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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Blockchain

Ethiopian Coffee Company Uses Blockchain to Keep More Profits with Farmers

Ethiopia is known as the birthplace of coffee, which, legend has it, was discovered in the eighth century by a shepherd who noticed his goats were bleating and jumping after eating coffee berries. More recently, the home of coffee has started experimenting with a new technology: blockchain.

Last June, Ethiopian-Dutch company Moyee Coffee partnered with its sister company FairChain Foundation and tech company Bext360 to create Token, a new brand of coffee entirely powered by blockchain. As the name suggests, each bag of coffee contains a namesake token worth €0.50, ($0.56 USD), which consumers can give directly to the farmers or the FairChain Foundation, or put towards a discount on their next bag of coffee. Then, using blockchain, they can trace the impact of their donation.

Obviously fifty cents is just a drop in the bucket in terms of farmers getting a larger piece of the profit. Moyee also hasn’t released any data about how many of these tokens were used or how much they increased the income of growers. But even fifty cents can seem like a good bit of money when coffee farmers only net an average of $1.30 for each pound of Fair Trade beans they sell — beans which will go on to retail for roughly $15.

In addition to being a smart marketing play, Moyee’s initiative also serves to get both consumers and farmers more comfortable with the often-intimidating technology that is blockchain.

Now, according to the Thomas Reuters Foundation, Moyee is increasing its investment in blockchain with new capabilities. The company will use blockchain to enable traceability on the buyer’s side, so that roasters and consumers can see exactly where and when their coffee was sourced. They can also access the profiles of Moyee’s 350 grower partners to see how much they’re paid for each pound of coffee. With this new technology, farmers can also deal directly with buyers, cutting out the middleman (exporters, importers, etc.) and, at least theoretically, giving them a larger piece of the profit.

Buyers can also use a mobile app to tip individual farmers and fund projects like planting programs which will help make coffee farms more resistant to climate change.

Moyee isn’t the only one working to make the (often lengthy) coffee supply chain more transparent. Last March Starbucks launched a traceability program which outlined coffee’s journey from “bean to cup.” This seemed to be marketing play more than anything, since the company didn’t call out any specifics on how it would use the data to help farmers or ensure more sustainable supply chains.

Nonetheless, the growing number of coffee transparency programs highlights a consumer desire for traceability beyond just the world of food safety (cough, romaine, cough). People want to know more about where their food and drink comes from, and are also seeking out sustainable, ethical products. In response, companies are turning to blockchain to do everything from improving accurate seafood labeling to fighting wine fraud.

But that doesn’t mean blockchain is a magic bullet to fix the entire food system. As traceability startup FoodLogiQ’s Chief Marketing Officer Katy Jones pointed out when we spoke last year, blockchain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the data that goes into tracking, say, a bag of coffee beans isn’t 100 percent accurate at each step of the way, then the integrity of the entire chain is shot.

And giving farmers a slightly better percentage of coffee profit or a few €0.50 tokens will not solve the issues of drought, fluctuating prices, or credit access that plague many coffee growers. But it’s a step in the right direction putting more power in the hands of the growers themselves. As climate change makes coffee more difficult to cultivate, farmers will need a lot more resources and support — unless we end up just making our coffee without the beans in the future.

Vinsent’s New App Uses Blockchain to Disrupt Old-School Wine Purchasing

If you’re like me, your wine choice is 96 percent based off of the label (and maybe 99 percent based off its proximity to your person). But for those who are serious about their vino, getting well-curated, exclusive bottles can be something of an obsession.

Today Israeli blockchain startup Vinsent (formerly VinX) announced the release of a new wine marketplace that lets wineries offer wine futures — that is, wine that hasn’t yet been made — for purchase. Users can log onto Vinsent’s app and select their preferred wine color, attributes (vegan, organic, etc.), country of origin, and budget. The app then gives them a selection of curated wines and descriptions, which users can select to add to their “cellar.” After the wine is bottled, it’s shipped directly to the buyer’s doorstep.

By moving these wholesale wine purchases onto an app, Vinsent’s goal is to disrupt the traditional wine industry distribution model and let people connect directly with the winery, giving them exclusive early access to coveted wines and, according to a press release, “exclusive pricing.”

