The Impact Of Blockchain To The Food Industry
According to a tech expert, blockchain technology can have some massive impact in the food industry by improving its level of efficiency, boosting transparency and by increasing the collaboration among the entire food system. This could impact the way Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan operates his restaurants in the United Kingdom.
With the help of blockchain technology, consumers will be able to determine in just a few seconds the exact source of the lettuce they just consumed. Prior to every delivery, shippers will have the ability to check if the delivery truck is already full before departing. Grocery stores will have the kind of information that will let them know if the eggs they are selling came from cage-free chickens. These are all just examples of claims related to the blockchain technology and its impact in the food industry. But are these all true?
Blockchain started out as part of Bitcoin, a digital currency. Looking at it from the food industry scene, its application is very different from cryptocurrency. In Bitcoin, blockchain acts as a digital ledger that operates through computer systems. Basically, the computers are competing and whichever computes the fastest will be able to get a unit of cryptocurrency as a reward. The downside with the system is that it requires a lot of energy therefore it is not suitable in an agricultural setting where the farmer has to get more out of very little resources.
The IBM blockchain system recently employed by Walmart has a lot of limitations in terms of functions because it is only accessible to the food supply chain of the company that provides leafy green products. It means that users are only about hundreds and not tens of thousands like the real blockchain technology. The bottom line is that there are fewer data to process which means less energy is required as a whole.
As for now, there are no clear indications as to what functions blockchain will play in the food industry. For players like Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan who is a restaurateur, only the future can tell of the technology’s impact.
