CAP Battle Tomorrow Environmental groups will be leading protests tomorrow as the new European Parliament (EP) meets in Strasbourg. Using small farmers as their backdrop, they are demanding that the EP rewrite the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to give less support to large farmers and spend more money on climate change, the production of food for local use instead of for the global market, and restricting the use of pesticides. It is reported that the fight between mainstream European agriculture and environmentalists could delay the next iteration of the CAP by two years. North and South American farmers might be elated by this news. Weaponized Trade Policy After watching President Trump “weaponize” trade policy, Eu...
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.
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...