Directing the Money U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee members are having a dispute over money already allocated. Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year without support from any Republicans. They directed $18.4 billion be spent increasing agriculture’s climate resiliency and conservation practices. Some Republicans now want to redirect those funds to basic farm risk management and income support. While laws change all the time the larger focus should be on CCC borrowing authority. In the depths of the Dust Bowl and economic Depression, the Congress authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to borrow at his/her discretion in support of farmers. Rosina Bullington was a USDA counsel at the time and said Congress would...
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
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.