Archive for May, 2016

Self- Regulation in Your Business

Thursday, May 26th, 2016

 

 

Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Director of Customer Service & Project Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

In my first blog, “What is Emotional Intelligence? Why It Should Matter in Any Business?”, I identified what emotional intelligence (EQ) is and how it applies to any business. In my second blog, “Emotional Intelligence in Action”, I explain the What, How, and Why the competencies of EQ work.  In my third blog, “Five Components of Emotional Intelligence and Your Business” I gave the basic definition of the five components of emotional intelligence. In my fourth blog “Self-Awareness in Your Business”, I provide a deeper explanation of Self-Awareness and how it applies to you as a leader and your business. In this installation, I will discuss the importance of the Emotional Intelligence component Self-Regulation and how it is important to you as a leader and to your organization.

“When emotions are running high, they certainly cannot be ignored – but they can be carefully managed. This is called self-regulation, and it’s the quality of emotional intelligence that liberates us from living like hostages to our impulses” (Goleman, 2015, pp1).

2). Self-regulation. The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment and to think before acting.1

a.) Hallmarks include trustworthiness and integrity; comfort with ambiguity; and openness to change.1

An Example: 3

Imagine an executive who has just watched a team of his employees present a botched analysis to the company’s board of directors. In the gloom that follows, the executive might find himself tempted to pound on the table in anger or kick over a chair. He could leap up and scream at the group. Or he might maintain a grim silence, glaring at everyone before stalking off.

If he had a gift for self-regulation, he would choose a different approach. He would pick his words carefully, acknowledging the team’s poor performance without rushing to any hasty judgment. He would then step back to consider the reasons for the failure. Are they personal—a lack of effort? Are there any mitigating factors? What was his role in the debacle? After considering these questions, he would call the team together, lay out the incident’s consequences, and offer his feelings about it. He would then present his analysis of the problem and a well-considered solution.

Self-regulation is important for competitive reasons. Everyone knows that business today is rife with ambiguity and change. Companies merge and break apart regularly. Technology transforms work at a dizzying pace. People who have mastered their emotions are able to roll with the changes. When a new program is announced, they don’t panic; instead, they are able to suspend judgment, seek out information, and listen to the executives as they explain the new program. As the initiative moves forward, these people are able to move with it.

“Like self-awareness, self-regulation often does not get its due. People who can master their emotions are sometimes seen as cold fish—their considered responses are taken as a lack of passion. People with fiery temperaments are frequently thought of as “classic” leaders—their outbursts are considered hallmarks of charisma and power. But when such people make it to the top, their impulsiveness often works against them. In my research, extreme displays of negative emotion have never emerged as a driver of good leadership” (Daniel Goleman, 20153).

Please stay tuned for the next blog on how internal motivation can help you and your business.

We enjoy bringing this blog to you every week and hope you find value in it. For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

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References:

  1. https://www.sonoma.edu/users/s/swijtink/teaching/philosophy_101/paper1/goleman.htm
  2. Goleman, D. (2015, July 26). Daniel Goleman: Self-Regulation: A star leader’s secret weapon [web log post]. Retrieved from: http://www.danielgoleman.info/daniel-goleman-self-regulation-a-star-leaders-secret-weapon/
  3. http://avalsethi.com/self-regulation-leadership/ 

How Does Patriotism Influence Consumer Spending?

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

 

Today’s post is by Gayl Southard, Administrative Consultant for SafeSourcing.

“America” will become the Budweiser label for the summer. Special cans and bottles will become available May 23 through the presidential election in the fall.  This is the peak season for beer.  One-third of all U.S. beer sales are between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  In addition to the patriotic flare, phrases from the Pledge of Allegiance and lyrics from “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful,” will also be displayed on the cans.

