World Perspectives

Real Bread

By now everyone has read that the Supreme Court in Ireland has ruled that the bread used for Subway sandwich shop sandwiches does not meet the legal definition to avoid the value added tax. The court found that it contains more sugar than is allowed by the law to qualify – no more than 2 percent of the weight of the flour. Perhaps there should be a new name for Irish Soda Bread. Most recipes call for the addition of some sugar, but it is the addition of raisins or currants that spikes the sweetener content. A full cup of raisins is often added to a loaf and that much dried fruit involves more than 90 grams of sugar. That compares to a 12-ounce soft drink containing 33 grams of sugar. Perhaps that is why the raisin version of the Irish...

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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.

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