California Cheese & Butter members gathered at beautiful Lake Arrowhead Resort for the 35th Annual California Cheese & Butter Association Convention, May 4-7, 2000. The focus of the convention was Into the Millennium and Beyond.

Mark Taylor of volumefoods.com discussed The Winning Whey by bringing the group up to date on dot.com commerce. Mark Hannay of Acosta Sales & Marketing discussed the business of Club and Mass Merchandisers. Mac Moore of Golden Cheese Company gave the group information on The Cheese Market: Who will Serve the Consumers of Tomorrow? Then Dr. Nana Farkye of Cal Poly SLO (one of CCBA scholarship schools) brought us up to date on the curriculum for Dairy Science courses and Cal Poly’s Role in Specialty Cheese for the Future.

As California Cheese & Butter Association has been involved in the Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure, Heidi Shurtleff and Bill Saska came to share Saving Lives As We Race for the Cure.

CCBA finished off three wonderful days of the convention with the Presidents Evening. Tom Hill of International Trading Company received the California Cheese & Butter Hall of Fame Award for his dedication to the association over the years. Barry Zuroff of Horizon Sales Corporation received a huge thank you for being Convention Chair 2000 along with his committee; Judy Norton of Norseland Inc., Don Crabtree of Continental Deli Foods, Allan Baum of Acosta Sales and Marketing and Bob Wybenga of Globe Trading.

California Cheese & Butter Association’s next convention will be at The Resort at Squaw Creek in Olympic Valley, CA, April 19-22, 2001. Mark your calendars! See you there! Tom Ditto of Challenge Dairy Products, Inc. has agreed to be the convention chair!

Issue 16, AUGUST 2000
Radha Stern, Editor

CCBA has two new board members!
Jennifer Mullen, our new Northern California board member is with the California Milk Advisory Board and is Director of Retail Services and Consumer Promotion. The California Milk Advisory Board was formed in 1969 to promote California dairy products (cow) in an ever-growing and competitive marketplace. It operates on the principal that a healthy dairy industry is just as important to consumers as it is to milk producers, and that the ready availability of high quality dairy products contributes to the good health and well being of the state’s population. The CMAB has helped promote increased consumption of dairy products through the use of: promotion, education, and research. The It’s THE CHEESE! and the REAL CALIFORNIA SEAL, program have been very successful. We welcome Jennifer!

Jerry Barringer, with Imperial Valley Cheese is our new Southern California board member. On February 22, 1998 Dolores Gossner Wheeler, President of Gossner Foods Inc., and Jim Kuhn-President of KF Dairy, met for the first time through the efforts of Steve Gaddis of Pacific Cheese. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of a joint venture cheese plant to be located in Southern California’s Imperial Valley. Just over a year later the Imperial Valley Cheese plant began operations. Both Dolores and Jim both have direct Swiss ancestry. The odds of two families of direct Swiss ancestry coming together to make Swiss cheese in Southern California are incredibly low, but the odds of world class Swiss coming out of Imperial Valley Cheese seem very high indeed. We welcome Jerry!

There are two new (must have) cheese books out in the bookstores! The New American Cheese, author Laura Werlin, is wonderful reading about cheese in America. It also includes recipes, storage information and histories of dairy farmers and cheese makers. This book is a fantastic resource guide. Also just out a yummy book by Janet Fletcher, a food writer for the San Francisco Chronicle called The Cheese Course. The photographs are (by Victoria Pearson) incredible and it gives you wonderful ideas to showcase your most favorite delicacy CHEESE! It includes cheeses from all around the world and of all types of milk. Both books (and authors) are fantastic and your editor suggests you log on or run to your favorite bookseller today!

An error in reporting butter inventories has resulted in a drop in butter prices and new reporting guidelines have been asked for. The error resulted in a 32% inventory adjustment in butter stocks for the week ending June 10, 2000. Basically, in a blink of an eye butter went from having 9% less than last year to 25% more! It is very difficult and costly to do business with out true reporting. Thank Mooo to The Cheese Reporter and Ken Meyers, MTC Dairies Inc. for this information.

Any misspellings, misinformation, or great copy, are the sole responsibility of the editor. Suggestions, additions, or comments are GLADLY received. I would appreciate anything mooosworthy!! Radha

Past newsletters:
April 2000
February 2000
October 1999
July 1999
March 1999
October 1998
June 1998
March 1998
December 1997
August 1997
April 1997
February 1997