Unsustainable Sustainability Agricultural producers are readying for the convening of the UN’s Food System Summit later this year. The goal of the Summit is to arrive at a plan for guiding the change in farming around the world to meet the world body’s sustainable development goals. Those goals do not encompass economic viability and so the concern is that they will be Draconian relative to how farming is currently done. For example, UN bureaucrats could recommend provocative policies such as: • reduced use of crop protection chemicals and fertilizer; • eliminating the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture; • limiting the use of biotech crops; and • dietary limits on consumer a...
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.