World Perspectives

Killing the Golden Goose II

Big Ag continues to be the focus of attacks by populists who nostalgically, though without substantiation, insist that food from small and local is environmentally and socially superior. It is important to first understand the unique role played by agriculture.  The agriculture sector contributes only 2.34 percent of the employment in the OECD 24 and its share of R&D spending was just 1.24 percent, and yet it contributed a third of the economic productivity growth. Productivity is the core economic function that enables increased consumption with lower levels of work. Imagine what would happen if R&D spending were increased.  While small farms contribute to the sector, it is large enterprises that deliver large value t...

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Summary of Futures

Sep 25 Corn closed at $4.0925/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.27/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Aug 25 Soymeal closed at $275.8/short ton, up $0.2...

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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.

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