“We are embarking on what should be the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen, with Copa America Centenario being held on U.S. soil for the first time, Team USA competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Budweiser Vice President Ricardo Marques said in the press release.[1]

Here is some brief history on Budweiser. In the mid-1800’s a large number of German immigrants arrived in St. Louis mainly because of political upheavals in Germany and Bohemia in 1848.    Due to the large migrations of Germans to St. Louis, the principal industry soon became brewing beer.   These immigrant brewers brought a new style of beer to the U.S. – Lager (derived from the German word “lagern” which means ‘to rest’). Lager beer requires more time and care when brewing.  Brewers stored the beer in wooden casks, in underground caverns and caves.  By the end of 1800s there were more than 50 brewers in this area!  In 1876, Adolphus Busch and his friend Carl Conrad, a liquor importer, developed a “Bohemian-style” lager, inspired by their trip to Budweis.  The name “Budweiser” is a derivative adjective of “Budweis” where beer was brewed and founded by king Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1245.

Although Anheuser- Busch sold to Belgian brewer InBev for about $50 billion in 2008, beer drinkers are still loyal to the brand.

[1] Dana Farrington, The Two-Way, 5/10/16

For more information on how the team at SafeSourcing can help your company with sourcing beverages and products during this unique patriotic year, or on our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correlation and Causation

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

 

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Executive Assistant at SafeSourcing.

Have you ever wondered why some people find success while others don’t? Imagine there are two people doing the same kind of work, have worked the same amount of time, and work in the same area, yet one is far more successful. Now, let’s say one grew up in a distinguished neighborhood while the other did not. You may be thinking that that the one from a better neighborhood is most likely the more successful, but why?

People often associate a better upbringing with more success, which correlates to one’s ability to be successful themselves. Here is where correlation and causation become blurred. Often in our society, we deem that being raised by a successful community means one is more likely to be successful. But is it what causes success?

Now, what if I told you that of the two workers mentioned above, the one with the more successful business is the one from the less than distinguished neighborhood? You may be surprised because of how we correlate the two. One of the great things about our society is that there is often a chance for anyone to be successful, and coming from a disadvantageous background can cause more work, effort, and drive.

The case above is purely hypothetical, but demonstrates the difference between causation and correlation. Just because two things are correlated, does not mean one thing actually causes the other. Finding success can often mean seeking new ways of reaching people in business. This thinking outside the box mentality can help broaden one’s foundation, allowing for further reaching success. One underutilized example is the ever growing e-procurement industry. This industry can help businesses in multiple facets, including service, retail, and manufacturing industries. It can open up resources to areas a business might not even know is there.

For more information on correlating and causing success within e-procurement, or information about our Risk Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

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What is an RFI, RFP, or RFQ Part I of VI?

Friday, May 13th, 2016

 

Today’s post is by Heather Powell, Customer Services Manager at SafeSourcing Inc.

The world of procurement is continually changing, and this includes the world of e-procurement when it comes to the requirement for information, a proposal, or a quote.  In this series of blogs I hope to simplify for you readers the differences between the three requests, what your expectations are when receiving the requests back, and how to make a sound business decision with what has been presented back to you.

According to businessdictionary.com a request for quote (RFI) is a request made typically during the project planning phase where a buyer cannot clearly identify product requirements, specifications, and purchase options. RFIs clearly indicate that award of a contract will not automatically follow.

An example for a use of a RFI: You now are the proud owner of a used warehouse that you want to turn into a distribution center. It has some racking but you need more racking.  However, you have no idea what the best layout will be needed, what types of rack you need, how much materials are needed, or how long it will take to install the racking. The existing racking looks in ok shape but you don’t know if it is safe, placed appropriately, outdated, or even needed. You will need to rely on experts to give you this information.  The best practice is to get at minimum 2, but recommended to get 3 to 6, requests for information from racking manufactures, distributor, and/or installers.

You may ask, why so many?  In an area where you have no knowledge, knowledge is power. How will you know between 2 suppliers that one will not overbid the materials and under bid the labor, but the other supplier will underbid the materials and overbid the labor? How do you know that the materials are the same? Does the weight vary? Did they include the weight?  It is very hard to make a sound business decision based on these two requests for information. Having a pool of bids can help you see if there are major differences between them all. Having an average will direct you to what you really need.

