It's this thing we do with cheese.

We melt it.

We dip it.

We eat it.

In the '70s, it became super popular.

But that didn't just happen by chance.

There was an ominous force behind it,

a real-life cheese cartel.

(dramatic music)

100 years ago, cheese was a hot commodity in Switzerland.

It was exported at high volumes

and played a major role in the Swiss economy.

But that all changed after World War I.

European countries, devastated by the war,

could no longer afford to buy expensive, imported cheese,

which was bad news for Switzerland.

So the government stepped in,

and they formed The Cheese Union.

Basically, it was a cartel,

and it worked like this.

The first thing they did

was force every dairy farmer and cheesemonger

to fix the price of cheese, eliminating competition,

meaning everyone could stay in the game.

The cheese cartel also told them

exactly how much cheese to make and limited the varieties.

So instead of making thousands of different kinds of cheese,

they only made seven.

And it worked.

The cartel controlled the cheese supply for decades.

By the '70s, they got greedy

and wanted to expand their cheese racket globally.

So they introduced the world to a dish

already popular in the freezing cold Alps, fondue.

By marketing cheese for fondue,

the cartel was able to sell more.

I mean, think about it.

It takes a lot, and I mean a lot, of cheese

to fill a pot.

But, as with most cartels, things got shady.

Money went missing.

People went to jail.

And by the 1990s, the Swiss Cheese Union was dismantled.

So, there you have it.

The reason we know and love fondue

is because of a shady government program

that convinced the world to consume massive amounts

of melted cheese.