World Perspectives

Pity EU Farmers

The European Parliament approved a Nature Restoration Law that farmers say will cause the loss of farmland targeted for restoration as natural habitat. Meanwhile, the goal of reducing pesticide use by 50 percent and cutting fertilizer applications was supposed to be offset by deregulating new genomic techniques but now Germany and Austria have announced opposition to that plan. This comes on top of a war in Ukraine that has hit EU farmers with higher input costs and a flood of grain from Ukraine that depresses farm prices in some areas. Member states have diverted CAP resources toward managing the situation but Commission Vice President and top greening cheerleader Frans Timmermans says no additional funding is necessary for farmers to make...

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From WPI Consulting

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.

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