WEBVTT - STDWYTK: Cheesepiracy! 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.680 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.079 learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:25.439 production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome back to 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.720 the show. My name is Matt, my name is Nol. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.120 They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:36.000 super producer Paul Mission Controlled deconds. Most importantly, you are you, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.200 You are here, and that makes this the stuff they 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.599 don't want you to know. This is a follow up 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.520 from an earlier Listener Male segment where our fellow conspiracy 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:52.640 realist Ryan hipped us to a strange story about cheese 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.040 in the United States. We talked a little bit about 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.880 our favorite cheese commercials. I mean, some of that is 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.680 clearly a genre now. You know, it's sometimes called although 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.520 I hate the name food porn. Uh, we all know 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.959 what we're talking about. The slow motion clips of like 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.520 um no, you had a good example of a mozzarella 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.479 stick that's a classic being pulled. And then we had 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.160 you know, Taco bell Que, Sadilla's Casa Lupas, which play 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.920 a big role here and uh, this this kind of 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.559 commercial is almost a troupe nowadays. And in fact, there 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.800 are trendy restaurants of plenty in this country dedicated entirely 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.800 to one sort of cheesy food or another. Like, have 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.800 you guys ever been to a macaroni and cheese restaurant 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.880 or a place that only sells grilled cheese sandwiches. It's 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.520 very New York. Yeah, there's a place I went to. 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.520 I think it was in Oakland. It was called Homework 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.480 or something like that. I was meant to evoke feelings 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.880 of like childhood and like lunch room stuff, but it 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.800 was these bespoke kind of personal pan like little um, 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.160 you know, those dishes that are meant to be put 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.680 in the oven, kind of like bakeware or whatever, like 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.920 little Dutch oven kind of guys, with baccaroni and cheese 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.560 of all different flavors and varieties. And it was obviously 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.200 very overpriced for mac and cheese, but it was delicious. Um. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:11.920 What about fawn Do you guys have been to a 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:16.400 fawn do restaurant? There's a chain here in Atlanta. I 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.840 think it's called the Melting Pot or something like that. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.919 For me, it was all about the pirate ship. Oh, 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:27.520 Dante is down the hatch. You're Dante's guy, Yeah it 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:33.840 was so good. Uh yeah, we yea grilled cheese food trucks. 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.920 Do not sleep on those in Atlanta. There are a 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:41.520 ton of them, uh, grilled cheese food trucks. Guys. Oh 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.000 so we're we're both cheesy and fans of cheese. So 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.680 if you do not like this is the weirdest trigger 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.280 warning we've ever done. If you do not like puns, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.359 this is not the episode for you, and you should 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.840 just go to the next episode. But but the thing is, 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:00.960 you know, a long time listens, you know, I have 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.399 a personal obsession with Casa Dilla's. They're basic, They're kind 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.920 of a grilled cheese, I would argue. Um. And in fact, folks, 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.079 all of us here at this stuff, they don't want 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.440 you to know. Team we all love cheese and we 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.720 all love talking about food, and we wanted to make 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.560 sure that was an accurate statement. So right before we 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.320 went to air, I went ahead and pained our super 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.800 producer code named Doc Holiday, and said, Matt and I 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.799 worked on how to write this question. Said, hey, Doc, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.720 this is a work question. Do you like cheese? If so, 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.360 what kind? Doc says, I love cheese, but I don't 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.640 eat it as much as I would. And she kind 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.680 of alluded to, you know, health concerns, but she says, 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.040 I am literally the eating shredded cheese out of the 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.360 bag person. So we're gonna hit her with same we're 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.560 reading this on air, sorry, doc So. And you know 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.720 Paul michion Control look Horse, one of the one of 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:02.200 the prime uh champ beans of apple Bees loves cheese. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.120 Matt Old, do you guys have a favorite cheese or 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.640 or you are? Yes? Old cheese kind of kind of 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.200 crewe Yeah, I mean, I guess all cheeses aren't really 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.640 created equal. I'll tell you what I think does get 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:14.640 slept on a little bit is just good old fashioned 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.680 American cheese product, you know, not even properly. It's like 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:20.960 I wouldn't like I like it on I'll tell you 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.919 what I like it on melted, because it melts beautifully 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.760 on like breakfast biscuit, like an egg and a sausage 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.320 on a biscuit, and you to slap that cheese product on. 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.960 We're gonna get into this um and it just melts 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:35.880 beautifully and it's its own thing and a lot of 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.839 like kind of cool breakfast divy type joints do that too. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.279 But I am I like a I like a funky cheese, 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.119 you know, like a little bit of a foot smell 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:52.080 to cheese. Well, I don't like you ever had a raclette. