Kevin Nyango
TechInPacific – It has become a common knowledge that our some of our oceans are filled with chemicals and plastics. As a result, marine life is in danger for extinction. According to bbc.com, around 8 million metric tons of plastic pollution enter our ocean every year. As we consume seafood, this pollution can be a big threat to our health.
A survey conducted by McKinsey & Company shows how people shop for their food. The findings highlight that people tend to care more about the quality of food than the price. It means that people want to consume safe food and are okay to spend a bit more for getting it.
Our nowadays problem is that we are not able to detect the origin of our food—whether it’s safe or not to consume. In other words, we completely have no idea about food on our plates that we consume daily.
However, this is about to change soon. A new technology has been invented, allowing shoppers to get information about the origin of fish they consume. The technology develops data chain on encrypted ledgers that expose the nebulous world of the global food network. A report card called “story of the fish” provides original photos of products, location of catch, initial weight, species type, vessel and crew details, RFID tag number, catch water details, and so on.
According to Alfred Cook, Program Manager at the World Wildlife Foundation who works for the project, the blockchain technology will produce its first fish products and sell it transparently to supermarkets in New Zealand and the Europe Union this year.
The pilot project was conducted in June 2017 supported by the WWF which expects to drive transparency in the supply chain industry. Moreover, hopefully it can also prevent people from buying plastic-contaminated fish.
The blockchain technology offers a solution to a real-world problem, especially in the fishery industry and supply chain, with an impact on the average shoppers sooner.
“We know what we sell our fish for but we do not know what the next actor gets as a margin. On one hand it is not our business to know what the fish is sold for down the supply chain but on the other hand, we are subject to the inefficiencies of the actors down that chain,” said Brett Haywood, Managing Director of Sea Quest Fiji, New Zealand to BBC.
“While it has taken more time, the disruption that will be caused to traditional supply chains it is no less significant, as the primary producer can get closer to the end consumer,” Haywood concluded.
Source: BBC.com