On the sales side, by selling not-yet-bottled vino, wineries get more cash flow to help them get by before their wines are ready for sale. The companies can also use pre-orders on Vinsent to forecast the sales of particular wines and the popularity of different years of each variety.

Part of the reason Vinsent is able to give better prices is because you can’t purchase a bottle — you have to buy by the case. That means that odds are you’re dropping several hundred dollars on a single buy, so Vinsent likely isn’t for the casual, low-budget wine buyer. However, for the oenophile who values novelty and has the available basement storage space, the app could be a worthy tool for finding new, elusive wines. (Though I wonder: How willing are people to spend a chunk of change on a wine they can’t even taste first?)

Regardless — if you’re buying a whole case of nice wine, you’d better be sure you’re getting what you pay for. Part of Vinsent’s appeal is that it uses blockchain, ensuring that each bottle is indeed from the advertised year and vineyard.

This may seem like overkill, but apparently, wine fraud is actually kind of a big deal. And if you’re going to be dropping a few Benjamin’s on a case of nice Chardonnay, it makes sense that you’d want some sort of measure in place ensuring that you’re getting exactly what you paid for.

There are several players shaking up the typical brick-and-mortar wine purchasing experience. Back in 2017 my colleague Jenn Marston wrote about the growing popularity of direct-to-consumer wine delivery, and the space has only continued to heat up. Vivino combines said delivery with an AI-powered wine recommendation service, and Garcon Wines makes delivery even easier by shipping flat bottles that can slide right through your mail slot. Vinsent brings the ease of delivery to serious wine purchasers who want to buy new, exclusive bottles in an easy-to-navigate marketplace.

Vinsent currently only lists 20 wine choices from 10 wineries in France, Italy, Spain and the U.S., but the company plans to add new wines and partners throughout 2019. It’s also developing a blockchain-based trading platform for wine aficionados to trade bottles amongst themselves, so they can buy a $56 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and rest easy knowing it’s the genuine article.

Goodr Launched Free “Pop-Up Grocery” Store Featuring Surplus Food for MLK Day

In anticipation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Atlanta-based startup Goodr launched a service project to reduce food waste and feed the hungry in MLK’s home city.

Goodr has partnered with the Atlanta Hawks to launch a “Pop-Up Grocery” event in tandem with the Hawks’ court dedication at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation and Aquatic Center in downtown ATL (h/t Black Enterprise news). Over the weekend, roughly 100 local seniors came out to take advantage of the pop-up, which features free surplus food (like fresh produce, deli products and bread) from Goodr’s Atlanta grocery partners.

This isn’t the first pop-up grocery event from Goodr, which uses blockchain to redistribute excess food from businesses and venues to non-profits which provide food to those struggling with hunger. In a statement to The Spoon, Goodr’s CEO Jasmine Crowe said “Pop-up free grocery stores are a signature Goodr event, and one of our favorite ways to bring food to the gathering spaces and even the doorsteps of people who need it the most.” This particular “store” was only open this past Thursday, to kick off the Hawk’s MLK Day programming, but Crowe said that one of their goals for 2019 is to pop-up in a new place every two weeks.

In this job, you see a lot of companies leveraging technology for technology’s sake. Sometimes it’s really nice to read about a company that’s tackling widespread issues in the food system — like food waste and hunger — head-on, especially on a holiday dedicated to remember the legacy of a man who fought for equity and justice.

When we spoke to Crowe in preparation for this year’s Smart Kitchen Summit, she told us that Goodr has plans to be in 20 cities by 2020. Hopefully that will mean a lot more pop-up grocery stores, a lot less food waste, and a lot more people with access to fresh, healthy food.

As the Food Industry Wakes Up to Blockchain, Online Training Options are Now Available

It’s no secret that the food industry is rapidly awaking to the great promise of blockchain technology, and headlines abound about how it promises to make traditional paper ledger-based transactions obsolete, replaced by digital ledgers. That could revolutionize the food supply chain, which remains burdened by sketchy accountability. Part of the challenge in assuring that blockchain fulfills its promise is connecting the right people—everyone from farmers, to fishermen to warehouse managers to data scientists. Another part of the challenge, though, is educating people in the food industry so that they can implement blockchain-based food source tracing solutions, and more.

