Agricultural News
IBM Food Trust's Nigel Gopie Addresses the Use of Blockchain Technology in the Beef Supply Chain
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 11:32:54 CST
When you think IBM, you probably don't think beef. That may change thanks to IBM Food Trust's "blockchain" initiative. Blocks of information form a chain and in this case the information is about beef, from pasture to plate.
"Blockchain allows you to keep information securely, privately, and also share that information with different transaction partners in a way that keeps that information secure between parties and you can actually choose information to be shared," said Nigel Gopie, with IBM Food Trust. "So, it allows you to share information seamlessly, efficiently, and securely."
To watch a short video-clip of Nigel Gopie, with IBM Food Trust, talking about using blockchain technology to share information by mutual consent up and down the beef supply chain, click or tap the PLAYBOX in the window below.
The program offers trust and transparency in places where neither exists or could be improved.
"In the food industry in particular, there are a lot of concerns about food safety, food fraud, sustainability, and other hosts of concerns," Gopie said. "And part of how we can solve these issues is with trust and transparency. We believe that, with blockchain, we can bring light to problems that have plagued us for centuries. One of those problems, food safety, for example, we're able to pinpoint the source of contamination by looking across the food chain. Another might be freshness. We might be able to see which things are fresher or not fresh based on information across the supply chain."
It's important to note information on the Blockchain is secure, and cattlemen have choices when it comes to what and how much is shared.
"With Blockchain, your data belongs to you. We believe that your data does not belong to the solution, nor does it belong to your transaction partners," he said. "And so, your data is held in secure environments and it's only shared when you want to share it."
The program not only has the potential to help cattlemen from a logistics standpoint, but from beef demand and sustainability standpoints, too.
"A lot of us folks who live in a city, we love the idea of understanding where our food comes from, seeing pictures of where our cattle are raised," Gopie concluded, "and I think that sort of connection allows us to feel closer with the food that we're eating, realize that the men and women who are raising these products actually really care about the things that they're producing and it's the same thing that they would feed their families at home."
Technology that helps sell beef? That's worth a spin around the block.
Source Certified Angus Beef
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