The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), also officially known as the Budget Reconciliation bill and unofficially as the mini-Build Back Better bill, has been passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. It was the subject of several eleventh-hour changes, but now the dust has settled and there is more transparency into what is included in the legislation. The bill includes $38.244 billion in agricultural programs and forestry. Here is a rundown of the provisions: The biodiesel tax credit (BTC) is extended through 2024 for biodiesel and renewable diesel. That is estimated as a tax expenditure of $5.571 billion. A new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credit is created through 2024. It is a credit of $1.25 per gallon, plus one cent for each...
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...
From WPI Consulting
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.