Latest posts

The Destruction of the "Made in China" Brand

     Food is far more than calories or nutrition.  It defines a people and is often associated with identity, culture, and the fabric of life that bonds families, regions and even nations together.  Food celebrates holidays and holy days in virtually every culture on earth so there is very little in this world more destructive to a brand or to trust in a process or supply chain than to deliberately poison food, especially if the tainted product is largely destined for children.  In a stunning example of irresponsible and unethical behavior, milk processors in China have done ju

Hog Prices and the Russell 2000

If you take the long look at the history of hog prices you see two significant shifts since 1950.  These are both upward movements to new equilibrium levels and they happened beginning in about 1971 and 1999 (or 2003 if you see it that way).  Both were the result of rapidly increasing (new) demand for agricultural commodities and were more or less unrelated to the economic movements of the general economy at the time.  The first move in ag prices was the largest in percentage terms (but we are not completely finished with the second movement which began 6-8 years ago).