Pseudo Farm Bill Issues: USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told us NPR listeners that he thought the new farm bill, which he described as a "food, farm and jobs" bill, should include provisions for organic foods. His reasoning is that the organic sector is the fastest growing part of agriculture and it is a way of creating jobs for young people in the industry. However, it creates more jobs in part because it is less efficient. If this is the strategy, why not follow the Milton Friedman parable and outlaw conventional agriculture altogether? Just an opinion, but if conventional agriculture is certified by the government as a completely safe and efficacious approach, then organic is a government enforced hoodwinking of the consumer that is far wo...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.