China has announced that its state policies to support food production will be increased. Nearly every country has an industrial farm policy. The OECD estimates that of the 54 countries monitored, $817 billion is spent annually in support of agriculture. But some are more effective than others. The OECD estimates that 10.5 percent of U.S. farm receipts are the result of policy-based support, while in Europe it is 17.5 percent of farm receipts derived from policy support. Yet the U.S. produces 8.5 percent more food per capita. New Zealand farmers receive 94 percent less income support from government than U.S. farmers, yet they produce just 16.7 percent less food per capita. Farmers in Europe are now concerned about the quid pro quo being d...
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...
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.