Rethinking Our Food Supply Chain Future Proofing Your Food
today
traceability on the chargings are taken
for granted
we are so used to hearing the term from
farm
to fork yet according to the world
health organization
almost 600 million
that’s one in 10 people get sick
every year from eating contaminated food
and 420 000 die
those deaths are caused by fraudsters
tampering with our food supply chain
yet we hear little in our daily lives
in january 2016 the world economic forum
told us
to be ready for the fourth industrial
revolution
the digital age and the fact that the
world
was going to change faster than ever
this new era that builds and extends the
impact of digitization
in new and unanticipated ways
15 months later the world was told to
prepare
for the fifth industrial revolution
the rise of artificial intelligence
machine learning and the internet of
things
never before have we seen such speed of
change
from self-driving and automated cars
to homes that know you’re close and turn
on
the lights and the heating just look at
the changes
in our mobile phones where would we be
today without our smartphone
in our day-to-day lives alexa and siri
has changed how
so many people live but when a farmer
steps out the door of their house and
into
their farm they’re using technology and
practices that haven’t changed much
since the turn of the 20th century
yes tractors are more comfortable and
milking machines have
become more automated but tracking and
tracing
our food is done largely with pen
and paper and it’s duplicated across
so many systems that it causes
some of the biggest issues you might
find it hard to believe but most farms
have hardly changed at all
in the last 100 years
this will in turn affect every single
one of us
in the coming months and years if we do
not look at our food and
how we consume it
so i want to take you on a journey
as a butcher’s son i followed my father
into the family business
i loved taking raw produce and turning
it into something that not only
tasted good but it’s something that
people
wanted i learned so
many skills and took great pride in my
work
i love listening to my customers and
splaining the origins
of their produce where they came from
and how to cook them nothing for me
felt better than seeing an empty counter
at the end of an evening
and as a trusted member of the community
it was a
privilege to provide such a service
but my curiosity did not stop there
i spent time in and across the supply
chain
working with fantastic and inspirational
people
i learned to appreciate the effort
required daily
not only feeding our nation but
supporting
farm exports and international trade
alongside my work i had a passion for
electronics
and i loved tinkering with circuit
boards computers
and i chose to develop that passion into
a professional
career and so i studied for my
professional
qualifications and built a career as a
technology specialist
i am glad to say that over the years i
have traveled the world
working alongside global organizations
leading technology companies
delivering solutions for government
healthcare
aerospace and the food and drink sector
now being part butcher part tacky
i wasn’t happy just sitting on the
sidelines and wanted to utilize my
passion
for food and farming and knowledge from
the technology
technology sector to address the global
issue
of food traceability and provenance
despite traceability been taken for
granted the age-old
problem of food fraud is more
significant now
than ever the first recorded incident of
food fraud dates back to the times of
the roman empire
when wine was diluted or mixed to ensure
guests present
had enough to drink the thought was
the more they drank the less they
worried about
quality i wouldn’t like to try that
today fast forward to today
and the issue is much more prolific the
horse meat
scandal of 2014 reported by our own
professor elliot of queens
highlighted the scale of adulteration
and the impact
to human health a 2016 pwc report
outlined the global impact of food fraud
and the cost to the economy
was in excess of 40 billion dollars
and the center for counter fraud studies
at the university of portsmouth
estimates 11.97 billion
for uk possible losses you may ask
what does this have what does this mean
to you
and to me well just like any loss that
loss has to be recovered
from someone and somewhere
it is estimated that five pence in every
pound is added to everyday items that
means an average shop of 50 pounds 2.50
goes towards that cost mislabeling a
product or wrongly portraying its
quality
its safety its origin its freshness
is just simply fraud dilution
misrepresentation adulteration even fake
rice are among some of the cases
recorded
by the institute of global food security
at queens
sad to say but our food is not the only
thing affected
medicines supplements and veterans have
measured our meteoric rise in cases
so the need for change has never been
greater
i remember addressing a class of
graduates in the us just before the
first lockdown in 2020
and i had the opportunity to ask the
question what is
innovation someone from the back of the
room shouted
innovation is answering the questions
the future is asking
you see during the pandemic the world
innovated more in 10 months than it had
in the previous 10 years
when faced with adversity we worked
together to achieve
some fantastic things greater
collaboration more outstanding
communication
yes even the family zoom quiz
so i say it’s time to rethink our food
supply
and apply new thinking faster
innovation more collaboration and most
of all
greater transparency
you see i know what i’m doing
i’ve already done it but i know
we can do it better i
was one of the first specialists in the
world to utilize blockchain technology
to help the craft beer and whiskey
industry communicate with their customer
and tell the story and passion behind
the brand
from the quality of the water to the
barley and the hops
even the story of the individual team
members
involved in the process that story of
the brewer’s passion and
all of the data was contained within a
scannable code
that was unique to each bottle
all you had to do was use your mobile
phone
authenticate your age and you would see
the video from the day of harvest
photo and dates from the day of
production
along with the records of bottling and
proof
of provenance this
effective yet simple solution give
customers
confidence and comfort to know what
their product was exactly what it was
supposed to be
who made it and where it came from
i asked the question what if we could do
for our food
what we did for the drinks sector what
if we could make
this level of transparency and proof of
provenance
commonplace across our food
by embracing change and collaborating
with our producers
processors and supply team members we
can not only see
and ensure who our food comes from
we can also reduce our food miles
100 guarantee provenance support
sustainability and establish a connected
community
by trusting the products we consume
you see my family are obsessed with
scanning food packaging
to get information about its calorific
and calorie content
why not utilize this simple technology
to take it
further and include cost trusted
information
from the farmer the processor the
distributor
and the retailer to not only tell the
story and passion behind the brand
but to prove provenance and create
positive economic value for our economy
by connecting to our food and trading on
the trust economy we can promote
our amazing produce globally
establish new trade agreements create
more jobs
and support transformation and
innovation
across our communities
it’s about the little steps it’s about
realizing there is a problem and meeting
those problems
with a solution it’s about working
together
it’s about giving voice to the farmers
and
their products this technology
is with us today and helps us to unlock
value across the community we serve
the land we work and the food we eat
renowned author rachel botsman state
trust enables innovation and as
consumers we all need to play our part
and demand greater transparency
so join me in our provenance journey
to utilize technology people
and dynamic processes across our
supply chain to eat the food we trust
and trust the food we eat