Slippery Liability Slope A federal jury in Ohio opined that since the pharmacies at major corporations filled prescriptions for opioids, they are therefore guilty of being complicit in the addiction epidemic to the drugs. Unlike the manufacturers of opioids, food processors have not yet been found guilty of causing the obesity epidemic, but they may be biding their time. Now the Ohio case is sending a warning to supermarkets that they too may share the blame for the nation’s largest health crisis. After all, anyone selling sugary drinks, pizza and cookies to someone with a high BMI knows they are contributing to the problem. And what about the obese customer wanting to buy a 5# bag of sugar, some flour, a can of Crisco and some peppe...
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...
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.