WTO Director General Roberto Azevédo is asking key countries to decide what are doable and undoable issues at the organization’s upcoming ministerial in Buenos Aires. Hermit Surprise It can be argued that North Korea is not the greatest threat requiring attention now. Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group argues the Hermit Kingdom is acting as it always has and that the larger geopolitical problem is instead China. Still, North Korea is concerning as it makes a continuing string of threats, including the latest to light an H bomb over the Pacific. France is even considering skipping the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.The 1953 armistice agreement did not technically end the war, and President Trump has substantially greater flexib...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.