World Perspectives

Food Inflation

According to BLS data, food inflation in 2020 was 3.4 percent over 2019. The general inflation rate measured by the consumer price index was 1.2 percent. Food inflation often runs ahead of the overall CPI and is more volatile than overall inflation, which is why the Federal Reserve doesn’t factor it in to interest rate decisions. However, based on commodity prices and economic recovery in 2021, we could be looking at another year of higher food inflation.  There were a few interesting points in the BLS data. First, the food staples rose the most with COVID panic buying and supply disruptions impacting price. Pork, beef, chicken, eggs, and milk were all above the overall food inflation rate. Interestingly, cheddar cheese was...

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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.

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