The application of an RFI can be used on new goods for use, re-sale, packaging design, any and all services, software, hardware, equipment of any kind, actually it is limitless as to what you can utilize a RFI for in business.

Follow me onto the next blog where I  endeavor to explain  a request for proposal (RFP) and how you can tie a RFI and an RFP into one collective project.

SafeSourcing can help you with your needs in creating, running, and reporting on an RFI for any item, project, or industry need. We can do this all electronically in your set timeline, and report it back to you in an easy and understandable package where you will be able to see the apples-to-apples comparison.

For more information as to how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Teaming up with Suppliers For More Savings…. Part II of II

Thursday, May 12th, 2016

 

Today’s post is our SafeSourcing Archives.

Yesterday we began taking a look at some of the ways you can arrange to run a sourcing project for products on behalf of your suppliers to increase the opportunity for the suppliers of those products, lower your suppliers’ costs while lowering your costs for those items or services as well.  Today we will conclude the series by looking at the project itself and the process of using the results to achieve greater value for your company.

Determine the greater opportunity – Once you have determined where your spend lies in relation to your suppliers’ other customers and opened a dialog with them about your plans, it will be time to begin laying out the scope of what the project will entail.  Much of this will be determined by the amount of involvement your suppliers wish to provide in the way of information and management of the process.  The first major part of this step will be to understand if there are other products or services that need to be included in the project even if your company does not use them.  These create a greater opportunity for the suppliers and will results in better results for you and your incumbent suppliers.  The second part of this step is to determine the volume, frequency and location these items will need to be delivered to so that you can begin rounding out the specification and terms and conditions documentation.

Control the project yourself – No matter how much involvement your incumbent suppliers wish to provide you in this process, it is imperative that you own and manage the project from start to finish.  The insight you will gain on these products and services throughout the process will be extremely valuable and will be the foundation by which the final negotiations are achieved with the manufacturers.  Establishing and maintaining these relationships can also be important in later stages should there be customer service issues that your suppliers are unable to leverage properly themselves.

Leverage the results to your advantage – When the project is complete you will be left with a detailed view of the manufacturers, their offerings and their pricing.  You will have at your disposal all of the tools necessary to not only negotiate better value from the manufacturers but also better terms for how those products and services are then charged to you from your suppliers.  Your efforts will be used by your suppliers with all of their customers, improving their margins across the board.  This type of leverage will allow you to reduce or eliminate upcharge percentages from your suppliers or possibly to receive some other benefit in exchange for the results you were able to achieve.  This step would include reaching out to the manufacturer(s) selected and obtaining a letter of intent stating you are working with them and they will honor the pricing to your suppliers and their customers as well.

Sourcing projects on behalf of your suppliers may not be something you are used to running; however the benefits are just as real as traditional sourcing efforts.   These projects provide manufacturers greater volume opportunities and provide your suppliers and their customers and you with better service, value and pricing and should be included in all annual project reviews.  For more information about SafeSourcing or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Teaming up with Suppliers For More Savings…. Part I of II

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

 

Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

It seems like every article and blog you read about sourcing deals with how to get the best value out of the relationships you have with your vendors and for most companies this is not a bad thing.  One of the areas that frequently gets overlooked is the opportunity to leverage your company’s spend on behalf of your suppliers to achieve better pricing for you, them and their other customers.  Products like pallets, roofing materials, corrugated or other packaging related material are perfect categories to look for this situation because they are frequently costs that are passed straight through from the manufacturer to your supplier to your company.

By negotiating better prices than your suppliers have themselves, you can help your suppliers lower their costs for their other customers and you.  This gives them added incentive to work with you and can provide a much bigger spend opportunity to the vendors than just yours alone.  Today’s blog will focus on some of the steps you can take in engaging all of the interested parties in this process.

