Geography and Politics The farm bill may be an issue in some political contests this year (see Dave Juday's piece on 15 October), but it does not define most races. A bipartisan survey (North Star Opinion Research teaming with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research) claims that Mitt Romney garners support from 59 percent of rural residents in nine battleground states, while President Barack Obama nets 37 percent. But these are largely white, conservative voters who attend church each week. The surge in Romney's rural support occurred after the debate revealed that he was not the three-headed Ghidorah depicted in opposing campaign ads. By contrast, the second debate was held tonight in the largely minority urban commuter village of Hampstead,...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.