Farm Policy CAP: EU Commission proposals to impose payment limitations on direct payments is running into resistance as some suggest that farmers will merely divide up their holdings to avoid the cap. Meanwhile, the proposal for providing lump sum payments to smallholders is deemed too complex. A fund to encourage young farmers into the business looks like politicians in search of a problem that doesn't exist. Farmers are older, but farms are not being abandoned due to a lack of farmers.Farm Bill: Tina Saitone and Richard Sexton of the University of California, Davis look at the U.S. market structure and find that while it is concentrated, there is no evidence of anticompetitive distortions. While local retail markets are more concentrat...
What You Need to Know Today: Declining crop conditions ratings and shaky results from the Pro Farmer crop tour sent grains sharply higher on Tuesday. The Pro Farmer tour in Ohio pegged the state yield at 180.18 BPA, about 5.5 BPA below the tour’s 2025 estimate. Similarly, the Pro Farmer...
Based on a Depression-era statute, President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of exports to the U.S., or about 5.2 percent of the $383 billion worth of goods the U.S. imported from Canada in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Of that total, about $39.3 billion was agricu...
Key Takeaways: Brazil’s growing role in global agriculture is accompanied by a major vulnerability: the country imports approximately 88 percent of its fertilizer needs. High natural gas costs and development challenges have limited domestic nitrogen and potash production despite Brazil&...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.