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.280 Raclette as a one. It's like a Swiss one that 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.719 also has its own kind of fondue situation where you 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.840 melted over meats and stuff on this special little grill 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:01.840 that's and you drink a lot of vodka with it, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.880 which is a bonus. Man, that sounds good for my money, Yeah, 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.719 for my money. It's you combine let's say, a pecan 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.159 slash pecan with some kind of dried fruit and a 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.360 goat cheese. Mix those together with anything else. You're good 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:24.640 to go. Oh yeah, baby, yeah right. I'm I'm pretty 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.480 uh as you guys know, I am pretty non discriminatory 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.520 when it comes to food in general. Uh. Doc says 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:38.279 that her favorites are gorgonzola, blue cheese, and gouda. Uh 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.200 And when we were talking about this, you probably have 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:46.520 your own favorite cheese, conspiracy realist, just statistically, but we're 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:52.120 talking about this, we're talking about a national phenomenon. Cheese 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.720 is almost a staple. Lights. Cheese is a staple nowadays 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:57.760 in the US, and it can be weird if you 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.000 travel to other countries where cheese is not really a thing. Uh. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.039 And you know you wouldn't see it very often in 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.720 a in your normal grocery store or market. You probably 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.200 only run into it if you went to like up 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.280 pizza restaurant or something of that nature. But in different 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.400 parts of the world that are historically not on board 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.560 with cheese, uh, it is still like a growing industry. 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:28.480 So here are the facts. Before we get into the conspiracy. Folks, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.560 you have to realize cheese is, as the younger humans 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.760 would say, popular a f in the US unless you 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.400 are lactose intolerant, unless you're vegan or have some other 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.479 dietary restriction. Odds are you have consumed some cheese recently. 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.039 This wasn't always the case. We'll get to it. Um. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:54.040 We are adventurous cheese eaters. But if you're the average American, 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.520 you know one of your favorite cheeses, or the one 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.560 you consume most often, is gonna be cheddar. And there 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.040 are health concerns that come into cheese consumption. But I 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.359 suggest we put those two as to the side for 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.400 a moment. Uh, to the side of our cheese plate, 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:14.520 and look at just the straight consumption, because this is 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.920 for cheesemakers. Uh, this sounds like a resounding success story. 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.120 So if you start back in the mid nineteen seventies, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.120 let's say nineteen seventy five, you're an average American. Look 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.080 at you, so are we. We are all average Americans. 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:35.520 We consumed around fourteen pounds of cheese. That's in a year. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.640 So in a year's time, you would eat fourteen pounds 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:40.960 of cheese. Now, if you went to a deli right now, 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.360 wherever you are, and you said, give me a pound 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:48.600 of cheese, that seems like a lot right now, those 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:54.120 it does. I think you typically order your cheese and 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.680 maybe a quarter pounds, right. I think a quarter pound 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.040 of cheese is respectable. And if you've got a family, 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:00.760 it's half a pound or pound. That's just the way 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:08.160 you gotta go. I am a family, family of one. 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.920 Look that's my this is my experience. So perhaps I'm wrong, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.520 but you know, just imagine fourteen pounds. That seems like 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.120 a lot already. It in my opinion, maybe that's wrong, 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.760 but it's not. It's not as much as it has 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:28.480 grown to. Yeah, you're right, Matt, it's skyrocketed as of 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.440 nineteen and this is a number that continued to rise 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.480 during the pandemic. But as of the average US consumer 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:41.720 was eating around forty four zero point four pounds of 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:47.000 cheese per year. Yeah, yeah, and uh that's just the 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:53.080 tip of the cheeseburg or we're keeping it. For the 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.439 past ten years, US per capita consumption of cheese has 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:03.360 risen even more, uh over five pounds um from that point. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.680 And as this began to happen, we had other dairy 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.120 categories that had largely remained unchanged or were flat or 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.960 had even fallen UM. Things like consumption of fluid milk 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.319 had plummeted from two forty seven pounds per person in 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:22.920 the N two hundred and forty six pounds, Which makes sense. 