Blockchain For Food: Making Sense of Technology and the Impact on Biofortified Seeds

The global food system is under pressure and is in the early stages of a major transition towards more transparency, circularity, and personalisation. In the coming decades, there is an increasing need for more food production with fewer resources. Thus, increasing crop yields and nutritional value per crop is arguably an important factor in this global food transition. Biofortification can play an important role in feeding the world. Biofortified seeds create produce with increased nutritional values, mainly minerals and vitamins, while using the same or less resources as non-biofortified variants. However, a farmer cannot distinguish a biofortified seed from a regular seed. Due to the invisible nature of the enhanced seeds, counterfeit products are common, limiting wide-scale adoption of biofortified crops. Fraudulent seeds pose a major obstacle in the adoption of biofortified crops. A system that could guarantee the origin of the biofortified seeds is therefore required to ensure widespread adoption. This trust-ensuring immutable proof for the biofortified seeds, can be provided via blockchain technology

Application of Blockchain and Internet of Things to Ensure Tamper-Proof Data Availability for Food Safety

Food supply chain plays a vital role in human health and food prices. Food supply chain inefficiencies in terms of unfair competition and lack of regulations directly affect the quality of human life and increase food safety risks. This work merges Hyperledger Fabric, an enterprise-ready blockchain platform with existing conventional infrastructure, to trace a food package from farm to fork using an identity unique for each food package while keeping it uncomplicated. It keeps the records of business transactions that are secured and accessible to stakeholders according to the agreed set of policies and rules without involving any centralized authority. This paper focuses on exploring and building an uncomplicated, low-cost solution to quickly link the existing food industry at different geographical locations in a chain to track and trace the food in the market.Comment: Journal of Food Quality, 202

Blockchain Meets Genomics: Governance Considerations for Promoting Food Safety and Public Health

Foodborne illness remains an ongoing public health challenge in both the developing and industrialized worlds. In the United States, almost 50 million reported cases of infectious disease occur every year from a food product, resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality with economic burdens to health care and productivity. Despite recognition as a leader in food safety, the U.S. experiences longstanding and novel issues in food safety. Advances in whole genome sequencing (WGS) promise to bolster food safety regulators’ capabilities to identify pathogens and determine their source. However, inefficiencies in tracing food products through the supply chain remain

Potentials of Blockchain Technology for Payroll Systems

Blockchain technology has the potential to prevent fraud and increase effectiveness of payroll systems. Payroll management is an essential and critical process for every government, businesses and other organizations as it ensures accurate and timely payment of staff. Payroll systems face challenges in the developing countries such as lack of decentralization, ghost workers, cybercrimes and other manipulations done by people. This paper examines the problems of payroll systems in developing countries and how the capabilities of blockchain can be harnessed to resolve them. The remainder the paper shows how blockchain technologies are a promising approach to mitigating challenges associated with the payroll systems. Through analysis of existing literature we explain the relevance of blockchain technology in general and its usefulness for payroll systems

The GDPR-Blockchain Paradox: Exempting Permissioned Blockchains from the GDPR

When considering the legal landscape emerging after the General Data Protection Regulation went into effect on May 25, 2018, the uncertainty surrounding the Regulation reaches its peak when it is applied to blockchain technology. While the goals of storing personal data on permissioned blockchains may align with the goals of accuracy and transparency emulated by the GDPR, the language of the Regulation makes it likely that blockchain technology, as a whole, violates the GDPR. Permissioned blockchains have promising use cases and developments that have not only streamlined data storage, but also allowed users to have increased control over who accesses their data. Accordingly, this Note proposes that to ensure innovation and technological growth of permissioned blockchains are not stifled, the GDPR must release guidance that exempts permissioned blockchains that store personal data from the daunting violation fines of the GDPR. First, this Note discusses the background of blockchain technology, highlighting the benefits of permissioned blockchains. This Note then discusses the relevant regulations of the GDPR, focusing on the right to rectification, the right to be forgotten, and the right to data portability. Next, this Note discusses how blockchain technology violates users’ data access rights. The last part of this Note discusses why permissioned blockchains should be exempt from the GDPR and proposes solutions on how to facilitate this exemption, concluding that the most efficient way to ensure that the technological growth of permissioned blockchains is not stifled is immediate guidance from the GDPR that interprets definitions from the Regulation in a way that exempt permissioned blockchains from violations

Deploying Blockchain Technology in the Supply Chain

In the rapidly evolving environment of the international supply chain, the traditional network of manufacturers and suppliers has grown into a vast ecosystem made of various products that move through multiple parties and require cooperation among stakeholders. Additionally, the demand for improved product visibility and source-to-store traceability has never been higher. However, traditional data sharing procedures in today’s supply chain are inefficient, costly, and unadaptable as compared to new and innovative technology. Blockchain technology has shown promising results for improving supply chain networks in recent applications and has already impacted our society and lifestyle by reshaping many business and industry processes. In an effort to understand the integration of blockchain technology in the supply chain, this paper systematically summarizes its current status, key characteristics, potential challenges, and pilot applications