On 23 July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that three formulations of the pesticide dicamba would be open to a 30-day comment period to re-register dicamba for use as over-the-top (OTT) use on dicamba-tolerant crops, namely cotton and soybeans. Previously, a federal district court ruled in February 2024 that EPA erred when it approved dicamba, because it did not offer a public notice and comment period before issuing the 2020 registrations. EPA’s action came after two federal courts ruled in lawsuits filed against EPA by the Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, the National Family Farm Coalition, and the Pesticide Action Network. The first was in 2020 and the second was in Feb...
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...
From WPI Consulting
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.