Farm Bill Hurdle: Lobbyists are paid to make things happen in Washington, but ultimately their power is derived from the size and importance of the clients they represent. A large block of voters or a major employer gets the attention of politicians. Marching up Capitol Hill with an army of supporters behind you gets action. So why couldn't the lobbyists representing the big farm block motivate members of Congress to pass a new farm bill last year? USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says it is because they are irrelvant and chased the wrong issues.However, the lobbyist is in the best position to know the problem, and some say that is what didn't happen: Farmers failed to make a direct communication to their elected representatives reinforcing wha...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
Developer's Note 24 August 2026: WPI recently completed an exercise that updated the codebase for this app and solved some of the discrepancies between our five-year average calculation and USDA's. There are a few lingering cases where early (late) starts (finishes) to the crop cycle resu...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.