IBM: For Blockchain, Food Safety Is Just the Beginning

Posted 2021-04-29 兰链

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Preface：

The tech giant has been heavily investing in blockchain, so we spoke with one of their executives to talk about how the technology is changing food safety and how it could benefit other industries.

编前语：

这家技术巨头一直在大规模投资区块链，所以我们与他们的一位高管谈了谈技术如何改变食品安全以及如何使其他行业受益。

As the calendar has turned to 2018, the mania around bitcoin may in fact be turning into investor interest in commercial blockchain, the technology that enables bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In my recent interview with IBM's VP of Blockchain Technologies, Jerry Cuomo, I learned a great deal about IBM's leadership in blockchain for business, the different business applications IBM's blockchain was currently serving, and the history of the Hyperledger Project.

随着日历转向2018年，围绕比特币的疯狂事实上可能转变为投资者对商业区块链的兴趣，商业区块链是支持比特币和其他加密货币的技术。 在我最近接受IBM的Blockchain Technologies副总裁Jerry Cuomo的采访中，我了解了IBM在业务区块链，IBM区块链目前服务的不同业务应用程序以及Hyperledger项目历史上的领先地位。

Even more recently, I had the chance to interview Brigid McDermott, VP of food safety at IBM Blockchain. While my previous interview with Jerry Cuomo touched on IBM's company-wide blockchain ambitions, McDermott and I looked at the technology on a more micro level, digging into one of IBM's larger active networks: a food-safety blockchain network led by Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and nine other leading food companies. In addition to the Wal-Mart consortium, IBM also recently announced a new consortium in China with not only Wal-Mart, but also JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) and Tsinghua University.

最近，我有幸采访了IBM Blockchain食品安全副总裁Brigid McDermott。 尽管我之前对Jerry Cuomo的采访触及了IBM在全公司范围内的区块链雄心，但我和McDermott在微观层面上研究了这项技术，并深入IBM的一个更大的活跃网络：由沃尔玛领导的食品安全区块链网络 纽约证券交易所代码：WMT）和其他九家主要食品公司。 除了沃尔玛财团之外，IBM最近还在中国宣布了一个新的财团，不仅与沃尔玛，还包括京东（纳斯达克股票代码：JD）和清华大学。

Here are some of the highlights from our conversation. (Some quotes have been edited for clarity.)

以下是我们谈话中的一些亮点。 （为了表达清晰，一些内容已经被编辑过。）

BRIGID MCDERMOTT, VP OF FOOD SAFETY, IBM BLOCKCHAIN. IMAGE SOURCE: IBM.

BRIGID MCDERMOTT，食品安全副总裁，IBM BLOCKCHAIN。 图片来源：IBM。

Can technology really help with food safety?

I asked McDermott about the beginning of the food safety initiative and how long ago the Wal-Mart consortium started.

技术能够真正帮助食品安全吗？

我问麦克德莫特有关食品安全倡议的开始，沃尔玛财团多久之前就开始了。

We started about a year ago. We were having some conversations with Wal-Mart about food safety, and it became pretty clear to all of us that this was a really good match.

我们大约在一年前开始。 我们正在与沃尔玛就食品安全问题进行一些对话，而且我们大家都很清楚这是一次非常好的比赛。

The obvious applicability is blockchain, and a trusted system of record to supply chain is a great starting place. But above and beyond food safety, everyone in the industry will tell you, nobody wins when there's a food incident. ... It's not like, you know, my competitor's peanut butter is bad, I'm excited, everyone's going to buy mine. Everybody's like, OK, nobody's buying any peanut butter, they're all eating tuna fish. It's just a bad thing when a food incident happens. There are no winners. And so, the willingness of the industry to collaborate is phenomenal, to solve this problem that has been around for eons.

区块链的适用性显而易见，而供应链记录的可信系统是一个很好的起点。 但是，除了食品安全之外，业内每个人都会告诉你，在发生食品事故时无人获胜。 ......你知道，我的竞争对手的花生酱不好，我很兴奋，每个人都会去买我的。 大家都喜欢，好吧，没人买花生酱，他们都吃金枪鱼。 食物事件发生时，这只是一件坏事。 没有赢家。 所以，行业合作的意愿是惊人的，以解决这个已经存在的问题。

The main way blockchain can help limit food safety incidents, as well as the financial fallout, is by being able to instantly track where the food has been, from the farm, to the processor, to the distributor, and the retailer. In the early days of the Wal-Mart partnership, executives put the technology to the test:

区块链可以帮助限制食品安全事件以及财务影响的主要方式是能够即时跟踪食品的来源，从农场到加工商，再到经销商和零售商。 在沃尔玛合作早期，高管们将这项技术应用于测试：

In early June, the head of food safety for Wal-Mart walked into the office, took a pack of processed mangoes, put it down on the table, and said: "Test starts now. Tell me what farm this comes from." And six days, 18 hours, and 26 minutes later, his team came back and told him what farm it came from. And Wal-Mart is great at this, they're one of the best. A week is a perfectly normal response -- if not great response -- to that kind of question. And when we ran it through our system in a live demo, we were able to do it in two seconds.

