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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Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.2225/bushel, down $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.4225/bushel, down $0.04 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.26/bushel, down $0.0975 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $284.8/short ton, down $4...

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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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