Rise of Populist Agriculture There is a political left in American agriculture, though it is significantly smaller than the progressives that dominate the urban core. However, the rural contingent is being inspired by the demands and the power of the so-called progressive “Squad” in Washington, DC. In addition to successfully getting $5 billion earmarked specifically for Black farmers, the coalition of populist farm groups, of which only a small percentage happen to be farmers, has resurrected the demand for “parity” prices. This would entail guaranteeing farmers a profit above their cost of production. This is because $6 corn and $14 soybeans are not enough to prevent small, part-time farmers from having to work of...
What You Need to Know Today: President Trump claimed the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was over, as both sides accused one another of violating the terms of the agreement. Commercial vessels are increasingly steering clear of the Strait of Hormuz as security risks escalate following Iran...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
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.