At major business schools ranging from Berkeley to Wharton, students are flocking to classes on blockchain and cryptocurrency. As CNBC recently reported: “According to a new survey of 675 U.S. undergraduate students by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Qriously, 9 percent of students have already taken a class related to blockchain or cryptocurrency and 26 percent want to take one.”

But you don’t have to be an MBA student to study blockchain basics. Recently, we’ve covered how blockchain could have mitigated the California Romaine lettuce crisis by providing more rigorous and easier-to-access sourcing information on where tainted lettuce as coming from. We’ve also covered blockchain’s growing role in tracing fishy seafood sourcing origins, which could give us confidence that the fish we think we are buying actually is what the label says it is.

That’s why it’s going to be essential for many people in the food industry to educate themselves on how blockchain works, how to implement a solution, who to partner with, and who is already running efficient blockchain deployments. The good news is that much of the underlying technology required is free and open source, with organizations such as hyperledger working hard to make sure they stay that way. Hyperledger is a multi-project open source collaborative effort hosted by The Linux Foundation, created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. Brian Behlendorf, the Executive Director of the project, has been named one of the top 10 influential voices in the blockchain world by the New York Times.

With open source solutions, food industry players can often pay nothing to implement a blockchain deployment. These players need education, though, so where can they turn?

There is more good news on this front, in that many of the best educational options for blockchain are either free or available at a nominal cost. In addition, there are a number of good online, self-paced educational options. Let’s consider some of the best courses.

Udemy offers many online blockchain courses priced at under $10, including The Basics of Blockchain, Learn How to Build Your First Blockchain, and Pass the Certified Blockchain Developer Exam. All these courses are self-paced online and available for $9.99. In the Basics of Blockchain course, TED speaker Bettina Warburg “connects the dots between the business, economics, and technology of Blockchain.”

The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger project has steadily produced the key open technologies favored by blockchain developers, most notably Hyperledger Fabric–a foundation for developing blockchain applications or solutions with modular architectures.

These are a couple of the key courses offered by The Linux Foundation, with the first course priced at $299 while the second course is free:

Hyperledger Fabric Fundamentals (LFD271) Teaches the fundamental concepts of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

Blockchain for Business – An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies (LFS171)A primer to blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Learn how to start building blockchain applications with Hyperledger frameworks.

These are self-paced online courses and the Fabric Fundamentals course is taught by the folks who created Hyperledger Fabric. You can find even more blockchain training options from The Linux Foundation here.

The Linux Foundation and hyperledger have done quite a bit of outreach to various industries to raise awareness of low-cost blockchain training options, and make clear that learning about blockchain does not require advanced technical skills. Still, there will be challenges in getting some non-technical participants in the food industry to take advantage of available blockchain training options. There are non-profit organizations tackling these challenges, and a good place to start is to join The Global Blockchain Business Council.

By joining The Global Blockchain Business Council, you can gain access to a lot of content about how blockchain works. You can also connect with other people and organizations who are actually deploying blockchain solutions.

In the food industry and across many other industries ranging from healthcare to finance, blockchain development and management skills are going to become ever more valuable.  Careers website Glassdoor lists thousands of job posts related to blockchain, and the numbers are growing.

Interested in more? At a 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit panel, executives from ripe.io and Walmart discussed the promise of blockchain in the food industry, food safety, and which groups of people need to get connected for blockchain solutions to work. Watch the video to hear the whole conversation.

 

Could Blockchain Solve the Fishy Problems Surrounding Seafood Accountability?

When you buy fish, do you have confidence that what you’ve purchased is as advertised at the point of purchase? According to the state attorney general’s office in New York, there is a good likelihood that what you’ve purchased is not even the same species as the one specified on the label. There could be a very promising solution to what the attorney general’s office calls “rampant” seafood mislabeling, though: blockchain technology.

The attorney general’s office purchased fish from 155 stores across 29 supermarket brands throughout the state, and then sent them to a lab for testing. A remarkable number of the specimens—more than one in every four, or 27%—were not what the supermarkets said they were. The complete results of the experiment are found here, with this conclusion:

“While mislabeling affected virtually every tested seafood category, there was rampant mislabeling of certain species. The results suggest that consumers who buy lemon sole, red snapper, and grouper are more likely to receive an entirely different fish. Similarly, consumers who bought what was advertised as ‘wild’ salmon often actually received farm-raised salmon instead. Such consumers had often paid more money—on average 34% more—to avoid farm raised fish.”

