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VIDEO: The Origin Of Government Cheese

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In 1976, Jimmy Carter made a single campaign promise that snowballed into a longstanding cultural phenomenon: government cheese. It shows up in comedy sketches, songs and even a cooking show with Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

So what is government cheese, and how did the U.S. government end up buying two pounds of cheese for every American?

Listen to the original Planet Money podcast episode here. Subscribe to our video series here — and, while you're at it, subscribe to our podcast.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bronson Arcuri is a Senior Producer on NPR’s visuals team. In that role, he focuses on developing new video formats and producing original documentary projects for the network's digital platforms and news programs.