Threats and Other Silliness No threats, just opportunities. There are alternative ways to think about many things, including those perceived as threats. There could be 70 topics if one looked at all the parts of agri-food that cause fear for some people, but here are seven. Dueling Over Biotech Crops and Food Opposition to GM crops and foods is widespread and deeply entrenched in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. Perhaps the driver that forces acceptance of GM crops will be necessity -- the necessity of feeding 10 billion people by the year 2050 while also reducing hunger and malnutrition. The Globalization of the Food Industry The recent announcement that China’s Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd is acquiring Smithfield Foo...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.