[Chapter-delegates] Blockchain and Food Tracability

[Niran Beharry]

Good Morning All,
Sorry for taking so long to reply, a family member passed a few days ago
and I was assisting in taking care of the funerary arrangements, I have
been following the thread however so I will try answer some of the
questions.....I use the term blockchain the correct classification would be
distributed ledger technology...the why we using blockchain well for us
having the information distributed in the network gives us greater
redundancy and stability over a centralized database, it also allows us to
leverage the in field LoRA IOT networks to handle the passive additions to
informational side chains and tracking.

In our scenario, the trees are identified with a special RFID tag that is
permanently embedded in the trunk of the tree, this allows the tree's
produce to be identified at harvesting and verified by GPS along with
worker handheld units, the pods are put in tagged baskets then are combined
in batches based on varietal and then taken to process and fermentation,
then to drying and bagging each point is a check in on the chain.

Internally we measure the environmental variables, heavy metal
concentrations , genetic and varietal information, fermentation profiles
and such  each of these change the final product, we also record the
harvester/worker data via active RFID and login credentials. The system was
originally made to track these internal variables and to provide an audit
trail, this was our answer to address or exceed fairtrade requirements
since it does not immediately trust the harvesters, and the identification
is locked to geographic location (in the case a contaminated field once
identified, needs to have an added clearance input into the system, usually
from 2 trusted labs) all of which is verified by the data being fed into
the system. The idea is that a purchaser could track the beans of the bag
right back to the trees, eventually we envision it being used to assist a
chocolatier to select a bean or liquor on their bar flavor requirement. So
far it has allowed us to identify problem areas in the estates as well as
evaluate future areas for potential good yields based on computer
modelling.

We are also tweaking the system to work for coffee and citrus.
Regards,
Niran Beharry

On Mon, Oct 1, 2018 at 7:55 AM JOHN MORE <morej1 at mac.com> wrote:

> Very helpful clarification.
>
> John More
>
> On Oct 1, 2018, at 12:46 PM, Marcel Waldvogel <marcel.waldvogel at isoc.ch>
> wrote:
>
> Richard, Johan, all,
>
> there are "permissioned blockchains", which is typically what companies
> mean when they say "Blockchain". They are not based on the Bitcoin et al.
> "proof of work" concept, but instead build the hash chain on a simple
> consensus base among members bound by contracts. Waste of electricity is
> replaced by real-world contracts. Effectively, this boils down to some form
> of trust. Johan's explanation essentially shows that if there is no trust,
> there is an enormous amount of complexity involved.
>
> If the goal is to save money by not only dealing with trustworthy
> companies, then is the (direct and indirect) cost of all those complexities
> not higher than just being more careful with whom you do business?
>
> Some pre-Blockchain "hash chain" technologies which can often be used as a
> replacements for Blockchains include
>
>    - PGP Digital Timestamping service (est. 1995)
>    http://www.itconsult.co.uk/stamper.htm
>    - git (est. 2005) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git
>
>
> --
>
> -Marcel
>
> On Mon, 2018-10-01 at 10:07 +0200, Richard Hill wrote:
>
> Please see below.
>
>
> Thanks and best,
>
> Richard
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-
>
> bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of John Levine
>
> Sent: lundi, 1. octobre 2018 01:19
>
> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Blockchain and Food Tracability
>
>
> In article <CAEMuFPT6gOf-HyHBNmhYBuLwaiTn8JCyxrQrPcMF7-
>
> Bh8HrbaA at mail.gmail.com> you write:
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-
>
>
> SNIP
>
>  Since blockchains are not cheap,
>
>
> Good point. As I understand it, the computations required for a blockchain
>
> are significant, and there is a non-negligible cost (e.g. electricity). For
>
> Bitcoin and other e-currencies, the folks who do the computations are
>
> rewarded by getting Bitcoins (or other e-currencies).  So they are
>
> compensated financially for the cost of the computations. But if the
>
> blockchain is not used for a currency, how do you compensate the people that
>
> perform the computations? That is, who pays for all the computing and all
>
> the electricity?
>
>
>
> SNIP
>
>
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