There is a disgusting amount of lobbying and corruption in the agricultural industry. However, food security is an important part of a country. You wouldn't want to completely rely on other countries for food.

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You don't understand the issue.

The government bought tons of milk to make ice cream during the war because ice cream took the social place of banned alcohol. They bought so much that dairy farmers scaled to meet demand. The government wanted to stop buying milk after the war and alcohol prohibition ended, that would have collapsed the market, so the government kept buying milk. They couldn't do anything with the milk but turn it into cheese that had no distribution to homes, so they stuck it in a cave and everybody forgot about it, while still stockpiling the cheese for decades. Eventually Regan was given the hot potato and he gave us government cheese.

Well, dairy industry still needs to keep up demand, here comes the American Dairy Council and Dairy Management Inc with "Got Milk?", the concept that milk is the best way to build strong bones, dairy being so important on the food pyramid(wholly a marketing plan imagined by the FDA headed by leaders of the food industries), bailing out Dominos with free cheese, and a strategic partnership with entities such as the Yum! Corporation to push more cheese into American diets.

We could have a healthy dairy industry with less milk products in our diets, but the government got more involved than they should have and doubled down to the detriment of the economy, industry, and the health of the citizens... Like they always do.

[–] slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Cool story, but the EU eats more cheese per capita than the us. Every country in Europe just did the same thing the us did, know that cheese is delicious. No narrative required.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/527195/consumption-of-cheese-per-capita-worldwide-country/

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You are missing the point. In 1950 we ate 7.7lbs of cheese a year, as of 2022 we eat 41.8lbs of cheese a year. That is 0.33oz or one half a slice of Craft Single a day to 1.8oz or 3 slices per day.

In 1950s Germany they ate 8.6lbs per person per year, in 2022 it was 54.2lbs.

Yes, cheese is delicious, but you don't see that type of increase without considerable industry effort.

[–] slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Not sure those numbers back some prohibition ice cream conspiracy to make everyonelove cheese. But industry certainly met demand throughout industrialization. It's sold to us like everything else, and maybe we shouldn't buy so much of it, but all it really had to do was be awesome.

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Ice Cream Warships

Cheese Caves

The second video hits what I was talking about, the first video establishes the dairy demand. You can only watch the 2nd video and understand it. Not exactly a conspiracy, more of a downstream consequence of government antics and capitalism being successful.

[–] slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I understand and know about this stuff. But thanks for youtube vids. Gruyère has been making cheese continuously since the 12th century and is now available worldwide. That happened without this.