The report also notes that in many cases, consumers are getting fish that is less sustainably raised than claimed, and in some cases, they are unknowingly buying types of fish that can cause gastrointestinal problems. In addition, according to an article by Forbes, a report conducted between 2010 and 2012 by a marine surveying organization, Oceana, identified that as many as one in three seafood products in the United States were incorrectly labeled. Needless to say, a solution is needed, and pronto.

Enter blockchain. The disruptive new technology promises to make traditional paper ledger-based transactions obsolete, replaced by digital ledgers, and it also promises to guarantee more accountability and trust in the food supply chain. Headlines abound heralding how blockchain technology will revolutionize financial services markets, which remain burdened by unwieldy paper trails and costly proprietary software applications. Not everyone realizes, though, the move toward developing blockchain has direct roots in the erosion of trust that grew as the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 exploded around the globe.

Blockchain allows people to record transactions securely via a decentralized platform without a lot of intermediaries. Because of the advantages it can bring to the process of tracing food sources, it may also be a big part of the answer in fighting fish fraud.

According to Forbes: “Some companies are already using blockchain technology to track their supply chain – for example, an initiative called Tuna on the Blockchain provides a provenance system so that you will know where you tuna comes from. Back in late 2016 it was reported that a British-based start-up called Provenance went out to Indonesia and tested tracking tuna on the blockchain.”

There are a number of corporate and legislative proposals in motion, which could require detailed seafood product labeling. Legit Fish is a Boston-based company that is dedicated to improving the traceability and verification of seafood products. The company has developed a seafood traceability database that compares confidential data from supply chain participants to landings data collected by the government in order to provide seafood dealers, processors, retailers, and their customers a solid verification of each individual lot of product that has been transacted.  As this story notes, Legit Fish is working with companies such as BASE that are integrating seafood traceability solutions with blockchain.

At a meetup that The Spoon held in July, blockchain was very much on the minds of fishermen in attendance. They see blockchain as a way to not only prove provenance, but also to help them from getting unfair blame for fraudulent acts that take place down the fish delivery chain. Recently, we wrote about how blockchain technology could have helped quickly mitigate the crisis involving E.coli and Romaine lettuce in California. In a similar way, by providing better sourcing information and, importantly, more open food sourcing information, blockchain could make fish fraud much tougher to pull off than it is now.

At a 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit panel, executives from ripe.io and Walmart discussed the promise of blockchain in the food industry, food safety, and which groups of people need to get connected for blockchain solutions to work. Watch the video to hear the whole conversation.

Blockchain and Tracing Food Sources: Startups are Aiming to Solve the People Problem

Ask most people about blockchain, and they will likely have some familiarity with how the disruptive new technology promises to make traditional paper ledger-based transactions obsolete, replaced by digital ledgers. Headlines abound heralding how blockchain technology will revolutionize financial services markets, which remain burdened by unwieldy paper trails and costly proprietary software applications.

However, not everyone knows that the move toward developing blockchain has direct roots in the erosion of trust that grew as the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 exploded around the globe. Blockchain allows people to record transactions securely via a decentralized platform without a lot of intermediaries. Because of the advantages it can bring to the process of tracing food sources, it also promises to have a transformative impact on safety and accountability in the food industry.

The evolution of blockchain leads directly back to a crisis of trust, and numerous companies are working on blockchain solutions that will increase trust in the food industry and improve food safety. Katy Jones, CMO of food traceability company FoodLogiQ recently spoke with The Spoon on the topic of California’s tainted Romaine lettuce. “[Blockchain has] potential to be a transformative method to open up transparency in the food supply chain,” she said. However, she also noted that without data built on a common standard and supply chain partners committed to gathering and reporting on that data, blockchain alone will not solve all the issues.

