Food quality and safety is a major concern around the world. Research in the medical field has shown us the importance of consuming food that has passed all the existing safety guidelines. There has been an advancement in standardization and validation of food regulatory methods which has helped regulatory bodies perform better tests on food safety and quality.
There have been various food scandals in the past. In 1994, the whole nation of Hungary suffered from lead poisoning because of unscrupulous traders who wanted to maximize on profit obtained from the sale of paprika. Paprika is Hungary’s favorite spice. This was still the case in 1994 and paprika could be found in almost every household. Dealers within the paprika manufacturing industry wanted their product to sell more. They sought to make paprika more appealing to the market so they added a red lead-based paint to give it a more attractive look. Since lead is heavy, it also meant that they would use less paprika per unit sold in weight, a double win for the manufacturers with rising profits. When the government discovered this, it banned the sale of paprika in Hungary, a knee jerk reaction to a problem that could have been prevented if better food safety measure were put in place. In 2004, paprika was withdrawn from the Hungarian market after food safety authorities in Slovenia found aflatoxin in paprika imported from Hungaria. Some Hungarian traders were mixing paprika imported from South America with local Hungarian paprika just to increase profit margins. The problem with such food scandals is that authorities, even though they discover them, find out late when the product has already permeated deep into the market. Most of them are discovered once the effects of the contaminating substances are seen in a fraction of the population.
Tracing the source of any food scandal is usually a difficult task and it takes time. Without a proper system, the chain of distribution makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact point of contamination. Most of the time manufacturers are usually at fault as they put their selfish profit-making interest first instead of consumer safety by blatantly ignoring safety regulations put in place. At times the blame falls on the farmers. Their method of farming may be contaminating the food they produce. Use of harmful pesticides and other farm inputs may be adversely affecting their produce. But, to some extent, dwindling food quality and safety can be blamed on all of us. Our waste disposal methods are not as good as they should be. We end up polluting most of our natural resources including the land we use for planting our foods. Industries deposit their waste in rivers which are used by farmers to irrigate their crops. Most of these wastes are chemical wastes and even when treated, traces of harmful chemicals may be found. One good case study is the OwinoUhuru district in Kenya where poor waste disposal lead to an accumulation of lead in the soil. This lead could easily find its way into food crops if the area is used for farming. Land oil spills can also cause food crops to absorb dangerous chemicals from contaminated soil.
The effect of such scandals is distrust by the consumer. Consumers start to question any labels or claims made by the manufacturer. Gaining this trust back becomes a difficult feat for any manufacturer as these damages become deeply ingrained in the society. There are also existing and emerging diseases and conditions that require special dietary needs. Imagine that you are allergic to nuts then you find nuts in a product that is labelled as nut free, wouldn’t you lose faith in the product or the company that produced the product? Such instances pose a great challenge to the food industry.
A team of innovators were inspired by these challenges to come up with a lasting solution. They saw a need that both consumers and food producers faced, the traceability of food and food products. Consumers with special dietary requirements may need to find out where and how their food was produced. Manufacturers may want to find out the safety of farm produce they purchase for processing. This team of developers therefore came up with a creative idea that will attempt to solve all these issues. They want to design a structure, named Cibus, where all parties involved in the food industry will be directly linked and will be able to communicate with each other.
Cibus is a solution for the future. It is based on the blockchain platform which is decentralized and transparent. Blockchain is best suited to achieve the vision of transparency and traceability within the food industry that the team of innovators have. Manipulating data within blockchain is more complex and near impossible when compared to other centralized systems. Blockchain keeps transactions logs which are visible by parties within the platform and can be cited as a credible source of information on transactions due to its secure nature. This will solidify trust between the buyer and seller within the platform. Cibus will also provide other services as it grows to achieve a robust food ecosystem.
All these ideas are great but without a proper implementation plan they may just remain as ideas. Cibus has a two-phase implementation plan which will focus firstly on building the platform itself then proceed to building the aids of the platform. Phase one of the Cibus project will include four modules, that is, Cibus Trace, Cibus Social, Cibus Retail and Cibus Trade. After successful implementation of the phase one module, Cibus will commence implementation of the phase two modules which are also four. They are Cibus affiliate, Cibus AD, Cibus Escrow and Cibus logistics. These will complement phase one modules.
Phase one implementation will start with Cibus Trace. The main aim of Cibus trace is to improve and make efficient the supply chain from the producer right to the door step of the consumer. It will have stepwise safety measures to ensure every food product is examined as it passes from one step to the next. This will help Cibus achieve one of its objectives that is to avert the spread of disease outbreaks from one geographical area to another through contaminated food. Cibus Trace, when fully implemented, will have the ability to quarantine food products from potentially harmful areas. When an outbreak occurs, Cibus will highlight that area as a potential source of contaminated food and consumers will be able to make informed purchases. Cibus trace will also create a fair-trade environment as consumers will be connected to farmers, food producers and manufacturers all over the world each one of them having an equal chance of being the seller. The transparency of Cibus Trace will make Cibus a reliable market place for consumers especially those with special dietary needs.