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.840 I mean, like we've talked about, I think on the 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.120 the cheese segment on the listener mail. You know, there 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.520 were all these amazing ad campaigns, you know, to get 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.080 milk back up milk drinking about how it's good for 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.679 your bones and calcium and and got milk and all 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.360 of that. Uh. Now, I think most people think of 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.760 milk as an ingredient rather than a beverage. Unto itself 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.959 like something you add to a smoothie or using making 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.960 a cake. But it doesn't seem very in vogue to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.480 just drink milk as a refreshing beverage, unless unless you're 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.840 a kid. Uh, you know, a lot of parents still 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.160 give their children milk. Like in the waters, I give 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.000 my son milk cow's milk, um and we have, we 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.000 have for a long time. But the the ability to 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.960 this always so interesting. The ability to digest lactose in 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.480 adulthood is a relatively recent mutation in part of the 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.479 human species, and it's far from uniform. Uh. So sometimes 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:25.439 it's funny because if you if you watch television or film, uh, 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.199 you'll see the consumption of drinking milk is almost always 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.240 a statement. Now it's not the only time you'd see 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.640 it as like a quote unquote normal everyday thing. Is 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.720 if it's an indicator of time and place, so like 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.319 our story takes place in the nineteen fifties or something, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.600 or if it's one of those tremendously irritating breakfast scenes 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.240 where there's this huge you know that, like there's this 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.600 huge spread and they got juice and they got water, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.559 and they got coffee and they got milk, and then 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.480 the guy, like the patriarch or the kid there or 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.040 whomever's running through the house and they're they're like getting 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.480 calls and they look at this and they like take 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.600 half a bite of toast, and they're like, all right, 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:10.480 love you, honey, gotta go, And no one mentions you monster. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.600 I did all this work. I made you this continental 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.880 breakfast type situation. You didn't need all that, but I 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:19.520 did it for you because I love you. You couldn't 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.560 even bother yourself to eat more than a bite of toast. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:27.360 I want a divorce. That's that's where that goes. But no, 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:32.080 it's true. Milk is not nearly as popular as it 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.480 used to be. I like chocolate milk. I think that's 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.800 still probably flies off the shells pretty well, but it's 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.360 something you put in your coffee. Now. I think I 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.959 got a sideways story for you guys, real quick about 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.040 you know, the urban legend or the rumor about chocolate milk, right, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.800 the bad milk. Yeah, that it's the milk with the 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:55.160 clots in it, with the blood clots, chocolate everything. For me, well, 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:57.160 back in the back in the day, that may have 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.880 been more true than it is today. You're probably safe 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.240 thanks to federal health standards, So please enjoy your chocolate milk. Also, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.120 try you who if you haven't yet. It's a good 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.360 it's a good you who is to chocolate milk? What 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.520 those cheese slices are to cheese? You? Who is a 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:19.600 chocolate drink product? Right? There's any real milk or chocolate 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.920 in that beverage like a powder. But but yeah, we're 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.000 we're inundated with cheese in the US. It's officially a 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.800 cheesy country and a cheesy people. How did we get here? Well, 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:38.160 there are some easy, kind of fun answers. First, the 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.720 popularity of cheese owes a ton to the rise of pizza, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.120 and I, for one, I'm grateful for the rise of pizza. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.760 I know it's maybe not the same as the legit 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.520 pizza con I know it's absolutely not the same as 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.640 legit pizza created in Italy. But because of pizza alone, 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.040 mozzarella went from being kind of this obscure thing you'd 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.480 see it a fancy cheese place to one of the 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.000 most popular varieties of cheese in the country. Like around 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.400 like cheddar status, which is Cheddar is like the Kanye 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.480 West of cheese In the state. And was that an 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:15.040 accidental pun the rise of pizza? No, wait, yes, yes 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.600 it was. I didn't think about just checking that, checking 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.160 one of those off the list. If anyone wants to 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.640 make a drinking game out of this, yes, we all 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.000 are not accidental or not. We have a list of uh, 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.360 I think we all have. We've got a mental list 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.480 of puns. So again, this is gonna be pun heavy. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.840 We've done some pretty serious, kind of dark episodes that 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.080 were we think very important, so we wanted to take 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.440 We're recorded on a Friday, folks. We wanted to do 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:45.600 something that was not immensely depressing. So well, you're right. 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.400 Just to get to the concept that cheese owes pizza 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.600 a lot of gratitude, at least as an industry, as 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.800 a food thing. Uh, really think about think about the 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.400 local pizza chain that maybe you grew up with. Then 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.240 also think about the big ones, the Dominoes, the pizza 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.600 huts eventually the Papa John's and the Goodfellas and the 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.640 ccs and all these other ones. When when you all 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.520 of a sudden, you had companies that could just deliver 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.960 you food, which wasn't a big thing in a lot 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.240 of places, and for a lot of companies, delivering food 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.440 was not a big thing, but it kind of changed 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.880 the game and how Americans got food and the other thing. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.800 Just to really remember here, these aren't Italian companies bringing 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.400 you know, Italian pizza that's done correctly in the Italian way. 