In one week of farm bill consideration, 247 amendments have been drafted and the Senate has now voted on two. Both were voted down: one to turn the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) into a block grant that would allow states to run the program, and the other to repeal the sugar program. The sugar program vote is very interesting; more discussion on that later.Amendments are the key to the farm bill. The House Republican Majority leadership is in a tricky spot; it has to balance having rural members with Tea Party and farm bill constituencies from having to take tough votes that will put them on the wrong side of either one of these groups. So far, it seems as though the Senate Republican Minority leadership's strategy is to...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.