USG Blames Ethanol A report by the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council entitled "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" this week brought media attention to various reasons, but notable for aggies was its forecast for food prices. The intelligence wonks state, "Our modeling suggests that the long-term trend of decreasing world food prices, which has already reversed itself, may have come to an end"; however, they do not think that higher, more volatile prices will mean a shortage of food. Most notable coming from an Administration quite gung ho for ethanol is the report's warning that "[c]ontinued reliance on maize as a biofuel feedstock will also increase the potential for volatility."There is the use of a loaded term where...
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...
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.