The agriculture commissioners and secretaries from the 50 states were in town this week for a meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and met with U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. In remarks to the state officials, Vilsack discussed California’s Prop 12, and shared that there is not political will on Capitol Hill to pre-empt the regulation, a point of view WPI has heard from Congressional sources as well in discussions over the coming farm bill debate. Vilsack took a big picture view, discussing the U.S. Constitution, James Madison (known as the father of the Constitution), and interstate commerce, as well as bringing up the specter of more states establishing their own production standards...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...
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.