Selective Application The EU proposed a new regulation requiring due diligence on the part of companies marketing specific products (soybeans, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee derived products such as leather, chocolate and furniture) that were not derived from newly deforested geographies. Some environmentalists believe the requirement should apply to the Cerrado savannah and peatlands as well. Unsurprisingly, the Brazilian government is unimpressed and views it as a bit of Old-World hypocrisy. After all, Europe was mostly forested following deglaciation as shown by pollen and fossil records. As in Brazil, anthropogenic deforestation accelerated around 1400 years ago due to the expansion of Neolithic agriculture. Brazil would note...
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...
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.