The big cheese

There is something oh so delectable about cheese: its soft, creamy flavor, the lovely yellow tinge of its husk.

You can spread it, melt it, toss it on pasta and make pizza out of it.
It’s truly one of the most tasty products humankind has contributed to the encyclopedia of food.

In the great culinary tradition, cheese is used sparingly. Rarely intended to be the main star, cheese is best known as a supporting actor on the plate.

Consider, for example, the preparation of an authentic Italian style pizza. The crust is thin, the sauce simple and the cheese used conservatively. Perhaps some basil and crushed red pepper are added for kicks, but the ingredients are left to sing for themselves.

Unfortunately, the United States Department of Agriculture doesn’t feel the same way. It says the more cheese the better. If it were to make a pizza, it would put 40 percent more cheese on than before.

The Department of Agriculture would proclaim that cheese is good for the economy and then devise a $12 million marketing campaign to feed it to the consumer.

It’s what they did with Dominos. Facing poor sales and a bad reputation, the Department of Agriculture told Dairy Management, a publicly developed marketing firm, to encourage the consumption of cheese and implement the aforementioned steps.

Dairy Management’s annual budget is close to $140 million, which mostly comes from government mandated fees on the dairy industry, but is also supplemented with money from the Department of Agriculture.

Financially, it makes some sense. As more Americans switched to low-fat milk, the country began to see a surplus of whole milk and milk fat. Now the government is trying to put that dairy right back into the mouths of consumers by upping the cheesy
content in fast food.

Unfortunately, dairy is high in saturated fats, sodium and calories. So the more dairy America eats the fatter she’s going to get. And you know what that means — escalating obesity rates and higher health costs.

So it’s a good thing the U.S. government has begun to tackle the problem of overeating in this country, right?

We even have Michelle Obama running around America trying to get restaurants to adopt healthier menu options. Too bad, then, that Dairy Management is in the kitchen, working to add more cheese to their products.

It also might be of interest to note that the Department of Agriculture is responsible for the federal government’s campaign against national obesity.

Americans, don’t trust your government.

Until the hypocritical mess that is the Department of Agriculture can clean up its act, don’t heed what they have to say about cheese. I urge you, continue your use of this magnificent ingredient known as cheese.

But do so sparingly. You might even be surprised; it tastes better that way.


E-mail: danfleis@indiana.edu