Dead Pigs Found in Shanghai River Earlier this month dead pigs were found floating through China's commercial hub, Shanghai. As of 20 March, local authorities have pulled 13,000 dead pigs out of the Huangpu River, which supplies 22 percent of city's drinking water. Shanghai has blamed farmers in neighboring Zhejiang province for dumping disease blighted pigs into the river upstream. Samples from the carcasses have tested positive for porcine circovirus, a common swine disease that does not affect humans. The incident has angered the public and raised concerns about the safety of Shanghai's water supply even though the city government claimed that the water's quality has not been affected.The scandal has cast a spotlight upon China's ongo...
Key Takeaways: Brazil confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina on 18 October, raising concerns about potential disruptions to poultry exports despite the outbreak being confined to a single facility thus far. Mexico and Malaysia have imposed nationwi...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Pakistan’s smaller wheat farmers have been holding protests to complain about the lack of a support price for wheat and the potential expansion of GMO crop production. They also want the reinstatement of PASSCO, the governme...
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.