Conceptually solar energy is straight-forward. The sun shines and power is produced. Solar power production has much more variability. This chart reflects 30 days of solar power production recorded every 5 minutes each day. The data was collected each day … Continue reading →
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) carries significant weight in the flow of decisions and confidence in the US economy. Does the CPI mirror authentic food purchases? YES! Are household food expenditures and the Food … Continue reading →
Over the last few weeks, we have been sharing grocery retail prices (food at home) from our 2024 receipts. Today’s post captures four produce items: potatoes, mandarin oranges, dill pickles, and raisins. It is important to recall that this is … Continue reading →
I had the incredible opportunity to build an undergraduate agribusiness program at Greenville University for nearly a decade beginning in 2016. I have four agricultural degrees from public land grant universities and worked in university research and extension. But working … Continue reading →
Food Price Fun compares the theory of food prices to practices of buying food. On the one hand the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) food prices provide the benchmark for the macroeconomy of food. But … Continue reading →
While reviewing 2024 household expenditures at year’s end, the items within each grocery bill were retrievable. Access to this level of analysis opens new opportunities for understanding food prices. In the random data universe, this is an n=1. In other … Continue reading →
Biomass Rules operates at the intersection of production agricultural food production and opportunities to bring value-adding, agricultural byproducts back into the economy through reuse. The moving target for value-adding byproducts is the pool of undervalued wastes. The knowledge of agricultural … Continue reading →
This chart is from the USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA Agricultural Projections to 2034, released on 2/18/25. The 2025 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum occurred the following week, 2/27-28/25. This series of events mark the end of the last US … Continue reading →
One fun announcement from last week’s, USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum was the release of a finer resolution of field boundaries in the continental United States. The United States with the exception of Hawaii is available at a 10-meter resolution. This … Continue reading →
Last Thursday and Friday, (2/27 & 2/28/2025), the USDA held their annual February, Agricultural Outlook Forum in DC. This marks the start of another growing season. The February date allows for last year’s crop year data to be tabulated and … Continue reading →
