Beef cattle catch a lot of grief for their land and water requirements, but a recent USDA analysis shows them to be a relative energy bargain. TPP Officially Dead The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been dead for a long time, but U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) finally put a nail in the coffin by shifting from characterizing the chance of its consideration this fall as being slim or bleak to finally saying that it will not be acted upon this year. It is now time for statesmen to begin a public drumbeat of each and every one of the economic and geopolitical losses resulting from the errors imposed by politicians. Simply saying the TPP’s death is a victory for China is too narrow of a soundbite. Slippery Slope...
What You Need to Know Today: Grain futures fell hard overnight after the USDA’s Crop Conditions report showed better-than-expected ratings for corn and soybeans, despite difficult weather last week. The Conditions report was even more bearish in light of meaningfully beneficial rains acr...
Key Takeaways: New Mexico’s Clean Transportation Fuel Program expands demand for low-carbon fuels and creates another market for renewable feedstocks, adding incremental pressure to already limited supplies of lower-carbon inputs. Growing competition for waste-based feedstocks such as an...
As WPI reported on 17 July, the recently passed budget reconciliation bill in the House Budget Committee includes $12 billion in emergency farm assistance. This would be the seventh of the past nine years with ad hoc farm payments (FY2018, FY2019, FY2020, FY2022, FY2023, FY2024, and potentially...
From WPI Consulting
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.