From the Editor

It’s fitting that I bring technology up for two reasons: It’s our focus topic this month, and I happen to be one of those pesky millennials – you know, the generation known for selfies, selfie sticks and thumbs that can punch out a sentence faster than you can speak. (If you don’t know what a selfie is, talk to me later.)

Years ago, my kids, out of a sudden case of curiosity, peeked into my old high school yearbooks. To my surprise and their amusement, they began mocking what was long ago a sophisticated look and style.

Some will call it curious timing. Others will say the stars lined up out of kismet and good fortune. But just days before Brazil would light the Olympic flame for the first time on South American soil, the USDA extended its own peace offering to the world’s fifth-largest nation.

Perhaps you’ve had the difficult discussion, as a parent or child, when you decide what direction to take in life. What education and training is needed? What career will lead to being happy and successful?

If you like to comb through numbers and data, this year’s 2016 Beef Statistics poster, found inserted in the center of this issue, is a trove of goods. Here are just a few that are worth your close attention:

Some people feel the anxiety of aging around the holidays or maybe with their birthday. For me, the stark reminders that I’m growing long in the tooth come in June, when my kids finish another year of school.