Enhancing Food Supply Chain Security through the Use of Blockchain and TinyML

A comprehensive review of current approaches on food waste reduction strategies

Food waste is a serious worldwide issue that has an impact on the environment, society, and economy. This comprehensive review provides a detailed description of methods and approaches for reducing food waste, emphasizing the necessity of comprehensive strategies to tackle its intricate relationship with environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic prosperity. By scrutinizing the extent and impact of food waste, from initial production stages to final disposal, this comprehensive review underlines the urgent need for integrated solutions that include technological advancements, behavioral interventions, regulatory frameworks, and collaborative endeavors. Environmental assessments highlight the significant contribution of food waste to greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, water scarcity, and energy inefficiency, thereby emphasizing the importance of curtailing its environmental impact. Concurrently, the social and economic consequences of food waste, such as food insecurity, economic losses, and disparities in food access, underscore the imperative for coordinated action across multiple sectors. Food waste can also be effectively reduced by various innovative approaches, such as technological waste reduction solutions, supply chain optimization strategies, consumer behavior-focused initiatives, and waste recovery and recycling techniques. Furthermore, in order to foster an environment that encourages the reduction of food waste and facilitates the transition to a circular economy, legislative changes and regulatory actions are essential. By embracing these multifaceted strategies and approaches, stakeholders can unite to confront the global food waste crisis, thereby fostering resilience, sustainability, and social equity within our food systems.

Blockchain, Quo Vadis? Recent Changes in Perspectives on the Application of Technology in Agribusiness

Information technologies such as blockchain are developing fast, overcoming bottlenecks, and quickly taking advantage of their application. The present study analyzes recent changes concerning the benefits, disadvantages, challenges, and opportunities of blockchain applications in agribusiness. Interviews were conducted with and a questionnaire was applied to professionals working in the development and application of blockchain technology in agribusiness, to compare their perception of the recent advances. The results showed that the importance of blockchain technology to improve governance and information flow along supply chains has increased, and this is the main perceived benefit. The main disadvantages were removing intermediaries and the high cost of implementing the technology. The absence of a widely accepted platform in blockchain operations is the leading and growing challenge, while patterns for blockchain technology seem to be being overcome. The integration of blockchain with new technologies, and the competitiveness provided by the technology, are seen as the main and growing opportunities. Despite the study limitations, we conclude that the benefits and opportunities associated with blockchain application in agribusiness outweigh the challenges and disadvantages in number and importance, and are becoming more relevant.

TinyML for Ultra-Low Power AI and Large Scale IoT Deployments: A Systematic Review

The rapid emergence of low-power embedded devices and modern machine learning (ML) algorithms has created a new Internet of Things (IoT) era where lightweight ML frameworks such as TinyML have created new opportunities for ML algorithms running within edge devices. In particular, the TinyML framework in such devices aims to deliver reduced latency, efficient bandwidth consumption, improved data security, increased privacy, lower costs and overall network cost reduction in cloud environments. Its ability to enable IoT devices to work effectively without constant connectivity to cloud services, while nevertheless providing accurate ML services, offers a viable alternative for IoT applications seeking cost-effective solutions. TinyML intends to deliver on-premises analytics that bring significant value to IoT services, particularly in environments with limited connection. This review article defines TinyML, presents an overview of its benefits and uses and provides background information based on up-to-date literature. Then, we demonstrate the TensorFlow Lite framework which supports TinyML along with analytical steps for an ML model creation. In addition, we explore the integration of TinyML with network technologies such as 5G and LPWAN. Ultimately, we anticipate that this analysis will serve as an informational pillar for the IoT/Cloud research community and pave the way for future studies.

On the Malleability of Consumer Attitudes toward Disruptive Technologies: A Pilot Study of Cryptocurrencies

The digital transformation of core marketing activities substantially impacts relations between consumers and companies. Novel technologies are usually complex, making their underlying functionality as well as the desirable and undesirable implications hard to grasp for ordinary consumers. Cryptocurrencies are a prominent yet controversial and poorly understood example of an innovation that may transform companies’ future marketing activities. In this study, we investigate how easily consumers’ attitudes toward cryptocurrencies can be shaped by splitting a convenience sample of 100 consumers into two equal groups and exposing them to true, but biased, information about cryptocurrencies (including market forecasts), respectively, highlighting either the advantages or disadvantages of the technology. We subsequently found a significant difference in the trust, security and risk perceptions between the two groups; specifically, more positive attitudes pertaining to trust, security, risk and financial gains prevailed in the group exposed to positively-skewed information, while perceptions regarding trust, risk and the sustainability of cryptocurrencies were weaker among the group exposed to negatively-skewed information. These findings reveal some important insights into how easily consumer attitudes toward new technologies can be shaped through the presentation of lopsided information and call for further in-depth research in this important yet under-researched field.