The success of a newly created farmer-based political party in the Netherlands in last week’s elections will establish the party as one of the largest in the Dutch Senate and could impact the government’s proposed nitrogen emissions reduction plans. Here’s a rough timeline of how and what happened. In 2019, the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) or Farmer-Citizen Movement was founded by ag journalist Caroline van der Plas. The BBB was born out of farmer protests that year against the Dutch government’s plans to comply with EU environmental policy restricting nitrogen emissions. In the 2021 general election, Ms. van der Plas won a seat in the Dutch House; she was and is the only elected BBB party member, and her seat is one o...
A federal appeals court paused a USITC ruling against President Trump’s use of Section 122 to impose 10-percent global tariffs. A bipartisan group of 80 House members asked USTR to investigate specialty crop imports from Mexico for unfair trade practices. India notified the WT...
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.