Understand your portion – Before anything gets set in motion or communications are begun with outside suppliers or your incumbents, it will be critical to get an idea of where your volume of product from your suppliers falls in relation to their other customers.   This understanding will help you and your company level set before speaking with your suppliers about the project.  Your leverage will come in direct relation to the portion of spend your company represents with not only your incumbents but also the amount it would represent for a new supplier.  If you make up 10% of your incumbents pass through cost for a product, you still may be able to run the project, however the leverage your spend and the results you achieve represent will need to tempered differently than if your spend represented 50% of your incumbents spend in this area.

Engage your suppliers – At the onset, engaging your suppliers and/or distributors in this process will be key.  By letting them know in advance that you are looking to negotiate your volume on your own, you give them an opportunity to examine their current suppliers and customer needs and help you form an event that provides a much larger opportunity for the market.  The other advantage to notifying your suppliers, regardless of their involvement, is that there will be no surprises once the process is complete and they understand the direction your company is going.

Tomorrow we will look at the final steps to consider when running projects for products on behalf of your suppliers.  For more information about SafeSourcing or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Low Quote does not always earn the Business!

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

 

Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing archives.

With a title like this, you have got to be thinking that I am nuts! You are probably saying things like “Why would low quote not get the business?” or “Why would someone want to pay more money for the exact same product?” These are all true and valid thoughts, but what I have to tell you is that there are more things involved in a decision process than just the low quote. It’s more about the overall value. The OVERALL VALUE gets the business.

There are many factors that come into play in the overall value. The following are a few to consider when making the decision to buy a particular product or service from a vendor.

Quality: Just because a product is the same doesn’t always mean they share the same quality. For example, if you were looking to buy copy paper, the “House Brand” may be cheaper than the name brand paper, but the quality may be a lot lower, causing constant paper jams in your copy machine. You want to make sure that you get a quality product for the lowest price possible.

Customer Service: You want to make sure that when you consider buying any product, the supplier provides excellent customer service. This is important because if you ever have to contact them for a problem, you want to be confident in knowing that your problem and/or concern will be addressed quickly and efficiently.

Value Added Services: Value Added Services are always a great perk. These are services a company would offer to help them stand out from their competitors. It could be they offer Free Shipping on a product or they may offer one free year of Technical Support on a computer or other type of electronic. Things like this should really factor in because, for instance, a company may provide you the lowest quote on the product, but may charge you a ton is shipping, where the person that quoted a little higher is offering free shipping, which actually makes their product the cheapest.

Here at SafeSourcing, we ensure that you receive the best overall value. We look at more than just the price, but all the other key factors as well. For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

Why do companies make the same old tired statements time after time?

Friday, May 6th, 2016

 

Today’s post is from Ronald D. Southard, CEO and SafeSourcing Inc.

When one reads a lot, articles constantly jump out at you that just make you say duh!

Sales are down so we need to control expenses is one of them. I am beginning to think that they actually might have a book of business school phrases that includes statements like this. These statements always seem to come out during earnings season or just after in order to offer protection versus erosion of equity particularly in publicly traded companies. What always slays me is that as a shareholder I would like CEO’s and CFO’s to come out with this plan long before the excuse is event needed. If you have the right team in place, one would already know that sales are falling based on your teams long range forecast and action should have already been taken to mitigate those results.

In today’s issue of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL under corporate news there was just such an article. I will leave out the name here to protect the guilty. But, wouldn’t it be nice if we started to see articles that went something like this. COMPANY <Insert Name> focused spending reduction preserves earnings estimates. 

There are just too many companies with too many tools out there today that can assist companies in reducing costs in all product and service areas including commodities for executives to need to use these statements after the fact. I say assist, because most Fortune 500 companies have procurement departments and many have leadership in the procurement area at the officer level like a CPO. These teams in most cases are very competent based on their headcount. However what we regularly see in the procurement space is that all the great intentions and planning in the world does not return the best net landed cost to companies when they try to source by themselves.  Understaffed teams, historically evolved procurement practices and less than optimal supply chain management create these results when headcount is not optimal. For the most part we typically see double digit improvement across the board in savings when Tier I and Tier II companies enlist the assistance of e-Procurement solution providers like SafeSourcing Inc.

