GMOs’ Nuclear Epiphany The Union of Concerned Scientists, which doesn’t always use science in its public policy positions, has historically criticized nuclear power plants. Currently, a third of those plants, 22 percent of U.S. nuclear power generation, are scheduled to retire or come offline due to non-competitiveness with gas and coal. Now the “scientists” are concerned because (duh) greenhouse gas-emitting gas and coal plants are likely to replace the nuclear plants. They want the mandates and subsidies to have them replaced instead by renewables or greater energy efficiency, but those are unlikely developments. Suddenly, nuclear’s benefits are appreciated. Someday, the same epiphany should fall upon the an...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...