Free Trade to State Direction Conceptually, American farmers are huge winners under a free trade policy promising fair and equitable terms. As critics of President Trump’s trade wars will be quick to point out, “U.S. farmers have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of U.S. free trade agreements and the postwar creation of a rules-based global trading system.” This is true on its face, but can be like saying a battered wife had a nice home and good food. There have been no free trade agreements with the world’s largest and most important agricultural markets, and there have been few areas around the world where America’s farmers received balanced terms of trade. Agriculture has always been one of...
What You Need to Know Today: The June jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 57k jobs, less than the 115k jobs expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The labor force participation rate dropped by 0.3 percent to 61.5 percent, the lowest since March 2021, and the lowest in 50 ye...
On 4 July 2026, the United States will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In observance of the Fourth of July holiday, Ag Perspectives will not be published on Friday, 3 July. We will resume our normal publication schedule on Monday, 6 July...
Today was the deadline for announcing intentions regarding renewal of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA); the U.S. will not renew the USMCA, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. President Trump will instead pursue separate bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico las...
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.