Congress is back in session after the 4th of July Independence Day holiday break. But there are only 12 days on the legislative calendar for the month; there will be a break next week for the Republican nominating convention, and then Congress adjourns for the August recess on 2 August. Legislators will be back for September but adjourn again in early October before the November elections. This doesn’t bode well for completing any legislation, including the farm bill. Note that on 30 September, the current farm bill extension expires, as does the current government funding. Currently no appropriations for FY 2025 (which starts on 1 October) have been approved by Congress. The House has passed 4 of 12 appropriations bills,...
With no bullish surprise out of Beijing this week and good weather taking over many global crop areas, funds spent the past couple of days selling off the peak positions they had built. CNN’s Live Updates blared, “No signs Trump and Xi resolved any thorny challenges.” By...
The long-awaited meeting between President Trump and President Xi of China has concluded, and details are elusive, though Trump stated today that he and Xi made some “fantastic” trade deals. Both countries reported the meetings as a success, but that has more to do with positioning...
We at WPI hear frequently that U.S. agriculture is broken and needs fixing. This argument is often heard in MAHA-related discussions and focuses on highly processed food consumption or the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Among farmers and food processors, however, especially tho...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.