Enough is Enough Special interest lobbies cannot show satisfaction lest they lose their raison d’etre. However, French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau reached his own point of dissatisfaction. Euope’s green lobby got everything they wanted in the new Common Agricultural Policy. Farmers will produce food using less land and fewer inputs. However, the devil is always in the details and the greens now sense that outcomes will be less robust than they had dreamed. France sent to Brussels its proposal for abiding by the law only to have the Commission demand changes. Paris then resubmitted and obtained approval for a more robust approach. The green lobby reacted by suing the Commission and accusing it of “breeching&rdq...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...