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:40.680 These are American companies that are creating food products with 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.600 relatively cheap ingredients where they can make a ton of 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.520 money on Uh So it's just a it's a very 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.480 different it's a very different thing. Um, we don't have 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.200 to get all into pizza that. We can leave that 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:58.880 to the saver folks, but uh yeah, definitely shout out 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.560 what it's telling we see all the time. Right, it's 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.920 like bastardization and sort of like um, I don't know, 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.480 co opting of like culture and turning it into this 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.200 sort of like product that can be mass marketed. And 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.520 I think, uh, these chain pizza restaurants are exactly that. 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.280 Because you go to like a Antiko's really awesome pizza 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.840 joint here in Atlanta, are anywhere you know that your 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.880 name your pizza joint of choice that is like a 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.960 little more traditional, you know, it's not covered in shredded cheese. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.640 It has like a slice of like buffalo mozzarella, like 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.200 a little circle doll up on the top, and that's 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.320 what you get. And it's delicious and it's very delicate 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.360 and light h and it's not you don't get that 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.120 massive cheese pull. You get like one. But you know again, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.920 they've got bags and bags and pounds and thousands and 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.240 thousands of tons of this stuff that they're trying to ship, 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.360 they're trying to sell, and it's like, uh, it is 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.640 a conspiracy between big pizza and big cheese. Well, let's 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.720 let's step back a second before we use the C word. So, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.680 uh well, let's keep painting the picture, right. Did did 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.720 someone who went on the found Dominoes and Pizza Hut 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.840 go to Italy and say, look at this anything you 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:10.160 can do, I can do feeda or was this just 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:15.560 a natural outgrowth of changing trends and taste in the 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.960 American public? Did it happen as marketers would put it, organically? 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.840 We know that part of the that We know that 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:29.120 pizza has also given a lot of heft to shredded cheese, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:35.000 in particular, about six billion dollars of the natural cheese 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:42.200 categories shredded cheese and uh, this the natural cheese category. Overall, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.960 there is a little less than eighteen billion. We're talking 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:50.920 a lot of money here. During the coronavirus pandemic, Kraft Hinds, 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.760 which is a giant in the food industry, said it 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.840 saw an unprecedented double digit growth in this sale of 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.320 those craft singles, which is in the rest of the 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.200 world people would probably call that American cheese. It's those 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.199 processed yellow cheese slices we're talking about. But pizza and 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:14.399 a pandemic and organic taste cannot entirely explain America's weird 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:19.320 relationship with cheese. When we look into the dawn of 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:24.439 the American Age of cheesiness, we were surprised to find 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.280 there is literally a conspiracy of foot not a conspiracy theory, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.840 not something that happened in the past. It is going 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.080 odd today. As as we pointed out, there really is 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.359 a thing called big cheese. And they're after you. What 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.600 are we talking about. We'll tell you after a word 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:53.640 from our sponsors. Here's where it gets crazy. So we've 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.400 all heard of government cheese, right, We'll get to that. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.640 And if you, if you were in eighties or nineties, kid, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.600 you would doubtlessly heard of this stuff, even if you 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.840 never saw it in person. But when we're talking about cheese, 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.160 really talking about milk, right, because you can't have cheat, well, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.959 you can't have good cheese without milk, that's right. So 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.520 let's that's that's wind the clock back to the good 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.480 old nineteen eighties, the late eighties on the cusp of 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.679 the nineties, that that gray period where it sort of 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.200 still feels like the one era, but things are starting 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.480 to change a little bit. Night seven the mediaan dairy 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.600 farm had eighty cows or fewer. Uh. Today that number 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:39.440 is closer to nine hundred. So economies of scale drive 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.520 costs down and bolster output. Right. So on top of that, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.639 you've got the average cow producing more milk than ever before, 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.800 and that is because of better breeding practices. They've kind 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.399 of figured it out and honed it down to a 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.680 science to get the most output for their buck. Uh. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.000 And there are also those like heinous machines that you've 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.280 seen in like some of the factory production of milk. 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.399 I like the phrase heinous machines. That sounds like a 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.320 good album named I agree, but I think we all 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.000 know we're talking about those kind of like dystopian sci 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:16.000 fi milk suction cup tube machines that we're talking about, Matt. Yeah, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.760 and some of them are completely fine. I mean, well, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.080 who's who's to say people would argue that fact, but um, 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.119 many are less impactful on the cows than others. U 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.080 some I would use the term heinus. So yeah, anyway, 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.840 at the very least, it doesn't seem pleasant for the animal, right, Yeah, absolutely, 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.959 But as we know in our previous work on livestock conspiracies, 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.480 the feeling of the animal being used doesn't often come 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.760 into play. And there's also we should also, by the way, 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.560 folks do a an episode in the future on chicken farms, 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.879 just chicken, chicken, the chicken industry, poultry industry in particular. 