Facebook Science It appeared at one point that the power of new genetic technologies to safely solve many problems would eclipse the influence of the anti-GMO campaigners, but they have not. Instead, these groups have potentially increased their use of social media to sour the public’s mood toward science. One pro-GMO entity points to the use of twitter bots in Mexico that tweet and then retweet anti-GMO messaging. Efforts by governments and social media platforms to control what is true and what is not are a failure. An effort to correct social media falsehoods on GMOs by University of Florida horticultural geneticist Kevin Folta reportedly ended up with him being warned he would be blocked by Facebook for posting such truths...
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
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.