A few years ago my FIRST LEGO League team was competing in the “Food Factors” challenge, which explored safety/risks in the food supply chain. Without me claiming to be any kind of an expert, I’ll note that the lettuce supply chain sounds somewhat similar to the milk supply chain (what my team focused upon), and perhaps other supply chains share similar characteristics.
With milk, a number of original suppliers each contribute to a larger and larger collection of material. At any point in the chain contamination may be introduced - by an original supplier, by an intermediate processor, by a mistake in handling, etc. Tests to detect contamination are made at regular points in the chain; if a test at any point reveals contamination then a) the current batch of material must be destroyed, and b) an investigation going backwards in the supply chain (branching out to all of the suppliers) begins so that the original source of contamination can be located and corrected.
Does the blockchain provide a good way to capture this branching path? I don’t know, not having studied the blockchain myself. However, I can easily imagine that there might be some suspicion and distrust between the organizations involved, at least once contamination has been detected and the original source is being traced back.
