The president’s budget proposed draconian cuts to international food aid programs, but Congress is skeptical.The president’s FY 2018 budget proposal (see Ag Perspectives, 17 March and 23 May) called for steep cuts to international food aid programs as well as the elimination of the Dole-McGovern Food for Education Program and the P.L. 480 Food for Peace Program.According to the Trump budget plan, the most recent audit of the Dole-McGovern program, conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2011, showed that oversight was lacking. It also found that USDA is still not able to provide evidence of substantive impacts on the nutrition of recipients even though the audit’s recommendations were technically addressed. Generally, sch...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.