World Perspectives

Organic Requires Scale

Advocates for organic food in the U.S. lament that acreage devoted to organic food production is expanding at a slower pace than the increase in the number of farms devoted to this type of production. The result is that the average organic farm size has fallen. Based on the number of acres currently in the three-year transition period to certifying organic and assuming the number of farms stays static, the per acre size of organic farms should rise slightly but will remain below that of the average for all U.S. farms (see graph below).  Advocates are insisting on increased government assistance, for example the EU’s proposed Farm to Fork mandate that 25 percent of output be organic by 2030. Most economists would reserve policy i...

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From WPI Consulting

Forecasting developments in production agriculture

On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.

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