Agri-Food Value Chain Traceability Using Blockchain Technology: Portuguese Hams' Production Scenario

The globalization of food markets has led companies to buy products not only locally, but also from other corners of the world. This has introduced complexity into supply chains, as products have to move longer distances and pass through more companies before reaching the end consumer. The meat industry has been no different. Events such as animal disease outbreaks have diminished consumer confidence in the industry and the supply chain. Coupled with this, consumers started demanding "more transparent" meat products. This has led companies to think about new traceability systems, which continue to enforce food safety and health rules, but at the same time enhance and make transparent to the consumer the origin and constitution of their products. This article proposes a traceability system in the agri-food (meat industry) with a multi-chain architecture, among them, blockchain. The use of blockchain in the traceability system helped to mitigate the omission of relevant data for the traceability process, allowing us to guarantee the immutability, reliability, and transparency of the data along the value chain. At the same time, the system was able to reduce the time of the traceability process by giving the user the possibility to access the traced information via a unique product identifier.

GM-Ledger: Blockchain-Based Certificate Authentication for International Food Trade

Maritime transportation plays a critical role for many Arab countries and their food security and has evolved into a complex system that involves a plethora of supply chain stakeholders spread around the globe. This inherent complexity brings huge security challenges, including cargo loss and high burdens in cargo document inspection. The emerging blockchain technology provides a promising tool to build a unified maritime cargo tracking system critical for cargo security. This is because blockchains are a tamper-proof distributed ledger technology that can store and track data in a secure and transparent manner. Using the State of Qatar as a case study, this research introduces the Global Maritime Ledger (GM-Ledger), which will aid authorities in verifying, signing and transacting food certificates in an efficient manner. The methodology of this research includes reviewing past publications, identifying the requirements of various players in the Qatari food import-export industry and then creating a smart contract framework that will efficiently manage the work with necessary human intervention as and when required. The result of this work is the formation of a solid framework that can be employed in future works. This work realized that employing web3 solutions for the food import sector is highly viable and that with the right social, economic and policy reforms, it is possible to transform the entire food system to bear healthy transparency and power balance in global supply chains. In conclusion, this study argues that BCT has the ability to assist the government and other players to minimize fraud and maximize food supply chain stakeholder participation.

Discussing blockchain applications in TED Talks: A fashion wave approach to understanding the blockchain phenomenon

Since its first appearance as the infrastructure supporting Bitcoin, blockchain has received different waves of attention from practitioners and academics. Besides the degree of interest, the attention to blockchain has often focused not merely on its own potential and characteristics but on its applications field. However, looking at its application and deployment in domains other than cryptocurrency or the nascent non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology does not seem to be widely adopted or is still in its early stages. Given this, we are interested in how managers and the general public are informed about new technology other than through academic papers or the specialized press. In this paper, we analyze how blockchain has been presented by speakers invited to give TED and TEDx Talks to identify the most common terms used to present blockchain in these talks using a multi-methods approach (qualitative analysis and big data analysis) and see if the discourse surrounding blockchain has shifted over time. The results of this study show how the different perspectives brought by broadcasters like TED often overshadow a technological innovation like the blockchain in its evolution and application by the fact that the focus is instead shifted to products and services built on it. Also, this study shows how different degrees of attention and expertise are associated with each fashion wave of new or emergent technology innovations.

An Ethereum-Based Distributed Application for Enhancing Food Supply Chain Traceability

In today’s era, humanity has been overwhelmed by technological revolutions that have changed and will continue to change how business operations are performed, directly or indirectly. At the same time, the processes within the supply chain are quite complex, and as technology and processes evolve, they become more and more challenging. Traceability has become a critical issue in the food industry to ensure safety, quality, and compliance with regulations. The adoption of blockchain technology in the food supply chain has gained significant attention as a potential solution to improve traceability. This paper presents the development of a distributed application for table olives’ traceability on the Ethereum network. The paper also presents a methodological framework, which can help anyone aiming to implement an Ethereum decentralized application and demonstrates the practical use of the developed application by a Greek table olives producer. The application significantly improved the producer’s product traceability by providing a secure, transparent, and efficient solution for tracking and tracing the products in the supply chain. The app reduced the time, increased the accuracy and reliability of data, improved supply chain efficiency, and helped the producer comply with international regulations and standards.

Emerging Perspectives of Blockchains in Food Supply Chain Traceability Based on Patent Analysis

In the field of blockchain (BC) technology application in the food supply chain (FSC), a patent portfolio is collected, described, and analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling, with the aim of obtaining insight into technology trends in this emerging and promising field. A patent portfolio consisting of 82 documents was extracted from patent databases using PatSnap software. The analysis of latent topics using LDA indicates that inventions related to the application of BCs in FSCs are patented in four key areas: (A) BC-supported tracing and tracking in FSCs; (B) devices and methods supporting application of BCs in FSCs; (C) combining BCs and other ICT technologies in FSC; and (D) BC-supported trading in FSCs. Patenting of BC technology applications in FSCs started during the second decade of the 21st century. Consequently, patent forward citation has been relatively low, while the family size confirms that application of BCs in FSCs is not yet widely accepted. A significant increase in the number of patent applications was registered after 2019, indicating that the number of potential users in FSCs is expected to grow over time. The largest numbers of patents originate from China, India, and the US.