In other words, just as security experts often stress that security is largely a people problem, blockchain’s promise will only be fulfilled if people come together. That’s precisely what some new companies are focusing on. For example, Ecogistix is launching blockchain solutions working directly with farmers to provide the kind of produce traceability that could have cut the California Romaine lettuce disaster at the quick. The solutions provide orderly tracking of inventory, order management and fulfillment.  With them, farmers can track and manage teams that are working in the field and in warehouses so Ecogistix can trace teams that actually packed specific cases. Ecogistix’s technology also meets the Produce Traceability Initiative’s requirements for case and pallet labels that integrate with blockchain.

Consumers are not the only people who stand to benefit. Many blockchain experts agree that farmers have everything to gain by opting in for blockchain solutions. In a recent interview, Sandra Ro, CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council, said that blockchain technology could put more money in the pockets of farmers while improving the quality of food.

Additionally, standards are emerging for blockchain and food traceability initiatives. The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) outlines 7 milestones to implementing case-level electronic traceability in the produce industry. On its website companies can find the tools and resources needed to implement PTI requirements and work successfully with blockchain technology. PTI reports that blockchain traceability and transparency pilots are now underway with Walmart, Kroger, Wegmans, Dole, Driscoll’s and IBM, and “demonstrate the value of whole chain traceability.”

Ripe.io is another company altering the trajectory of the food system through blockchain technology and the Internet of Things. The company’s mission is to “[design] a radically transparent digital food supply chain, [harnessing] quality food data to create the Blockchain of Food – an unprecedented food quality network that maps the food journey to answer what’s in our food, where it comes from, and what has happened to it.” The company is focused on the people problems that need to be solved, and its technology connects food producers, distributors and consumers. With it, farmers can leverage IoT and sensors to automate processes and provide full sourcing accountability.

Just as blockchain itself rose from the ashes of an inflammatory crisis of trust surrounding a global financial crisis, its promise for the food industry is directly tied to getting farmers, retailers, consumers and more groups aligned together. At a 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit panel, executives from ripe.io and Walmart discussed the promise of blockchain in the food industry, food safety, and which groups of people need to get connected for blockchain solutions to work. Watch the video to hear the whole conversation.

After More Romaine Recalls, Is Blockchain the Missing Link in Preventing Outbreaks?

If you have any Romaine lettuce in your crisper, it’s time to chuck it. Yesterday the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that romaine lettuce is unsafe to eat in any form due to contamination by a dangerous type of E. Coli bacteria.

The warning throws a large net, covering any lettuce already purchased, or waiting to be bought either wholesale or on supermarket shelves. And with good reason. According to the Washington Post, the CDC doesn’t know where, when, or how the contamination happened. Which means that instead of pinpointing the source(s) of contamination and eliminating lettuce just from those suppliers, they have to play it safe and sentence all Romaine nationwide to the trash bin.

Not only does that ruin a lot of Caesar salads — especially ones destined for the Thanksgiving table — but it also creates a mountain of food waste, and could have wide-reaching effects on produce farmers. This outbreak also comes only a few months after another load of E. Coli-contaminated Romaine (apparently unrelated to the current batch) left 5 dead.

One tool which some think could help solve the problem is blockchain. While blockchain can’t prevent an outbreak from happening, it can help quickly identify the source so that farmers can prevent further contamination. It also allows retailers to take only contaminated products off their shelves, so they aren’t stuck tossing out the baby with the bathwater.

Some companies are already harnessing blockchain to try and increase food traceability. In September, Walmart announced that they would require all its leafy green vegetable suppliers to upload production data to the blockchain through its IBM Food Trust Network. Ripe.io is recently raised $2.4 million to create its “Blockchain for Food,” which allows users to access a detailed record of any food item at any time.

Food traceability company FoodLogiQ is also experimenting with blockchain. In June they launched an R&D hub to explore new technologies in food safety. The first project’s focus: blockchain.

I reached out to FoodLogiQ’s CMO Katy Jones to get her take on the latest Romaine recall. She said that news like this illustrates just how direly we need end-to-end traceability in the food system. And blockchain could play a role in that.

“[Blockchain has] potential to be a transformative method to open up transparency in the food supply chain,” she said.

But it’s not a perfect solution. “Without data built on a common standard and supply chain partners committed to gathering and reporting on that data, blockchain alone will not solve these issues,” concluded Jones. After all, at its core blockchain is just a ledger, which means it’s only as good as the information that humans — who have been known to make mistakes — enter.

