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The US has a 2.5 billion-pound surplus of meat.

US dairy producers now have a 1.39 billion-pound surplus of cheese, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. That’s the largest domestic reserve of cheddar, Swiss, American, and other cheese varieties on record. It means there’s enough excess cheese to arm each American citizen with a hefty 4.6 pounds of the crumbly, melty, salty good stuff. Why is this happening? Simply put: US dairy producers have been overproducing milk. American cows are more productive than ever. And when demand for milk and dairy goes down in the summer, dairy producers store their excess milk as cheese, which has a longer shelf life in cold storage. A similar glut exists for the meat industry. According to new data from the USDA, American meat producers now have 2.5 billion pounds of chicken, turkey, pork, and beef in cold storage, which is also a record, according to the Wall Street Journal. And producers are running out of warehouse space to store it all.

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