If (when) this comes into use, it will be interesting to see to societal ripples.
As it pertains to the food supply, blockchain is an efficient and decentralized way to secure a timeline of analytical information from the farm, processor, distributor and retailer so every ingredient’s source is traceable. Harris compared the food supply and its trend toward blockchain as paralleling Spotify, Amazon and Netflix in their users’ relationship with music, books and movies.
“I foresee the day when nutrition labels will each have a QR code so consumers can use their phone to access the history of nearly every ingredient in that item,” Harris said. “In fact, some companies are already supplying this information.”
Current use of blockchain information is primarily for traceability and is really only useful to those in the given supply chain… and their lawyers, of course. Whether or not much of that information will ever be of much use to consumers, especially in terms of food supply, is very iffy. Most people don’t bother to read mandatory ingredient labeling now and I wonder how many who do read them actually understand an iota of what they’re reading. Even fewer folks know that enforcement of the accuracy of that data is virtually nonexistent in the US. There’s not likely to ever be a pent up demand to know the sourcing of all those chemicals we can’t even pronounce. We would all bear the cost of making such extensive information available to the occasionally curious odd duck consumer who might actually utilize it.
Do you really want to know the name and dietary habits of the cow whose barbecued ribs you just ate for lunch?
But mostly their lawyers. What could possibly go wrong?
If leftists inflict this as a requirement, it will hurt indeprndents.
Only chains will survive.