3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
form of asset registry, inventory, and exchange, including every area of finance, economics, and
money. In fact it is even more; the blockchain concept is a new organizing paradigm.” 157
Blockchain technology has emerged as a valuable transaction and activity tracking tool that can
be applied all along the agricultural value chain that results in building consumer trust and
confidence in the health and safety of food products.
Organic food and farming methods are critical to sustainability and the long-term health of a
population. The biggest challenge that these inherently decentralized farming methods face is
that they must compete with the economies-of-scale of large agribusinesses. The solution has
been for organic farmers to collectivize their marketing and sales efforts to try to boost their
bargaining power. However there is a fundamental problem in that large-scale buyers can’t be
assured that the produce coming from multiple producers is of uniform quality. The blockchain
offers a potential solution as it can be used to keep track of authenticated credentials of
producers, certifing that their food is organic and how it is produced. In a blockchain, a farmer
is unable to alter the record inserted by whatever body is employed to periodically verify that
he or she is meeting required standards. As bio-sensory technology advances, this
authentication process can be increasingly automated and, therefore, will become increasingly
trustworthy.
Once an agreed-upon trusted standard can be established in this manner, decentralized organic
food production can be sold more like a uniform commodity. Here, the blockchain is also useful:
smart contracts, transparent data and the very low transactions costs that digital money affords
would allow the creation of commodity derivatives of much smaller size than the contracts that
are traded in big commodity markets in Chicago and elsewhere. This is a good way to improve
the position of the farmers and of their cooperatives in the foodchain, with the result of fairer
trading practices and a better income for the producers. As a trading nation, it’s an opportunity
for Luxembourg to lead the way in setting pricing models for trade in organic, sustainably
farmed food. 158
Blockchain technology is also being used in promoting energy services from wind farms and
solar PV systems, as well as a myriad of exergetic efficiency-productivity operations.
157 Swan, Melanie (n.d.) Institute for Blockchain Studies, http://www.blockchainstudies.org/.
158 Agentic Group (2016) internal communication, http://www.agenticgroup.com/#about.
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