FARM GROUPS CRITICIZE DANNON  for announcing to shift to using fewer GMO ingredients.  A  letter   signed by groups including the National Corn Growers Association, American Farm Bureau Federation and American Soybean Association said the company's move requires farmers to "abandon safe, sustainable farming practices that have enhanced farm productivity over the last 20 years" and represents a "major step backward" in a sustainable crop supply. Read more in a Bloomberg news article and review the full letter .

BRANDED FLUID MILK CONSUMPTION INCREASES as a result of new partnerships between processors and the dairy checkoff.  According to Dairy Management CEO Tom Gallagher, the checkoff has formed eight partnerships which have invested more than $500 million into infrastructure and innovation, which has moved an additional 300 million pounds of fluid milk following the model set by fairlife. As the category reinvents itself, he says fluid milk is no longer just a domestic product and recent research by the checkoff estimates over a billion pounds of shelf-stable fluid milk has the potential to be exported to China. Listen to a 15-minute interview with Gallagher and Brownfield news at this link.

FIFTEEN BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS NAMED FOOD-WASTE CHAMPIONS by the USDA and EPA as part of efforts to meet the nation's food-waste reduction goals. The first class of the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions pledged concrete steps to reduce food loss and waste in their operations by 50 percent by 2030. Companies recognized include Ahold USA, Blue Apron, Bon Appétit Management Company, Campbell Soup Company, Conagra Brands, Delhaize America, General Mills, Kellogg Company, PepsiCo, Sodexo, Unilever, Walmart, Wegman's Food Markets, Weis Markets and YUM! Brands.

The EPA estimates that about 21 percent of the U.S. waste stream to landfills and incinerators is food waste, and the USDA estimates that about 90 billion pounds of food waste comes from consumers, worth about $370 per person every year. More information about the U.S. Food Waste Challenge is available here along with resources for schools, businesses and families.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE MILK QUALITY SUCCESS? Your qualitative bulk tank milk culture results provide a wealth of information, but how do you know what indicators are, what your dairy's goal should be, and most importantly, what criteria impact each quality factor? The UW-Milk Quality team has developed a list of key performance indicators to evaluate your farm's results and help you work with your employees and advisory team to develop an action plan for your farm. The list is available here. 

RESEARCH AND SHARING CLEAR INFORMATION IS KEY when working with ag lenders for renewing operating loans or seeking funding for new loan proposals.  When getting ready for meetings with lenders or bankers, farmers should take time to prepare the appropriate documents and have a plan for unexpected market shifts. Other tips from a recent 'TopProducer' article include sharing information in a digital format in advance of the in-person meeting, developing a detailed personal finance and bank statement record, crafting projections about how your farm will perform in the future within a range of commodity prices, and performing an analysis of fixed and variable costs.  Finally, take time to tell the story of where your farm has come from and your goals for where it will be in the future.  Read the full article here.

• The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself
• The Law of Awareness: You Must Know Yourself to Grow Yourself
• The Law of Modeling: It's Hard to Improve When You Have No One But Yourself to Follow
• The Law of the Rubber Band: Growth Stops When You Lose the Tension Between Where You are and Where You Could Be
• The Law of Contribution: Developing Yourself Enables You to Develop Others

WORDS TO LIVE BY. . .                        "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the