Spinach, lettuce and leafy green vegetables are about to get the blockchain treatment from WalmartOpens a new window , as the world’s largest food retailer has announced that 100 of its vegetable suppliers will be asked to enter details about their products into a blockchain.
The scheme enables the retailer to pinpoint the origin of every head of lettuce and bag of spinach it sells, boosting transparency in the supply chain. Queries have nonetheless been raised as to whether the move is a gimmick, or a positive step towards embedding the technology into the economy.
The move was prompted following numerous cases of vegetable-associated food contamination. Earlier this year, dozens of people fell sick after eating Romaine lettuce, and in 2006, an E.coli outbreak from infected spinach killed three people and affected 199.
Food Contamination Fuels Call for Technology
The challenge with food-borne outbreaks is to identify the batch of vegetables responsible and then isolate the source to a specific location and supplier. Walmart believes that a blockchain database will allow it to track every item of leafy green vegetables back to the field where it was grown, thereby increasing transparency and saving costs, as the need to remove all spinach from sale across multiple stores in the event of a contamination scare would be eliminated.
Walmart is working with IBM to create the blockchain through its IBM Food Trust system. All the data will be hosted on IBM’s cloud computers.
The blockchain ledger of transactions could be the ideal system for the food supply chain, as produce can pass through multiple suppliers before it ends up on the supermarket shelf. Every time a supplier passes produce on to a new supplier, a fresh entry will be made into the blockchain, creating a record for every vegetable transaction, right back to its origin.
The spinach behind the 2006 E.coli outbreak wasn’t traced back to its contaminated source (a Californian farm) for 15 days. Blockchain entries would ensure the source to be instantly trackable, and tainted items removed from shelves without delay. The traceability would also eliminate the need to remove all items in the offending category, as only the batch traced to the source need be removed.
System Complexity and IBM Involvement Raise Questions
Blockchain is usually associated with decentralised transaction currencies like Bitcoin and Ether, where its very nature means that those participating in the currency do not need a central bank to police the system, as the software and the users create and impose the rules.
The need for Walmart to employ such a system for its supply chain, especially one run by IBM, has raised questions: A blockchain database is self-policing – and so doesn’t need a middleman – yet IBM is setting itself up as a blockchain middleman.
Of course, conventional databases can be altered, transactions may not always be logged and systems are far from tamper-proof. The attraction of blockchain for supply chain management is its immutability, but if someone in the supply chain inputs incorrect information, it can never be altered, and will infect the transparency of the chain. And if a batch of vegetables is tampered with, it can only be identified with physical checks.
The credibility of the blockchain depends on only correct information being uploaded.
The complexity of the system, no doubt difficult to navigate for those without expertise or specific instruction, is a potential red flag. Cryptocurrencies are the domain of IT specialists who can quickly grasp the technology, spurred on by the prospect of making a profit.
But mundane operations like sourcing vegetables lack this motivation. IBM’s system has been developed for large food businesses such as Unilever, and likely require specially trained personnel.
Blockchain is being touted as an almost magical solution to multiple challenges. The UK finance minister has even suggested that blockchain could help Britain achieve frictionless trade after BrexitOpens a new window . Governments around the world are looking at introducing regulation to blockchain to unleash its power for financial services.
Until now, blockchain has been used to create self-governing, decentralised systems such as cryptocurrencies. The big question is whether it can become an immutable mechanism for policing everyday transactions across society.
That really would be a transformative technology.