E-Procurement solution providers for the most part today offer their tools in Architecture as a Service and Software as a Service Cloud based solutions.  The benefit of these offerings are an almost immediate or instantaneous ramp up time, little to no IT involvement, cost neutral pilots and the opportunity to walk away just as quickly.

During the last six years, SafeSourcing has run billions of dollars in spend through our e-Procurement tools in the form of RFI’s, RFP’s and RFQ’s or Reverse Auctions. Average savings over this time are in excess of 23%. No other solution provider can make this claim. The reason for these results is partly our tools and mostly our people. Isn’t interesting that we see better results for companies because they are understaffed and because of our people.

Here’s an example: You are a fortune 500 company and your buyer or category manager has to source stretch wrap. You have users in your DC’s or Warehouses, but the person sourcing this category may or may not talk to them and only sources this category once or twice every couple of years. The question this begs, is are they up to speed with the current stretch wrap technology.

1. Do you as a company still hand wrap?
2. Are you using the lowest level gauge and mil weight?
3. Do you know the best size rolls to source?
4. Is the product pre-stretched?
5. Are you aware of all global and regional suppliers?
6. Are you using machine wrap or transitioning to it?

These are just a few of the questions that a SafeSourcing project professional is aware of because they source this and other product categories dozens of times a year.

So why are costs not as low as they need to be at all times? And why do CEO’s and CFO’s have to make the same old tired statements time after time? Because they are not aware just how easy it is to augment their procurement department with resources that will cost them nothing because the average ROI for these services is typically 10X or higher. And because their team keeps telling them that we have an ERP system and tools so we can do it better. Our results would obviously indicate that this is not so.

If you really want to learn how to reduce your costs on Expense and cost of sales categories, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Services Account Manager to learn more.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

Are Reverse Auctions Strategic? YES THEY ARE!!!!!!!

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

 

Today’s post is from Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing.

This argument has continued unabated for years so this author is going to jump in and take a look based on my teaching background albeit that was a long time ago if you remember the 3 – R’s.

First of all, what is strategic is entirely up to the person or group using the tool, whether or not they have used it before and if it returns the results they require as part of their strategic plan. There really is only one meaning to the word strategic. So can a reverse auction be strategic? Of course it can. A companies overlying strategy whether we agree with it or night might be to simply get costs under control as quickly as possible. At least in the first year of tool use. I shudder to think that this would be a company’s entire strategy, but in these times of economic survival, it may well be. I can envision the following. The economy, competition or board of directors are kicking a company’s ass and the CEO calls a  staff meeting and says we have a new strategy and for the time being everything else will take a back seat in order to get our costs down. Come back in a week and tell you how you are going to do this immediately.

Now for the English lesson.

The word strategy is a noun that has several definitions. According to Wiktionary, 2 of those are.

1. A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal
2. The art of using similar techniques in politics or business

The word strategic is an adjective which we know is a word that modifies a noun and can also me modified by an adverb. So think of strategic as meaning of and pertaining to strategy and can be used comparatively as in something that is more strategic or less strategic.

So can a reverse auction or auctions be strategic. Of course they can and one example would be if your strategy was to simply reduce costs immediately. They can also be more strategic as part of a going forward strategy as well as provide other strategic benefits such as cleaning up your specifications and reporting as well as providing new sources of supply.

If your plan strategic or otherwise calls for reducing costs a.s.a.p. please contact a SafeSourcing customer’s services representative. We can help, and more of you may keep your jobs.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Global Food Risks

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016

 

Today’s post is by Michael Figueroa, Project Manager at SafeSourcing

Last  year  California farmers are predicted to lose $3 billion due to persistent drought[1].  Avian Flu has cost nearly $3.3 billion nationwide in the US[2], while the resultant egg shortage continues to wreak havoc with the market by doubling egg prices[3]. Yields in North Korea are feared to come in as low as 50% below normal due to drought, which could pose huge humanitarian needs and market risks[4]. The average amount of arable land needed to support an American standard of living is approximately 10 acres per capita[5], though as of 2012 there were only between 0.49-0.6 acres of arable land on earth per capita[6]. The UN has stated that food production must double by 2050 in order to meet demand[7] due to rising population as well as rising global affluence. As the world population continues to increase the number of hungry mouths on the globe, it becomes ever more vital to have a strategy for dealing with disruption in food production markets.

