The next time you take a gallon of milk off the shelf, think about what major French retailer Carrefour is doing to track simple commodities using the power of the blockchain.
Cold chain logistics and similar supply chain challenges have companies looking at blockchain as a viable way to track products.
Reports from Cryptoground show Carrefour announcing blockchain tracking for milk and dairy products – this system will show GPS locations of the original farm, as well as date of milk collection and packaging and other key facts that relate to logistical tracking.
BB reports Carrefour is part of the IBM Food Trust, a program where a leader in blockchain adoption applies that technology to commodities handling, a program that leaders explain on the web site this way:
IBM Food Trust™ uses blockchain technology to create unprecedented visibility and accountability in the food supply. It’s the only network of its kind to connect growers, processors, distributors, and retailers through a permissioned, permanent and shared record of food system data.
IBM targets seven key criteria – food safety, supply chain efficiencies, food freshness, sustainability, brand trust, and the combat of food waste and food fraud.
“The food supply system is a series of complex communications,” write IBM’s Food Trust staff. “Simplifying them could help consumers eat well, vendors save money, and food stay out of the news. … IBM Food Trust is enabling blockchain technology to do exactly that. But it requires the collaboration and action of all in the food industry. Innovators, from small producers to large retailers, are in this journey together.”
In some ways, dairy is the right fit.
“Dairy is ideal for blockchain technology because of the amount of data collected at each point of the supply chain, starting at the herd level,”
wrote Mike Opperman last September for Farm Journal’s MILK publication.
“At the farm, data could be attached to a milk shipment, including when it was picked up and any lab work that goes with it. It’s even feasible that production practices could be attached with the data, including any animal welfare activities, environmental practices, carbon footprint impacts, antibiotic applications and so forth. … Once it leaves the dairy, each stop along the product production chain would have another set of data that could be attached with that specific load of milk.”
Look for more of these types of innovations and how they will affect crypto markets. Will 2019 end up being the “year of crypto?” It’s more than possible – when you look at these industry signs, it seems likely that blockchain “as a new Internet” will end up rewarding early adopters.
