The Blockchain AGRIC is gradually settling into people’s lives, making it imperative to understand its applications and limitations. Today, we’re going to discuss how Blockchain can make the food industry better.
Our current food system offers a fertile opportunity to explore how the Blockchain technology can interact with our ecosystems — both human and ecological — to add value to our lives. Fortunately, a number of startups are already hard at work in this area.
After the introduction of Ethereum, altcoins became a popular way to showcase ideas for new cryptocurrencies. We are currently in a period of hype, where many developers are proposing crazy ideas to solve either nonexistent or trivial problems. It’s vital that society and developers focus on applying Blockchain to relevant and important projects, rather than assuming Blockchain technology is a one-size-fits-all panacea.
Food and eating
Food quality is clearly related to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, liver damage, stroke, diabetes and cancer, to name a few. We can significantly reduce chronic illnesses by improving the quality of food available. That requires an answer to the following question: Why do we eat poor quality food?
This large problem can be divided in three parts: production, delivery and sale.
Food production starts at the farm. Farming always implies high risks — natural disaster, harvest failure, accidents, etc. — that directly affect what a farm can offer. Market conditions and large agricultural corporations can also make the lives of small farmers challenging. The companies often abuse their positions by using expensive fertilizers and patented GMO-seeds to gain competitive advantages over smaller operations.
Another problem is in the logistics of food delivery. Modern agriculture is under the siege of large chains’ producer-distributor-consumer model. Large-scale food producers often organize industrial food production in developing countries. They then create large-scale distribution networks to sell the food globally.
Producers are often unable to sell their products directly to consumers, having to appeal to traders or distributors who buy their product cheaply. Large companies are able to cheaply mass-produce food and fill the distribution channels, but this food is never completely consumed. The result is the creation of a new problem: food waste and disposal. Resources like fuel and fertilizers are used to produce and distribute food that will never be consumed, creating waste.
Solutions are possible
Fortunately, health, eating, farming, agriculture and logistics are interconnected, and we can solve these challenges through modern technologies, utilizing experts who understand the systems.
We spoke with Liz Reitzig, founder of NourishingLiberty, who has spent 15 years working on food systems from every angle. She is a consumer advocate who has worked in retail, policy, agriculture and farmer support.
Blockchain as a Financial Tool
Blockchain technologies offer good financial instruments to provide farmers a timely and complete payment for their efforts. Using these technologies will help to avoid risk and make the farmer’s life easier.