We all know that the government subsidizes dairy farmers through the USDA. But what does the government do with all that milk and cheese? A lot of it is donated to school lunch programs and to food banks – but some of those funds that the USDA spends have to be recouped.
It may interest you to learn that your friendly government is helping raise obesity by helping consumers eat more cheese. A LOT more cheese. Here are three programs that the USDA* pushed with several familiar fast food franchises:
The USDA supported Wendy’s to create a Wendy’s “Cheddar Lover’s Bacon Cheeseburger” promotion. It worked pretty well. During that promotion, Wendy’s used:
- 2.25 million pounds of cheese
- Which was 380 tons of fat
- Or 1.2 tons of pure cholesterol
More importantly, people started learning that they could eat more fat. Because that fat is addicting, when the promotion ended, thousands of people had formed new habits that wreak havoc on their health.
Not to be outdone, Pizza Hut also teamed up with Uncle Sam to create the “Ultimate Cheese Pizza”. Check out these numbers:
- A full pound of cheese per pizza
- 5 million pounds in 6 weeks (that’s more than twice what Wendy’s sold!)
And for the health conscious who go to Subway for their meals?
- In 1996, cheese was not a required ingredient in Subway subs.
- USDA “helped” Subway create two subs where cheese was required.
- Resulted in another 70,000 lbs. of cheese.
Those are only three examples of your tax dollars at work. And three reasons why you need to take control of your own health and food choices.
*USDA Report to Congress on the Dairy Promotion Program 2000 - 09