Listening to what the system tells us: Innovative auditing for distributed systems

Introduction

In recent years, software ecosystems have become more complex with the proliferation of distributed systems such as blockchains and distributed ledgers. Effective management of these systems requires constant monitoring to identify any potential malfunctions, anomalies, vulnerabilities, or attacks. Traditional log auditing methods can effectively monitor the health of conventional systems. Yet, they run short of handling the higher levels of complexity of distributed systems. This study aims to propose an innovative architecture for system auditing that can effectively manage the complexity of distributed systems using advanced data analytics, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence.

Methods

To develop this architecture, we considered the unique characteristics of distributed systems and the various signals that may arise within them. We also felt the need for flexibility to capture these signals effectively. The resulting architecture utilizes advanced data analytics, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret the various signals emitted by the system.

Results

We have implemented this architecture in the DELTA (Distributed Elastic Log Text Analyzer) auditing tool and applied it to the Hyperledger Fabric platform, a widely used implementation of private blockchains.

Discussion

The proposed architecture for system auditing can effectively handle the complexity of distributed systems, and the DELTA tool provides a practical implementation of this approach. Further research could explore this approach's potential applications and effectiveness in other distributed systems.

The Potential of Blockchain Technology in the Transition towards Sustainable Food Systems

Food systems are both contributing to and affected by environmental degradation and climate change. The transition towards resilient and sustainable food systems is essential to ensure food security and minimise negative environmental impacts. Innovative technologies can accelerate this transition. Blockchain technology (BCT) is attracting attention as it can deliver transparency to complex global food supply chains and has the potential to guide current food production towards better sustainability and efficiency. This case study investigated the opportunities that BCT can offer to food supply chains. Qualitative interviews with eight main BCT providers were conducted to evaluate the current state of BCT and put it into perspective by mapping out advantages, disadvantages, incentives, motives, and expectations connected to its implementation in global food systems. A thematic analysis showed that, while BCT was considered beneficial by all interviewees, uptake is slow due to high implementation costs and the lack of incentives for companies throughout the food chain from farms to food industry and retail. Results further revealed that the advantages of BCT go beyond communication of trustworthy information and development of closer producer–consumer relationships. In fact, it can provide the opportunity to decrease food waste, enhance working conditions throughout the supply chain, and promote sustainable consumption habits. As BCT may be increasingly used in the food supply chain, the results give a basis for future research that may leverage both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine actors’ behaviours. Also, the importance of improving user experiences through functional applications and software to facilitate the adoption of the technology is stressed.

Integration of Innovative Technologies in the Agri-Food Sector: The Fundamentals and Practical Case of DNA-Based Traceability of Olives from Fruit to Oil

Several socio-economic problems have been hidden by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Particularly, the agricultural and food industrial sectors have been harshly affected by this devastating disease. Moreover, with the worldwide population increase and the agricultural production technologies being inefficient or obsolete, there is a great need to find new and successful ways to fulfill the increasing food demand. A new era of agriculture and food industry is forthcoming, with revolutionary concepts, processes and technologies, referred to as Agri-food 4.0, which enables the next level of agri-food production and trade. In addition, consumers are becoming more and more aware about the origin, traceability, healthy and high-quality of agri-food products. The integration of new process of production and data management is a mandatory step to meet consumer and market requirements. DNA traceability may provide strong approach to certify and authenticate healthy food products, particularly for olive oil. With this approach, the origin and authenticity of products are confirmed by the means of unique nucleic acid sequences. Selected tools, methods and technologies involved in and contributing to the advance of the agri-food sector are presented and discussed in this paper. Moreover, the application of DNA traceability as an innovative approach to authenticate olive products is reported in this paper as an application and promising case of smart agriculture.

How a Blockchain Approach Can Improve Data Reliability in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid spread of COVID-19 made it necessary to quickly collect and share viral genomic sequences, sometimes making quantity prevail over the quality of information. Can research pay this price? Blockchain technology, based on the concept of a ledger that guarantees the authenticity and traceability of information, could be the best applicable solution.

Implications for Agricultural Producers of Using Blockchain for Food Transparency, Study of 4 Food Chains by Cumulative Approach

In agro-food, Blockchain has been recently implemented in order to improve transparency. Blockchain raises great expectations of data decentralization and better efficiency–cost ratio, integration speed, and data protection that appear as promises of gains in all areas. The fundamental assumption was that transparency prevents or reduces illegitimate forms of power. However, discussions are emerging about how digitization is likely to exacerbate power inequalities in food systems, as transparency can become tyrannical when it contributes to the proliferation of audits, evaluations, and assessment measures. The objective of this research is to contribute by providing knowledge about the implications of this digitization for farmers. For a first exploratory study, we conducted 53 interviews with actors of digitalization of agri-food, and we used 9 press releases, 3 webinars, and 1 article published in a specialized French journal. These materials evoke 12 different agro-food chains recently equipped with blockchain in France. From this pool of chains, we focused on four through in-depth analysis of interviews and literature readings using NVivo software. The first results highlight that the use of blockchain for transparency rarely delivers on its promises. Blockchain tends to centralize control since few actors have access to the distributed ledger, and the visibility brought to farmers, at the consumer level, tends to become a form of control. While blockchain seems to provide some benefits to producers, it raises the issue of overloaded technology and the problem of their data privacy.

Blockchain: a brief review of Agri-Food Supply Chain Solutions and Opportunities

This article aims at presenting Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies from business perspective (although providing adequate technology context) and, especially, highlighting concrete implementations in Agri-Food Supply Chain, bringing security, transparency and robustness to solutions, and enabling the creation of added value through the provisioning of information to consumers which allow them to understand the origin, the transformation and the transportation of agri-food goods. It also brings some examples of European Programmes and Projects that are supporting innovative solutions to reach the market.