Kraft Foods introduced fake cheese in the early 1900s, and the world has never been the same. At this time, traditional cheese-makers felt threatened by the the new product. They wanted it labeled "embalmed cheese" and for this label to be required by law.
As you can imagine, the word "embalmed" doesn't exactly bring up images that you want to associate with eating. This was likely the traditional cheese makers plan - decrease fake cheese sales. However, the government decided that "embalmed cheese" was disparaging. They required that it be called "process cheese" instead.
