America, Returning Fat to School Milk, Reverses Government Meddling That Made Cheese Consumption Skyrocket

President Trump is heralding the bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act as an “important thing for our farmers” and milk drinkers. Lost in the celebration is a recognition that this kind of government action can have unintended consequences, such as injecting surplus dairy fat into the national bloodstream as cheese.In an Oval Office ceremony on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was flanked by lawmakers, dairy farmers, and children. Undoing guidelines set by the Obama Administration, he said, “participants in the national school lunch program” are no longer limited to “low- or non-fat milk.”This legislation, Mr. Trump said, also removes a “ridiculous” requirement for parents “to submit a written statement from a doctor” if they want a substitute for lactose-intolerant children. The government will now “allow parents to choose what is best for their child.” The USDA posted a video of children on X with #DrinkMoreMilk.The Founding Fathers, who designed a small central government, would be incredulous at Washington’s micromanagement of diets but not surprised at the results of its overreach. That said, modern citizens expect their government to ensure basic food safety in ways that weren’t available 250 years ago. Food and milk in a shopping cart during a distribution event at a church at Pontiac, Michigan on October 24, 2025. Mike Householder/APPasteurization to kill harmful bacteria didn’t become standard in America until the early 1900s. President Lincoln’s mother, Nancy, died of “milk sickness” in 1818 after drinking tainted milk. The wife of a Civil War legend, General William Techumseh Sherman, suffered from scrofula, a bacterial infection transmitted by milk. Yet restraint and caution are advised when making policy. When the government first targeted whole milk in the 1970s, dairy farmers responded by producing low- and reduced-fat varieties. The cows, however, didn’t comply. They kept right on excreting fat, which had to be removed to meet Washington’s requirements. Milk producers, unwilling to throw out all that fat, hired lobbyists and the Treasury responded by purchasing the leftovers as cheese and butter. “Government cheese” for the poor, an outgrowth of Great Depression policies, became ubiquitous in the 1970s and 1980s. The fat wasn’t removed, only shifted to other — often less-healthier — forms. Cows drink from a trough after being milked. AP/Gerald HerbertIn 1975, an ABC “Time for Timer” spot, featuring the titular anthropomorphic body clock, encouraged kids to make “a hunk of cheese” their go-to snack. PSAs like these met the Federal Communications Commission mandate for educational, health-conscious messages. Under the “cheese checkoff” program, agriculture secretaries under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama partnered with restaurants to add cheese-soaked menu items. Dairy Management, a unit of the USDA, bankrolled a four-year ad blitz saying people could lose weight by eating more dairy, even though their own study didn’t back up the claim.The government kept pushing Americans to devour more cheddar, mozzarella, and Pepper Jack. In 2009, Dairy Management worked with Domino’s pizza to produce a new recipe. The result was a pie with 40 percent more cheese, backed by a taxpayer-funded $12 million marketing campaign. Gallons of milk at a food distribution center in Florida. AP/Lynne SladkyWashington sprinkled cheese on items at restaurants like Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, too. “USDA,” NBC News reported in 2010, “sells cheese while warning against eating it.” Today, cheese is the largest source of saturated fat Americans consume, with as much in a single ounce of many varieties as is contained in a glass of whole milk. Efforts to nibble away at the surplus gave no thought to negatives like the corresponding increase in salt consumption. As the cows pumped, federal cheese mongers squirreled away their overflow in “cheese caves.” Springfield, Missouri’s had a peak inventory of 1.4 billion pounds. The Twin Towers weighed just one billion pounds each. The data, and expanding waistlines, show the results of the government’s good intentions. According to the USDA, the amount of cheese Americans ate per year more than doubled between 1970 and 2005, from 16.5 pounds to 34 pounds. In 2022 and 2023, consumption hit a record of 42 pounds — a number they looked on pace to meet last year. Returning whole milk to schools may be a boon to public health. It’s also a chance to recognize the limits of government power. Even when crafted with the best of intentions, even policies aimed at something as simple as milk can end up going sour.

America, Returning Fat to School Milk, Reverses Government Meddling That Made Cheese Consumption Skyrocket

America, Returning Fat to School Milk, Reverses Government Meddling That Made Cheese Consumption Skyrocket

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