President Joe Biden is handing out what could be $600 billion in student loan forgiveness just before an election. Critics argue about its fairness, and it will make some voters happy and others unhappy. There are similar contradictions in the allocation of money to agriculture. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is figuring out how to allocate $3.1 billion in loan forgiveness to farm loan borrowers, but to skew the assistance to farmers of color. An overt attempt at forgiveness based on skin color was struck down by the courts. The focus is on farm operations that are distressed and at risk, a status that doesn’t depend on skin color. Some of these operations are said to have been at risk before the pandemic, and like the now extended...
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...