World Perspectives

U.S.-Japan FTA Will Cost; Varied GMO Approaches

U.S.-Japan FTA Will Cost Junnosuke Kobara at Nikkei provides analysis showing that while Japanese farmers may be few in number, they have outsized influence when voting as a bloc. The analysis is important because there is an Upper House election in two weeks, and the Abe government is negotiating a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. His analysis finds that farmers are extremely sensitive to liberalized trade, but they can be bought off. Thus, Prime Minister Abe has tripled the amount of land adjustment spending to over $5 billion and created a $4.5 billion supplementary budget for farmers.   Varied GMO Approaches In Europe, protestors have been known to burn down any fields they’ve found growing GM crops. In the U.S.,...

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livestock

Even After Recent Market Gains, Hog and Pork Outlook Remains Rosy

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Export Sale

Export Sales and Shipments for May 23-29, 2025  Wheat: Net sales reductions of 49,100 metric tons (MT) for 2024/2025. Export shipments of 540,100 MT were up 8 percent from the previous week and 20 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destinations were primarily to Indonesia (81,100 M...

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From WPI Consulting

Forecasting developments in production agriculture

On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.

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