World Perspectives

Taxing Beans; Shuttering Democracy; UN Diktats

The World Health Organization is lamenting the fact that many governments have failed to employ marketing restrictions against foods deemed to contribute to obesity. However, the agency’s position actually reveals that it doesn’t understand what it is like to be subject to democracy. Taxing Food Security Adverse weather has severely reduced the availability of pinto beans in Brazil, a very important staple in the diet. The government has issued a three-month reprieve on their import duty, but this only serves to highlight how the country’s stiff border measures hinder food security. The duty is just one component impacting imports, and all of the taxes collectively can double the cost of the product at the border. In addition to an import...

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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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