Channeling HamiltonAlexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, encouraged the Tariff Act of 1789, the Tariff Act of 1790, and the Tariff Act of 1792. He used tariffs to fund the government and protect domestic industries from British exports. President-elect Trump has pledged large tariffs on China and more recently said he would impose more tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico until they stop sending fentanyl and migrants to the U.S. Current Treasury nominee Scott Bessent has a 3-3-3 policy: bring U.S. deficits down to 3 percent of GDP (currently 6.3 percent), lift economic growth to 3 percent (from 2.5 percent in 2023), and increase oil production by 3 million barrels/day. He has characterized the threat of tariffs...
In agriculture and food processing, we think a lot about infrastructure: transportation and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and delivery. It is a physical system of roads, railroads, and rivers; concrete and steel storage; processing plants, warehouses, and machinery; and, event...
What You Need to Know Today: Day three of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour found corn yield potential below last year in both Illinois and western Iowa. Illinois corn yields averaged 184.2 bushels/acre, down from 199.6 bushels/acre last year and the 199.2 bushels/acre three-year average, while wester...
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) projects China’s chicken imports to drop by 33 percent this year and another 15 percent next year, as domestic production outpaces growing consumption and the country’s own exports surge. In its annual report on the Chinese poultry...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.