Cibus Social is the second module of phase one. This module will focus on making Cibus a food social network. It will bring together people from across the world interested in food and its improvement. From food enthusiasts to food bloggers, from farmers to manufactures, Cibus social will link them all up to provide better food related services. Cibus will encourage feedback on products being sold within its platform. This will help both the farmers and manufacturers understand their market better and the consumer to receive better products and food related services. To promote sensible and meaningful insight in reviews, Cibus will offer social incentives within its platforms where users will be rewarded based on their usage of the platform. This will encourage every user to give their feedback and not just dissatisfied customers as is usually the case in most platforms.
The third module in the phase one implementation is Cibus Retail. This will be an e-commerce platform within the Cibus ecosystem that will provide a fair and competitive environment for trustworthy and transparent traders. It will be tailored to meet the consumers needs by offering services such as price comparisons and live tracking of products ordered to make the platform more convenient for the consumer. The Cibus Retail system will have mechanisms to ensure safe transactions between the buyer and the seller. Sellers within the platform will also receive protection from bots that may be programmed to place orders. The safety of the consumers details is also guaranteed in this system.
The final module in the first phase of the Cibus implementation plan is Cibus Trade. Cibus Trade will be different from Cibus Retail in that it will focus on business to business trade within the ecosystem. it will open up opportunities for anyone interested in the Cibus affiliate program to increase their value within the ecosystem by earning tokens. The Cibus Trade will be based on performance of various businesses and this will be determined by the reviews they get in the Cibus platform. Businesses will be able to reach a wider business market by partnering with trusted personalities within the food industry to promote and validate their brand. For businesses to participate in this platform, a minimum fee will be maintained in their account. All transactions within Cibus will attract a small fee that will be based on the size of transaction.
Phase two will see complementary services being put in place to smoothen the Cibus experience and make the ecosystem more convenient.
Cibus Logistics would be set up to organize shipping of food products from their source to their consumer. It will involve third parties as Cibus assesses the viability of having its own logistics company.
Cibus Escrow will be implemented to further increase the trustworthiness of the platform. Traders will be entering into contracts with the assurance of their demands being met. This service will be provided at a fraction of the transaction cost.
Phase two of Cibus has an affiliate program known as Cibus Module as previously mentioned whose aim will be to broaden the market for goods traded within Cibus and to validate these goods using trusted personalities within the food industry. Incentives to affiliates will be made through Cibus tokens which are tradeable within the Cibus ecosystem.
Cibus Ad is the last module in phase two. Cibus AD will use the blockchain platform on which Cibus is built on to tailor advertisements for specific target audiences. This information will only be collected and used upon the agreement of the owner of the information. It aims to save on advertisement costs for traders within the platform by filtering out consumers who may not be interested the product. It is important to note that most transactions within the Cibus structure will be made through their cryptocurrency, Cibus tokens.
This system will challenge existing models of the food distribution chain. It will however end up improving it greatly by eliminating many unnecessary steps and bottlenecks while keeping food safety standards and food quality top notch.
There are many systems involved within the Cibus structure which will require capital to put in place. Therefore, the Cibus team is having an ICO to involve those who are willing to make this vision a success. There is an ongoing PRE TGE-token sale that is scheduled to end on 28th February 2018 at 10.59AM (GMT). This will be followed immediately by the ICO token sale which will start on the same date at 11.00AM (GMT). The transactions for this ICO will be done using various cryptocurrencies. Those allowed are bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and DASH. 1ETH will get you 1000 CIBUS tokens. There are 100,000,000 (one hundred million) tokens that will be for sale on 28th of February. The minimum purchase allowed is 10 CIBUS tokens (CBT). A soft cap of 5,000,000 CBT and a hard cap of 40,000,000 CBT were placed.
The funds collected from the ICO will be used mainly for development of the Cibus structure. Part of the finances will go into legal fees that will be required as Cibus will be multinational. Each country has its own set of food safety and quality standards which will need to be harmonized within the ecosystem.
If the Cibus model is implemented successfully then the CIBUS tokens will prove to be valuable. The Cibus system is designed such that there will always be a demand for the Cibus token because most transactions will be carried out using CBT. There is a possibility that the demand for the CBT may spill over beyond the Cibus structure. This increasing demand may escalate the value of CBT even further.
To discover more about Cibus and the plan they have for the food industry visit the following links:
• https://tokensale.cibus.world/signup.php?=rhinoboy11
• https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KrPfMOiahIjZNWj0Oo-8tunwJrs-Wr-d
• https://www.cibus.world
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