Regulated Commodity The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it will hold hearings at the end of the month to examine issues related to regulating the trading of bitcoin. The value of bitcoin has risen rapidly in recent weeks as speculators have taken a more dominant position than those simply using it as a transactional medium. Gabriel Rubin in the Wall Street Journal compared bitcoin to gold, the value of which rises and falls with supply and demand but ultimately drops to the cost of production. However, the production of bitcoin is capped, and while gold has competition from silver and other precious metals, the ability to conjure competitor cryptocurrencies is unlimited. Indeed, there is an argument that Ethereu...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.