6月初，沃尔玛食品安全负责人走进办公室，拿起一包加工好的芒果放在桌子上，并说：“现在开始测试，告诉我这是从哪里来的。” 在6天，18小时和26分钟后，他的团队回来告诉他来自哪个农场。 沃尔玛在这方面很出色，他们是最好的之一。 对于这样的问题，一周是非常正常的回应 - 如果不是很好的回应。 当我们在现场演示中通过我们的系统运行它时，我们能够在两秒钟内完成。

In addition to saying it came from this farm, or these farms in Brazil, we were also able to say, "And it went to this cold storage facility on this date, and it went to this distribution center on this date." If there had been a problem, can we triangulate on where that problem was in two seconds? We're both addressing the -- we're trying to head off any people getting sick, and we're trying to head off the financial impact of pulling perfectly good food off of shelves. ... I live in New York City, and there was a problem with salmonella that came up May 17, 2017. It took until July 26 for them to identify that it was papayas.

除了说这是来自这个农场，还是来自巴西的这些农场之外，我们还能说：“这一天它到了这个冷库，并在这个日子到达了这个配送中心。” 如果出现问题，我们可以在两秒钟内确定问题出在哪里？ 我们都在谈论 - 我们试图阻止任何生病的人，并且我们试图阻止将完美的食物从货架上拉下来的经济影响。 ......我住在纽约市，2017年5月17日出现沙门氏菌问题。直到7月26日，他们才发现它是木瓜。

Network effects

As you may be putting together, these alliances become much more beneficial as more retailers, suppliers, and distributors all buy into the same network. In my investing-oriented mind, I can imagine that would give the blockchain first-movers in this space a beneficial network effect.

网络效应

正如你可能在一起，这些联盟变得更有益，因为更多的零售商，供应商和分销商都购买到同一个网络。 在我以投资为导向的思维中，我可以想象这会给这个领域的区块链先行者带来有益的网络效应。

Blockchain is about trust between parties. And so, what you need to build is not just the technology, but the ecosystem as well. And so, what we announced in August was, yes, we've proven that the technology works. But what we need to prove is that when you get competitors out there across the ecosystem, they trust that this is a way that their data is being used to benefit them, to benefit consumers, to benefit everybody. But not at their expense.

区块链是关于各方之间的信任。 所以，你需要建立的不仅仅是技术，还有生态系统。 所以，我们在八月份宣布的是，我们已经证明这项技术是可行的。 但是我们需要证明的是，当你在整个生态系统中获得竞争对手时，他们相信这是一种数据被用来使他们受益的方式，使消费者受益，从而使每个人受益。 但不是以牺牲他们为代价。

You don't want people on separate solutions. What you're trying to do is create a food ecosystem that allows you to look holistically at where food has been and triangulate -- it's a true big-data problem.

你不希望人们使用不同的解决方案。 你要做的是创建一个食物生态系统，让你全面地观察食物的存在和三角形 - 这是一个真正的大数据问题。

U.S. vs. China consortiums

In August, IBM announced a consortium in the U.S. and Europe with 10 of the biggest players in the space all buying into the IBM food safety active network: Wal-Mart, Dole, Driscoll, Kroger, Golden State Foods, McCormick (NYSE:MKC), Tyson (NYSE:TSN), Unilever (NYSE:UN), Nestle(NASDAQOTH:NSRGY), and McLane.

美国与中国的财团

今年8月，IBM在美国和欧洲宣布了一个财团，其中有10个最大的参与者购买了IBM食品安全活动网络：沃尔玛，多尔，德里斯科尔，克罗格，金州食品，麦考密克（纽约证券交易所股票代码：MKC） ），泰森（纽约证券交易所代码：TSN），联合利华（纽约证券交易所代码：UN），雀巢（NASDAQOTH：NSRGY）和麦克莱恩。

Then just recently in December, IBM announced a new partnership in China with Wal-Mart, JD.com, and Tsinghua University. I asked McDermott about that.

然后在最近的十二月，IBM宣布与沃尔玛，京东和清华大学在中国建立新的合作伙伴关系。 我问麦克德莫特这件事。

In China, what we're actually focused on is around standards. One of the things that we found as we were doing this in the U.S. was the absolute critical nature of basing what we're doing on standards. As we look at the Chinese markets we wanted with Wal-Mart and JD and Tsinghua, to really take leadership and say, as companies are thinking about blockchain and food safety, we really need to be ensuring that the market itself is one based on standards and interoperability. As is always the case with standard-setting, the more, the merrier. From our perspective, we had worked with Wal-Mart and Tsinghua and, you know, JD has real presence in the China market. We want to get it started. So, the four of us were like, let's do it. And, you know, welcoming others who are interested in helping drive standards across the industry.

