Global cotton production has declined, led by reductions in its two largest producers, China and India. Cotton is a heat tolerant, modest user of water, which appears perfect for climate change. It is also a natural fiber, and its oil contributes to food security. However, the fossil fuel-based synthetic fibers it competes against have grown in utility. By contrast, cotton requires a large portfolio of pest-fighting chemicals. Genetic modification is now focused on boosting drought tolerance earlier in plant development and reducing the need for chemical inputs. It has a lot of hurdles to overcome but a lot of tools at its disposal. ...
If the media headlines and Trump critics are to be believed, President Trump is headed to Beijing this Thursday in a weakened position. China is in control, it has the upper hand, and expectations are very low. These are the same critics that argue against overly simplistic zero-sum analyses in...
The Trump Administration is planning a suspension of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on beef from all exporters for 200 days as a means to address high beef prices in the U.S. U.S. cattle and beef prices have increased based on exceptionally strong consumer demand, the smallest U.S. cattle herd in 75...
Tax Policy Teed Up The debate over taxes on billionaires is heating up a larger fight over tax policy for the next U.S. Congress. This is good news because a fight solely over whether the wealthy are evil overlooks many larger issues plaguing the system. The journalist Josh Barro says that ever...
From WPI Consulting
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.