The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has scored the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill at $322.973 billion over budget over 10 years, and $15.384 over five years. CBO’s scoring is coming under criticism from Committee Chairman Representative Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) over the agency’s handling of the Commodity Credit Corporation spending authority under Section 5 of the CCC Charter Act, which the House Committee bill restricted. Section 5 allows, at the discretion of the Secretary, the CCC to carry out almost any operation that is consistent with the objective of supporting commodities and U.S. agriculture, including to support agricultural prices and to take other steps that affect the consumption or su...
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.
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...