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Eat less, Toot Less

Plants such as beans, lentils and chickpeas are the nutritional rage. They are plant derived foods with higher protein content and thus their production and consumption should be on the rise. But alas, the USDA data is not comporting with that nutritional advice.  Over the past four years, the U.S. area planted to dried peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas has gone down, along with production. Imports and exports of these commodities have risen, but the strong dollar distorts the situation. On a quantity basis, imports are up 5.1 percent and exports are down by 5.3 percent, but exports are still three times the volume as imports. Either way, the per capita availability of these supposedly preferred foods has gone down.   ...

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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.

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