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A healthy Santa Barbara romaine salad.
Why should we abstain from the Roman race and ask farmers to plow under hundreds of heads?
A couple of weeks ago, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention transmitted the dangers of consuming Roman lettuce harvested from coastal regions of northern and central California over a given period of time.
The multi-disease outbreak of E. coli disease is still under investigation, but since December 6, 52 people have been infected by E. coli since October. It's time for cryptocurrency technology to save the day.
What does cryptocurrency have to do with E. coli in products? Cryptocurrency is electronic money, whose legitimacy and reliability are not based on the secure walls of a central bank, but on an open book policy.
The ledger is open to everyone, so it is difficult to find a solution because of a technology known as blockchain.
Blockchain is described as a "democratized accounting system made possible by advances in data encryption," according to Frank Yiannas, vice president of food security at Walmart.
Walmart, along with leading suppliers such as Unilever, Nestle and Danone, is piloting a food-supply blockchain project using IBM technology. They want the production path from the farmer to the packer, forwarder, distributor, wholesaler and retailer to be monitored and verified at each step and available to everyone.
With a known path, problems at the consumer level are easily traceable at the source, reducing the impact of foodborne pathogens.
Compare this with what the CDC does now to stop the attacks. The current method of tracking products provides for the transition from victim to grocer to the field.
The FDA requires that products be marked with the location of the collection and information related to the stamps or to the hydroponics or to the greenhouse. If the targeted products contain neither, it is thrown away. If the labeling information shows a provenance outside of the contaminated area, the products can be eliminated for sale.
Sometimes the process includes coordination with foreign health agencies such as Canada or Mexico.
Much of the tracking is still on paper: the process is considered fast when it takes less than a week to understand the source of the product. It takes more often weeks or months, when the food has already been consumed or discarded.
Investigators are accused of tracking down about 900 foodborne illnesses each year. A study by the Pew Charitable Trust has shown that foodborne illnesses have an economic cost of about $ 152 billion a year, with a production equal to a quarter of that.
Yiannas heard about the blockchain in 2016, while Walmart was coordinating the opening of a food safety institute in China. A decade earlier, a childhood adulteration scandal became ill with 54,000 children.
Intrigued by the idea of instant traceability, Yiannas asked his staff to trace a mango package sliced by a Walmart corridor in the traditional way.
"I looked at my watch and I wrote down the time and date and programmed them," he said. "It took six days, 18 hours and 26 minutes."
He then challenged his team to build an experimental blockchain network. This required partners along the chain to agree to provide information. Then, during a shareholder meeting, he conducted a live system test.
"It was not staged," said Yiannas. "We had a backup in case the technology failed."
The test was an incredible success, tracing the mango slice package in 2.2 seconds.
"Walmart is not chasing the blockchain because it's a new fashion or a shiny coin," said Yiannas. "The Rome incident is a perfect example of a real scenario in which, if the tools were available, they could be managed a little more effectively".
Blockchain technology will certainly improve short-term food security. Now the question is, when romaine is safe again, can we buy it with bitcoins?
– Karen Telleen-Lawton serves elderly and pre-seniors as the principal of fee-only financial advisory services in Santa Barbara. You can reach it with your financial planning questions a [email protected]. Click here to read the previous columns. The opinions expressed are his.
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