A Mess However It’s Sliced

One way to unload 30 million lbs. of processed cheddar cheese

Free the cheese! Consumer groups have been beaming that message at the White House in petitions and telegrams for a month, and last week Ronald Reagan agreed to do just that. In an Oval Office ceremony, during which he signed an $11 billion farm price-support bill, the President announced that the Government will give away 30 million lbs. of surplus cheese to states for distribution to the needy. Explained Reagan: “At a time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their Government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of food turn to waste.”

As a present to the poor, the free cheese has its drawbacks. Needy recipients will have to scrape mold off some of the cheese, which has been stored in 150 warehouses or limestone caves in 35 states for as long as 18 months. But, insists Merritt Sprague, a commodity supervisor for the Department of Agriculture, “mold does not produce toxin that is harmful.” Not much variety in the menu, either: the cheese, stored in 5-lb. loaves, is all processed cheddar, the kind sold in grocery stores as “American cheese.”

Giving the cheese away was not all that simple. Government lawyers were afraid that distributing it to people who receive food stamps would be illegal, since one section of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 put severe restrictions on gifts of commodities to them. But Congress in the new farm till specified that the food-stamp law should not interfere with the distribution of surplus commodities. In most states the cheese came too late for a Christmas present, although the first giveaways, in California, Nevada and Texas, were made last Wednesday. More cheese should be on the tables of the poor for New Year’s Eve.

The giveaway still leaves the Government holding some 530 million lbs. of cheese—more than 2 lbs. for every man, woman and child in the country—plus 848 million lbs. of nonfat dry milk stored in 50-lb. sacks and 212 million lbs. of butter frozen at 0° F in 68-lb. blocks. Annual storage and handling cost: $43 million. As Reagan noted in signing the farm bill last week, “surpluses will continue to pile up” because the Government must keep on buying dairy products at prices ($1.4375 per lb. for processed cheddar) that are currently higher than commercial buyers will pay. Processed cheese presents the biggest storage problem, because it spoils if held too long—beyond a maximum of two years. Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block has taken to waving pieces of moldy cheese during speeches to dramatize the scandal, which has led to the telegrams urging the White House to give cheese to the poor.

Other suggestions for disposing of the surplus range from dumping the cheese in the sea to staging bring-your-own-wine-and-crackers parties at warehouses. Reagan hinted last week that more might be given to the needy, and some of the cheese might be sold abroad, at a loss to the Government. The all-too-obvious solution, of course, would be to lower price-support levels until dairy farmers are no longer tempted to produce more cheese than they can sell commercially. But that would be a lot to ask of politicians. The new farm bill actually increases present price-support levels over four years. Meanwhile, the Government is left with a stockpile that is a mess … oh, all right, no matter how you slice it.