The bottom line is that we don’t know how effective blockchain will be in helping to identify and mitigate outbreaks. But we do know that until the majority of farmers, retailers, and everyone in between is united in using the new technology, blockchain won’t be the magic bullet that some hope it to be. Sorry, lettuce lovers.

Food Blockchain: Hype Or True Path To Food Transparency

At a 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit panel, executives from ripe.io and Walmart tackled the role of blockchain in food — and food safety. Watch the video to hear the whole conversation.

Video: Food Blockchain — Just Hype, Or True Path To Food Transparency?

Blockchain is everywhere, from currency to copyright protection. Many also see the decentralized ledger as the key to food system transparency — that is, an incorruptible record of where food comes from, which can help increase food safety and promote customer knowledge. Others are skeptical, but blockchain is nonetheless a hot topic on the (dinner) table.

Two companies betting on blockchain as the future of food transparency are Walmart and Ripe.io. The former recently announced they would be using blockchain to keep track of spinach and lettuce sold in their stores, and the latter has been working for two years to create “The Blockchain for Food” (and racking up funding, too).

Watch as Stacey Higginbotham of Stacey on IoT talks to Walmart’s Tejas Bhatt and Ripe.io’s Raja Ramachandran about the impact of blockchain on the food ecosystem.

Food Blockchain: Hype Or True Path To Food Transparency

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

Ripe.io Racks up $2.4 Million for its “Blockchain for Food”

Today Ripe Technology INC (better known as Ripe.io) announced the completion of a $2.4 million funding seed round, led by Maersk Growth.

Founded in 2017, Ripe.io is working to create what they call “The Blockchain of Food.” When Michael Wolf had Ripe.io’s co-founder and CEO Raja Ramachandran on the Smart Kitchen Show last year, he said:

If a farmer wants to say I harvest strawberries these two days, well, they can say that, but do they say that to everyone? … That’s the beauty of blockchain. It manages the decentralized nature of the food business, so people can post data, they can protect it, they can share it, they can create records with it… In the end for the consumer, they basically get a longer record.

That means that when people go to a restaurant or a grocery store, they can know exactly where their food comes from, whether or not it’s organic or GMO, and how fresh it is. Ripe.io hopes that blockchain technology can help digitize supply chains end-to-end and ensure maximum food transparency for the end consumer. Which, as Ramachandran explained on the podcast, is a $30-40 billion dollar market.

Other companies are also turning to blockchain to bolster their food businesses. Goodr is a startup which harnesses blockchain to reduce large-scale corporate food waste, and FoodLogiQ recently piloted a blockchain pilot to see how this emerging tech could increase supply chain transparency. But Ramachandran doesn’t see the blockchain of food as a zero sum game. “It’s not going to be one blockchain, it’s going to be many,” he said. “And we all have to connect.”

We’ve reached out to Ramachandran for comment on how his company plans to use their new funds, and will update this article if we hear back. 

Ramachandran will be at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle on October 8-9th, discussing blockchain and food with executives from Goodr and Walmart. Join us — use discount code THESPOON to get 25% off your tickets. 

For Goodr’s Jasmine Crowe, Blockchain Is a Key Piece to the Food Waste Puzzle

Food waste is generating quite a lot of interest as of late; but one buzzword that might give “food waste” a run for its money is blockchain. (Alright, food waste is two words, but stick with me.) Companies around the world are starting to play with this nascent technology to explore how it can help make the food supply chain more transparent, safe, and efficient.

Atlanta-based startup Goodr is one company combining these two trending areas, using blockchain as a tool to redistribute food waste from businesses (such as office cafeterias) to those struggling with hunger. Goodr founder and CEO Jasmine Crowe will be speaking about how her company is leveraging emerging tech to power their mission at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) this October. Since it’s only a few weeks away (!), we’re giving you a sneak peek into Crowe’s mission to use analytics, blockchain, and IRS-friendly donation records to eliminate food waste — one city at a time.

Read the full Q&A below:

For those who don’t know, give us a brief overview of what you’re working on at Goodr. 
Goodr is a sustainable waste management platform that leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger. We provide an end-to-end solution for businesses seeking to reduce their overall waste, save money and empower their local community. Our platform provides the logistics, analytics, and security for businesses to earn deductions under the PATH act in compliance with the Internal Revenue Services (IRS).

