Bombs Beat Beans During the 1980s as the Cold War raged on, the Defense Department opined in the interagency process that U.S. agriculture’s attacks on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were unhelpful. The military viewpoint was that “the CAP is the glue that holds Europe together,” and a unified Europe was a necessary bulwark against the Soviet Union. Spin forward 30 years, and nothing has changed. Donald Trump is attempting to trade continued operations of Chinese telecoms company ZTE, presumably sans its dealings with Iran and North Korea, in exchange for reduced tariffs on U.S. agriculture. Now it is Senate Democrats stomping on U.S. agriculture by sending a letter about ZTE that asserts, “America’s nat...
What You Need to Know Today: USDA reports are delayed until Tuesday due to the federal holiday on Monday. Over the weekend, President Trump announced a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Russia warmly welcomed and confirmed this ceasefire by conducting more strikes against Ukraine. Specific...
On Saturday, 10 October, at a campaign rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, President Trump said that the U.S. and Mexico would come to terms on a new trade deal, and he said Canada does not need to be part of the deal. Trump called the coming agreement with Mexico “great” but gave no d...
Key Takeaways: The United States has steadily lost global wheat export market share since the 1970s, falling from the world's leading exporter to a projected fifth place in 2026/27. The rapid expansion of Black Sea wheat exports, driven by improved productivity and export infrastructure, has r...
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.