Kick the can is, or perhaps we should say was, a children's game, a version of hide and seek. We can recall playing it when we were very young, but our sense today is that it has largely disappeared from children's outdoor activities. However, the phrase "kick the can" has taken on a much different meaning. It is now used to describe a form of procrastination, or the process of deferring decisions or actions until some later time. In this sense we all "kick the can" at one time or another. But for many politicians, it has become an important strategy.Postponing difficult decisions or actions is part of today's political life. There are numerous examples of politicians avoiding unpleasant decisions or policies by kicking the can ahead by p...
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...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
Developer's Note 24 August 2026: WPI recently completed an exercise that updated the codebase for this app and solved some of the discrepancies between our five-year average calculation and USDA's. There are a few lingering cases where early (late) starts (finishes) to the crop cycle resu...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.