Starving for Nation Change A client passed along research from the New England Complex Systems Institute in which physicists, not economists, correlated historical large peaks in food scarcity or prices food riots and social instability. The correlation work is fine and unsurprising, but other parts of the study are severely flawed. For example, the authors blame speculation in part for food price spikes, a charge credibly refuted by multilateral institutions. They also cite global interdependence for food versus local subsistence farming as a negative factor, whereas local dependence has historically been far riskier (all eggs in one basket). After erroneously defining the problem, they imply that providing food assistance would ensure...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.