Unhelpful Timing The U.S. agriculture sector unleashed a pro-trade barrage on the Biden Administration this week and USDA bureaucrats wittingly or unwittingly contributed to the onslaught. U.S. agriculture is highly dependent on trade. It was first battered by Donald Trump’s trade war and...
While the human diet is a complex affair and animal protein, unlike many other commodities, lacks a title in the Farm Bill, it is the most egregious food to some activist groups. They specifically cite the contribution of livestock to climate change. These groups have some work cut out for them...
EU rice consumption has been rising at 1.8 percent CAGR at the same time production has fallen by 30 percent since 2018/19. Italy produces about half of the EU’s rice output, and it has suffered from drought. As a water intensive crop, climate change will have an outside impact on this st...
Ready to Discuss After previously calling it unsustainable, the Biden Administration has reportedly notified WTO members that it is “ready to discuss” a 10-point proposal for reforming Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) that has been drafted by developing countries. While...
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.