Blockchain technology is going big, like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) big! This just in, the WWF-Australia has announced to utilize the revolutionary technology for the purpose of tracking food items. In its tweet today, the company proposed the plan of scanning food with just the simple QR code in order to check the sustainability of what we eat.
What if you knew exactly how sustainable your food is, just by scanning a QR code with your phone? With OpenSC, you can.#OpenSC is a revolutionary digital platform developed by WWF-Australia and @BCGDV that allows you to track a product along its entire supply chain. Here's how pic.twitter.com/uKwpeGqTcB
— WWF_Australia (@WWF_Australia) January 17, 2019
Basically the organization is launching a supply chain tool that uses the blockchain technology, which will help businesses and consumers alike to track their food items. The solution comes in the form of a platform called the OpenSC, and is the product of a partnership between WWF-Australia and BCG Digital Ventures (BCGDV). The BCGDV is actually the global corporate venture, investment and incubation arm of the Boston Consulting Group, based in the United States.
The OpenSC system provides businesses with the opportunity to track the products that they produce; on the other hand, it allows the customers to view the origins of the products that they are purchasing, all in an authentic way, via a “unique blockchain code at the product’s point of origin.”
What the platform does is, it distributes the QR codes to the products that are manufactured by the client corporations that have signed up with the new scheme. Then, the codes are linked to a blockchain platform in order to allow the consumers to check the origin as well as lifecycle of the specific product.
The goal behind this entire blockchain related exercise is to empower the consumers, to provide them with the knowledge of exactly what they are buying through their hard earned money, so they can make a well-informed choice. And quiet frankly it is the consumer’s right to know that what they are paying for is exactly what they want.
This way the whole supply ecosystem will be cleansed, as producers will no longer be able to leverage the complexities of the traditional supply chain to disguise questionable sourcing and production practices.
Through OpenSC, we will have a whole new level of transparency about whether the food we eat is contributing to environmental degradation of habitats and species, as well as social injustice and human rights issues such as slavery.
WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman commented in an accompanying press release.
According to reports, produce tracked with the OpenSC platform is due to be served to the world leaders in the coming week at the World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland.
This scheme, however is not going to stay limited to food, in fact according to Paul Hunyor, BCGDV’s Asia region head, in the near future it could extend to tackle areas as diverse as palm oil and timber; Reuters reported earlier today.
The blockchain technology really could change the food industry for the better. May be we are on our way to a more consumer driven future courtesy the new technology.
Blockchain is Serving the Food Industry & Consumer Trust is on the Menu
