At least anecdotally, some food industry lawyers report a drop-off in food borne illness litigation cases this year. Official data is reported by the Centers for Disease Control annually, but litigants are a proxy for industry developments. Part of the reason could be the switch in consumption to homes instead of restaurants and bars (see graph below). Historically, most cases occur in the home or in local food establishments. Those occurring in homes are more difficult to track since reporting is less concise. Some warn that the coronavirus has become a statistical catch-all for many unrelated illnesses, which means a food borne pathogen may have been confused for the coronavirus. It may also be the case that plaintiffs’ attor...
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.