USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has withdrawn two voluntary marketing claim certifications for beef under the Process Verified Program (PVP) as it does not have the power to define labeling standards or decide if marketing claims are truthful/not misleading without express authority from Congress. USDA Ending Grass-Fed/Natural Beef PVP Effective 12 January, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) withdrew two voluntary marketing claim certifications for beef under the Process Verified Program (PVP): the Grass Fed Marketing Claim Standard and the Naturally Raised Marketing Claim Standard. In December, AMS announced a broader effort to “improve and strengthen” the PVP. This program allows companies to market products based o...
What You Need to Know Today: Agricultural commodities were mostly lower on the day, with red-hot soyoil a notable exception. Export sales were a bit underwhelming, particularly for corn with export sales down 52 percent week-over-week. The weakness in ag markets tracked crude oil weakness wit...
With the war in Iran affecting fuel and fertilizer prices, higher tariffs, weak commodity prices, ag labor constraints, and other factors, farm bankruptcies are now at a 6-year high, a signal of growing stress. During the month of April, 62 Chapter 12 bankruptcies were filed, which is a 1...
Food Inflation The Open Markets Institute, which is notably funded by several “anonymous” donors and liberal foundations, obtained a guest editorial in the New York Times in which they blame agribusiness concentration for higher grocery prices. This is their schtick and it is politi...
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.