For the second time, I am ready to make my predictions for 2024.

After a sustained period of fewer wars and the fact that fewer people went to bed hungry each night, our world is experiencing an intense period of heightened global conflict with serious geopolitical consequences, altering our nation’s security. 

According to the American Institute of Stress, Americans are one of the most stressed-out people in the world. The current stress level experienced by Americans is 20 percentage points higher than the global average. 

It wasn’t long ago when consumers seeking lactose-free dairy products had limited options.

It has been an excellent past 12 months — and beyond — for Kansas City, Kan.-based Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a national farmer-owned cooperative with nearly 11,000 family-farm owners and about 19,000 employees.

Public health dialogue around food and nutrition is evolving from a focus on simply providing calories to ensuring children and families have access to high-quality, nutritious food that will allow them to reach their full potential. 

Whenever I travel outside of the United States, I always look forward to visiting local grocery stores to see their selection of dairy products.

More cheese, please… In several cases, consumers are buying more. Natural cheese sales total $17.5B, with natural cheese chunks and shredded dominating the market with dollar and unit sales gains. 

With some 2,500 employees and annual net sales of $1.8 billion, Sargento Foods has been a family-owned cheese processor for 70 years. 

As our State of the Industry report, appearing last issue proves, milk sales are mixed compared to prior years. Total dairy milk sales totaled nearly $15.6 billion for the year ending Aug. 13.