Unfortunately, one of the greatest challenges to this problem is understanding what all of the potential risks are. As unpredictable weather patterns emerge, we are warned to expect the unexpected by the scientific community due to global warming, and political disruptions are equally unpredictable. Though there are recommended steps for discovering the unknown variables, and managing what is known.

Identify the risks: Does your organization have a risk mitigation department? One that focuses on proactive measures to ensure continued production in a crisis, not just financial hedging?

Coordinated risk management: Form alliances with national and international producers and brokers establishing protocols for responding to shortages that protect the most vulnerable populations from food shortages.

Identify the weaknesses in your supply chains: An example would be diversification of farm location can mitigate drought risk confined by geographical location.

Move to non-biofuel energy production: Using energy sources such as nuclear, solar, and wind allow farming capacity to be used for food instead of bio-fuels, which some studies have shown to be a net-energy loss product[8].

Early warning: Have mechanisms in place for capturing information regarding shortages and market disruptions.

Supplier resilience standards: If you are a purchaser, adopt requirements of your suppliers for managing risk that incentivizes food production resilience.

In the face of dealing with all of the food commodity disruptions in the market, and increasing pressure to shave already thin margins, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that a major disruption doesn’t just mean loss of revenue, but can also mean loss of life within the markets of the most vulnerable consumers. For example, US food aid to foreign countries comes from US commodity surplus, but aid has decreased by 64% in the last decade due to reduced surplus[9]. This and many other examples are why it’s so extremely important for those of us working in the food procurement and production industries to build resilience into their long term strategies.

For additional insight on this topic I highly recommend the report by the UK-US Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience[10].

For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist your team with this process or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

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[1] “Drought May Cost California’s Farmers Almost $3 … – NPR.” 2015. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/06/03/411802252/drought-may-cost-californias-farmers-almost-3-billion-in-2015>

[2] “Bird Flu Cost the US $3.3 Billion and Worse Could Be Coming.” 2015. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/15/bird-flu-2/>

[3] “Egg prices in the US nearly double after outbreak of avian flu.” 2015. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/16/egg-prices-in-the-us-nearly-double-after-outbreak-of-avian-flu>

[4] “North Korea fears famine as drought halves food production …” 2015. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/north-korea-fears-famine-as-drought-halves-food-production-says-un>

[5] “The State of World Population 2011 – UNFPA.” 2011. 19 Aug. 2015 <http://foweb.unfpa.org/SWP2011/reports/EN-SWOP2011-FINAL.pdf>

[6] “Arable land (hectares) | Data | Table – The World Bank.” 2010. 19 Aug. 2015 <http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.ARBL.HA>

[7] “Food Production Must Double by 2050 to Meet Demand …” 2014. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://www.un.org/press/en/2009/gaef3242.doc.htm>

[8] “Economic Cost of Biodiesel and Corn Ethanol per Net BTU …” 19 Aug. 2015 <http://www.ag.auburn.edu/biopolicy/documents/Economic%20Cost%20of%20Biodiesel%20and%20Corn%20Ethanol%20per%20Net%20BTU%20of%20Energy%20Produced.pdf>

[9] “Food Aid Reform: Food For Peace By the Numbers … – usaid.” 2013. 19 Aug. 2015 <https://www.usaid.gov/foodaidreform/ffp-by-the-numbers>

[10] “Extreme weather and resilience of the global food system.” 2015. 18 Aug. 2015 <http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/assets/pdfs/extreme-weather-resilience-of-global-food-system.pdf>