World Perspectives

Food as National Security; Food Policy and Climate Change

Food as National Security Journalists like Greg Ip and Noah Smith have identified the West’s trifecta of tools to counter China: industrial policy, export controls, and tariffs. They note another needed factor, unified western economics, but acknowledge it is difficult to achieve. Other factors mentioned include AI, drones, and the overall military strength. Left out of the equation is any mention of food.  U.S. farmers have asked the Biden Administration to leave food out of the fight with Beijing, but they will still be collateral damage. Now European farmers are realizing that they too will fall victim when Brussels imposes tariffs on Chinese made EV’s. But food sales to China by both the U.S. and Europe have already d...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Mixed as Shutdown End Begins

The CBOT was mixed with Monday’s strength in various markets fading quickly and giving way to a “turnaround Tuesday”. Corn and soyoil were the two holdouts from the turnaround pattern as both markets saw demand-side factors boost values to modest gains. Beyond that, traders we...

Pandorra’s Tariff Box

This is not a defense of tariffs or the tariff war, but a discussion about strategy and asymmetry. Since Mr. Trump announced his reciprocal tariff plan (trade war) in April, most news articles have focused on the adverse impacts to Americans. Consumers would pay the cost and speculation was rif...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.32/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.36/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2725/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $316.9/short ton, down $3.1 f...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Mixed as Shutdown End Begins

The CBOT was mixed with Monday’s strength in various markets fading quickly and giving way to a “turnaround Tuesday”. Corn and soyoil were the two holdouts from the turnaround pattern as both markets saw demand-side factors boost values to modest gains. Beyond that, traders we...

Pandorra’s Tariff Box

This is not a defense of tariffs or the tariff war, but a discussion about strategy and asymmetry. Since Mr. Trump announced his reciprocal tariff plan (trade war) in April, most news articles have focused on the adverse impacts to Americans. Consumers would pay the cost and speculation was rif...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.32/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.36/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2725/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $316.9/short ton, down $3.1 f...

Agreement to End Government Shutdown Reached in Senate, Ag Highlights

As Matt Herrington wrote yesterday, the 41-day government shutdown appears to be coming to an end. The Senate has taken a major step toward it by passing a package that includes full funding for a year for three appropriations bills, including Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, the Legisla...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up