Skewing Farm Output The activist group Farm Action is usually slaying mythical creatures like Big Ag or the $750 million checkoff programs used by farm organizations to promote research and marketing. Their typical paean is the small farmer, but their latest focus is farm program structure and the growing U.S. agricultural trade deficit. The group claims that converting less that 0.5 percent of U.S. farmland from growing program crops (largely corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice) and instead use them to grow fruits, vegetables and legumes that the trade deficit can be reversed. It is true that the multi-billion-dollar subsidies from Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) support the production of a handful of crops...
WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “...
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.