what gave us, you know, the got milk and the milk mustache and all those kind of iconic programs that we remember. By: Anne D Springfield and Kansas City are not even near each other, and 435 is no where near Springfield, this article is quite confusing. DUFFIN: Finding a market for this stuff is in fact a pretty fascinating puzzle because getting rid of government surplus anything is an economically tricky thing. 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. Get more stories delivered right to your email. Dug into the Bethany Falls limestone mine, SubTropolis is, in places, 160 feet (49m) beneath the surface. ASCHEBROCK: And that's what you grade. The 55,000 sq ft underground storage facility is the world's largest underground business complex. Grab a latte at the birthplace of modern American skateboarding. MALONE: But this is America. You don't do that, huh? So the clever folks at USDA said, what if we went down the supply chain one step NOVAKOVIC: And looked at dairy products that are storable? Missouri has more than 7,000 caves under its ground, though fewer than 20 are easily accessible to most people. https://bit.ly/2CdCooV Theorists, did you know the government is hiding caves full of cheese from us? Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. Make sure to come up for fresh air, as well as bangers and mash. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. There were 40-pound blocks and 500-pound barrels. Melt Two tbps of butter into a skillet, then add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. 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 . As we unloaded the caves full of this stuff, government cheese started to show up everywhere - food banks and schools, military mess halls. The brick structure 9th & State calls home is one of a few left standing since those raucous Paris of the Plains days. MALONE: This must be a common confusion in the industry. They actually had to rent out space in multiple caves. MALONE: So if you wanted to sell cheese to the government, Bob would show up with this, like, hollow rod called a cheese trier. But thats not all that was uncovered. Like, this is the original bridge to nowhere. Imagine watching lines of people wait around to be handed a giant block of moldy, bright orange cheese. This story was first published in KCUR's Creative Adventure newsletter. SNOOP DOGG: (Rapping) And we ghetto like a [expletive] hot buttered toast in the mornin' with some government cheese. So the thing that the government was concerned about is what's called commercial displacement. SNOOP DOGG: You don't buy it. Have you seen these caves before? Try the frozen treat that inspired Arrested Development's famous banana stand. 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. Blackwell Motors showcases a variety of fiberglass animals, and people come from all around just to see them. We can't find a market for it. 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: This was not just political pandering. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. MALONE: OK. OK. We're not here to make fun of Velveeta. 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. Either one should get you a higher price. The Federal Government stores tons of surplus cheese and other dairy products in the mines. Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean., Instead, they decided to jettison 30 million pounds of it into welfare programs and school lunches through the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program. MALONE: Karen's doing the dance. 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. In fact, if you see my shape, you would know that I eat enough to keep the tank full. 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? You need a hacksaw. And the resulting demand just pushes the price of milk up. DUFFIN: It is a case study in what happens when price controls run full speed into the realities of the market. The government tiptoed back into the cheese business in 2019 when the Trump administration said it was using the CCC program again to provide large subsidies to offset the effects of its trade. There are so many incredible abandoned businesses in Missouri. give poor Americans a slice of the cheese surplus., exactly popular with all of its recipients. But the government then actually has to figure out a way to step into this market and make it happen. By Emily Baron Cadloff Global Research, May 30, 2022 Modern Farmer 25 May 2022 Region: USA Theme: Global Economy Offer subject to change without notice. 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. Do you or does someone you know work at SubTropolis? And you turn it, and you pull out a core of cheese. DUFFIN: Our supervising producer is Alex Goldmark, and our editor is Bryant Urstadt. Lamar Hunt, the late founder of the Kansas City Chiefs, is perhaps the most well-known of the cave developers. MALONE: Even if that bite just looks like some delicious cheese. How do we - how do we get this cat out of the tree? The same year, the USDA bought up $20 million worth of cheese to cut the glut. In the 1990s and early 2000s, even as U.S. nutritionists expressed growing concern about saturated fats and rising obesity levels, a marketing firm created and partially funded by the USDA gave millions to fast-food companies such as Taco Bell and Dominos to push them to increase the amount of cheese on menu items by as much as eightfold. But every instinct I had said, oh, this - I'm not so sure this is going to work out so well. 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. At a time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their Government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of food turn into waste, Reagan said in a written statement. Though its more a part of Midtown than Downtown, the space once known as Deans Downtown Underground is definitely down there. Born and raised Kansan, Clarisa has lived in both tiny towns and cities during their time here in the Sunflower State. SubTropolis is a ginormous man-made cave in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City. MALONE: So a campaign promise - that's what we call those. He says the government was buying powdered milk, butter and cheddar cheese - only grade-A cheddar, though. MALONE: Are you pretty annoying to eat cheese with? Hunt's extensive business dealings in Clay County contributed to the Chiefs having their NFL Training Camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri until 1991. 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. According to The Washington Post, the U.S. has the largest domestic reserve of cheese of all varieties, including cheddar, Swiss and American . Last year, the U.S. produced nearly 12 billion pounds of cheese -- an all-time high, according to the USDA. In response to this dairy shortage and 30% inflation . And it's the most government packaging you will ever see - just, like, brown cardboard, some black USDA stamps on it. Westons downtown district was established in 1837, so theres a lot of history here. A set of caves along Interstate 435 offered a convenient cold-storage option. How we got to this point is a long story, and it starts during a national dairy shortage in the 1970s. 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. There's something instinctive in us that makes us want to leave a mark on the world. 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 second lesson is you got to pay attention to the unintended consequences because they can come back and bite you and bite you hard. DUFFIN: OK. It was built by a German immigrant named John Georgian, who instead of relying on those trusty limestone caves weve come to know and love dug out his own brewery space beneath Weston. Andy Novakovic is a dairy economist at Cornell University. 1 By Kimberlee N. Ried Enlarge Plan for the National Archives at Kansas City. As a Louisiana foodie, all I know about the topic is that if anyone got t heir hands on government cheese, it was a celebration, because it was so tasty.!!