Rejecting Progress Two decades ago, the WTO held its Fifth Ministerial in Cancún, Mexico. At the time, Mexico’s campesinos or peasant farmers protested that free trade was ruinous to their lifestyle. They took reporters on tours of peasant farmers, showing off how the farmer worked one hectare of land by hand while the family lived on the dirt floor of a one room abode. Now La Via Camposina, which led the protests back in 2003, plans a 20th anniversary “International Day Against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements” to be held on 10 September. They are demanding the same lifestyle (kids on the dirt floor) and calling it necessary for food sovereignty. Since that time, Mexico’s agricultural exports to the...
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.