在中国，我们真正关注的是围绕标准。 我们在美国这样做时发现的一件事是基于我们在标准方面正在做的事情的绝对关键性质。 当我们看到沃尔玛和JD以及清华所希望的中国市场时，要真正发挥领导作用并说，由于公司正在考虑区块链和食品安全，我们确实需要确保市场本身是基于标准的市场 和互操作性。 标准制定总是如此，越多越好。 从我们的角度来看，我们曾与沃尔玛和清华，以及你知道，JD在中国市场有真正的存在。 我们想要开始。 所以，我们四个人就是这样，让我们来做吧。 而且，您知道，欢迎其他有兴趣帮助推动行业标准的人士。

I was also curious as to why IBM would have to start two different consortiums, since it seems the active networks are more helpful as more companies buy into the same system. As is often the case in many industries, China has a slightly different regulatory regime for food safety. 

我也很好奇为什么IBM将不得不启动两个不同的联盟，因为看起来活跃的网络更有帮助，因为更多的公司购买到同一个系统。 与许多行业通常情况一样，中国的食品安全监管体系略有不同。

What we found is that in every country, there are different regulations and different usages standards. And so, making sure that we understand the differences and that we're all, you know, taking those into account is a big part of the focus. ... So, GS1 -- which I think is an important standard because it's an industry-based one -- is a country-by-country based model.

我们发现，在每个国家，都有不同的法规和不同的使用标准。 因此，确保我们理解差异，我们都是，你知道，考虑到这些差异是重点的重要组成部分。 ...因此，GS1--我认为这是一个重要的标准，因为它是一个基于行业的标准 - 是一个逐个国家的模型。

Something like Hyperledger with the Linux foundation is a global model, and so, potentially it can be easier to do globally. But I think you do have to balance the local with the global just because of existing efforts.

与Linux基金会的Hyperledger类似，这是一种全球模式，所以全球范围内的潜在问题可能会更加容易。 但是我认为，由于现有的努力，你必须平衡地方与全球。

Beyond food

What also became clear is that the more efficient all of these processes become, the more that businesses can refocus on other priorities, such as optimization. If trust is no longer an effort, other efficiencies can be unlocked.

超越食物

同样显而易见的是，所有这些流程越高效，企业就越能够重新关注优化等其他优先事项。 如果信任不再是努力，其他效率可以解锁。

When you look at supply chain, right, for decades if not millennia, the three biggest problems to solve have been data visibility, process optimization, and demand management. And, if you look at bringing blockchain in, you say, OK, well, that starts addressing data visibility because I trust that I can share it, and with the permissioning, only the people who should see it, can see it. And that changes the dynamic. Once I have all of the data, not just looking at my own little silo, then I can start thinking about the process differently. I can optimize based on the end-to-end process that I'm participating in, not just the one little step that I'm in.

当你看供应链时，几十年，甚至几千年，需要解决的三大问题包括数据可视性，流程优化和需求管理。 而且，如果您考虑将区块链纳入其中，那么您会说，好的，开始解决数据可见性问题，因为我相信我可以与其分享，并且只有那些应该看到它的人才能看到它。 这改变了动态。 一旦我掌握了所有的数据，而不仅仅是看看自己的小仓库，那么我就可以开始思考这个过程了。 我可以根据我参与的端到端流程进行优化，而不仅仅是我参与的一个小步骤。

I then asked McDermott what she thought of in terms of blockchain's potential in a bigger-picture sense, maybe outside of food safety, or what its impacts could be long term.

然后，我问麦克德莫特，她是如何看待区块链潜力的，从更大的角度来看，也许是食品安全之外，或者它的影响可能是长期的。

Five to ten years from now, you'll see almost every industry impacted by blockchain. And, my view is, I've been doing digital transformation for a long time. And I was a little bit jaded, where you always do financial services first, and then you do other things. And that's because, when you're a digital business, like financial services, it's easy to think about digital transformation. And blockchain has been interesting because the benefits have been so clear across some industries. Where people are like, "Look, this is the missing puzzle piece that we've been waiting for."

从现在开始的五到十年后，你会发现几乎每个行业都受到区块链的影响。 而且，我的观点是，我一直在进行数字化转型。 我有点厌倦，你总是先做金融服务，然后你做其他事情。 这是因为，当您是数字化业务时，比如金融服务，考虑数字化转型很容易。 区块链一直很有趣，因为在一些行业中其优势非常明显。 人们喜欢这样的地方，“看，这是我们一直在等待的失踪拼图。”

I think you'll start seeing a lot of systems go into production in the next year. Five to ten years, I think it'll be a normal part of any kind of business process transformation.

我想你会在明年看到很多系统投入生产。 五到十年，我认为这将是任何业务流程转型的正常组成部分。

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Billy Duberstein owns shares of IBM, JD.com, and Kroger. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends JD.com and Nestle. The Motley Fool recommends McCormick. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy

比利杜伯斯坦拥有IBM，JD.com和Kroger的股份。 Motley Fool拥有股份并建议京东和雀巢。 莫特利愚人推荐麦考密克。 Motley Fool有一个披露政策。

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