At President Biden’s invitation, the four bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees met with the President at the White House last week. USDA Secretary Vilsack sat in on the meeting as well. According to read-outs from the Congressional participants, few specifics were discussed, but the talks did focus on the farm bill’s timeline and keeping it on track. As the budget situation develops in Congress, parties are expected to meet again to discuss progress being made on a baseline draft farm bill. In recent Congressional hearings, however, farm and commodity groups have laid out their priorities – all unified around crop insurance and Title I support programs – with specific requests. Th...
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.