Cynical Thoughts French NGO Générations Future has copied a page from American NGO Environmental Working Group (EWG) and erroneously declared pesticide residues harmful to human health even when below official actionable levels. To support the claim, the group simply used the official data collected by France’s General Directorate for Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). Like U.S. agencies, the DGCCRF looks for violations of maximum residue levels, which are very low in both countries. Like the EWG, Générations Future declares that pesticides are harmful; thus, ipso facto, farmers need to find another way to grow crops. The two organizations do not test organically-produced crops even though they w...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.