Mitt Romney last week blamed the lack of a completed farm bill out of Congress on the lack of leadership from the White House (see Gary Blumenthal, WPI 9 October 2012). On the other side, President Barack Obama has accused Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) for the lack of a farm bill. Ryan is the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and reported reconciliation instructions to the House Agriculture Committee, which lead to the reductions of $32 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).Indeed, the farm bill has been an issue in congressional races. Christie Vilsack, the wife of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, is running for Congress in Iowa in a newly formed district against sitting House me...
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.