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:02.160 It's bad, bad, I learn some weird stuff. But wait, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.280 this is our light episode. We're keeping it light. Sorry, sorry, guys, 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.000 We're back to it. So you know what it is, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.800 even at the cost I mean, and it's hard to 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.919 even talk about, but at the cost of the experience 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:20.359 of the cow. The whole point of all of that production, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.320 it's to get more food for humans that need food. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:29.960 In theory. In theory, yes, because it's responding to a market. Right, 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.800 there's a need for this milk, so we must produce 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.000 more of it. How do we do that more efficiently? Well, 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:39.800 this is how So I just put that out there. 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.680 Yeah there is a logic, Yeah, there is a logic. 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.120 The farmers weren't sitting around saying, how can we make 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:51.400 things worse? People don't usually think that way. And you know, often, 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.600 especially in smaller farms, they have a very human connection 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.280 with their livestock, you know, and they and they want 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.280 they want these cow us to live good lives and 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.600 be happy. Because if the cow is in a good 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.199 mental state, because it is a higher order mammal, if 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.679 it's in a good mental state, then that's going to 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.280 affect its diet, it's nutrition, and therefore the milk it produces. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.000 We have to acknowledge at this point the dairy industry, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:22.240 and we're talking about uh, several years or decades so ago, 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:27.560 they were not just producing milk for a domestic consumer, 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.240 they were producing it for other countries. And then a 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:35.040 crash hit China's economy slowed down. This drove the global 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.480 demand from milk down. At the same time, the EU 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.960 said they had had these domestic caps on how much 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.400 milk a European or EU farmer could produce, and they 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.840 remove those caps, so all of a sudden, the EU 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.240 is making a bunch of milk, which means they need 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.640 less from the US. Russia slapped sanctions on foeign cheese 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.240 because they were mad about some Western sanctions, and then 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.000 the US dollar was stronger, and that meant that American 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.280 dairy farmers had to sell milk at a more expensive 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.760 rate internationally. And these factors combined into this like bubbly 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.399 caso dip of problems. There was a massive ongoing cheese glut. 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.320 There was not a tortilla chip of a solution. Insight, 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.400 This did not occur in a vacuum at all historically, 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.359 because if you look back, you'll see that the US 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:31.960 government has a very long history of supporting dairy farmers 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:39.399 when prices collapse, through through subsidies, through marketing campaigns, through 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.000 government cheese. Uh, maybe we we should talk a little 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.480 bit about government cheese, I think before we continue, what 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.600 do you guys say? I think we should because I, 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:49.880 for the longest time sort of thought it was a joke, 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.720 um that it was sort of a euphemism for, you know, 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.439 welfare in some way. But it turns out it's a 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:01.040 real thing. It's an actual cheese product that the government 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:06.000 would distribute to low income individuals UH and families UM 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.280 in place of money or as a supplement to their 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:15.000 you know nutrition. Right. Yeah, it's processed cheese. It's been 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:18.400 around since the World Wars. It was used in military 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:21.600 consitions during World War Two. It's been in schools since 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.959 the nineteen fifties. So if you went to a public 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:27.480 school in the US, you probably at some point did 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:32.000 eat government cheese. It got a it became politically charged 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:36.719 because it was associated with welfare beneficiaries, people who received 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:40.400 food stamps or SNAP, people who are elderly and got 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:44.560 Social Security checks, and then people who visited food banks. 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:49.959 But there's absolutely nothing shameful about that. And and you know, 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:53.680 odds are outside of schools. We've got plenty of people 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.360 in our audience today who have at some point been 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:00.840 on government assistance. And not to a box too much, 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:03.359 but yeah, you should not feel bad about it. That 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:06.399 is what that assistance is there for. Every time you 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:09.360 buy something and Uncle Sam takes a little it takes 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.040 a little vig from you at the cash register. It's 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:14.879 supposed to go back to you in some way. Yeah, 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.119 I'm not gonna lie. I was myself when I was 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:21.520 a young new parent, um, you know, kind of getting 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:24.560 started in my career. Even before really I was there 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:26.800 was a period where we were living with my my 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.560