You’ve stated before that hunger isn’t a scarcity issue, it’s a logistics issue. Explain what you mean, and how Goodr is helping to solve the issue.
Absolutely, there is more than enough food — we just have to get it to people. Goodr views hunger as a solvable logistical problem and not an issue of resource scarcity. American consumers waste 161 billion pounds of food every year, and food waste takes up an estimated 28% of landfills. In America, Food Waste has tripled since 1970. Goodr redirects edible food waste away from landfills to fill the stomachs of the many Americans who are food insecure.

As technology improves, where is there room for growth and improvement in terms of reduction in hunger and food waste?
I believe we are WAY past time to be using technology to solve real problems. I believe that there is substantial room for growth in this space from the farm to the table.

Blockchain is a huge buzzword right now. How are you leveraging this emerging technology in your company?
Yes, it is a huge buzzword but we have made a very good use case for it in the day-to-day work of Goodr. Our technology coordinates the collection and distribution of food donations. Unlike our competitors, Goodr’s platform also provides an IRS audit-friendly donation record, real-time food waste analytics, and community impact reports thanks to blockchain.

What’s next for Goodr? 
Our goal is to be in 20 cities by the end of 2020, so we are looking at massive expansion and helping more companies and cities be food waste and hunger-free.

Want to hear Jasmine Crowe speak more about how blockchain can be used to reduce both food waste and hunger? Join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle on October 8-9th — tickets here. 

FoodPlus Sells Surplus Food (in Slovenia) so it Doesn’t go to Waste

Based in Slovenia, FoodPlus began in 2015 when co-founder Dalibor Matijevic began searching for a way to cut down on food waste by redistributing surplus food. He developed a B2B platform for companies to buy and sell extra food at a super low cost — creating a new revenue stream and keeping food out of landfills.

When suppliers end up with surplus food products because of warehouse inefficiencies, a logo rebrand, or nearing expiry dates, they typically have to pay to have it destroyed — at least in Slovenia. With FoodPlus, however, companies can post said extra food on an online marketplace for a super low cost, usually around 70% off. FoodPlus acts as a middleman, facilitating the sale and coordinating delivery to purchasers — usually high-volume food providers like cafeterias, catering companies and hotels — through their logistics partners. “We’re making the Amazon for surplus food,” co-founder Gregor Pecnik told me over Skype.

The FoodPlus dashboard.

You might think: “Hey, I want to buy some super-cheap spaghetti, too!” If you’re in Slovenia, you can: FoodPlus operates two physical stores where they sell surplus food sourced directly to consumers. Called RobinFood, the first store opened its doors in mid-2017. Their website claims they’ve sold over 100,000 items and make about €15,000 (~$17,500) to €20,000 (~$23,300) per month in revenue. They recently opened a second location through a partner and are hoping to franchise the stores throughout Europe.

Currently FoodPlus only sells dry packaged goods, like pasta, sugar, or chocolate. “They’re much easier to transport, and have a larger window where they stay good,” Pecnik told me. Eventually they hope to expand into fresh goods, like fruits and vegetables.

Pecnik told me that they’re also hoping to expand out of Eastern Europe and into places like the U.K., which has greener pastures for startups working in the food waste arena. “In Eastern Europe we still have to do a lot of education and awareness-raising about how companies will benefit from a company like ours,” he said. While there might not be much opportunity in Slovenia, there also aren’t many competitors: once they expand — especially into the U.K., which boasts quite a few food waste startups — they’ll certainly bump into a few. Most notable is Matsmart, the Swedish e-commerce company which also sells surplus food to consumers.

The same goes for their plan to expand into fresh food. At the moment, they seem to be the only company focusing on surplus dry goods. Move into fresh food, and there’s a sea of competitors. In Europe, Karma and Too Good To Go let customers buy leftover food from restaurants, and Toast Ale turns leftover bread into beer.

FoodPlus currently sources surplus food from over 100 distributors, including Danone and Orbico (an Eastern European distribution company). They’re currently working on their next marketplace iteration. Dubbed FoodPlusX, it will use blockchain to give distributors the option to keep information on what surplus they’re selling — and at what price — private to protect brand reputation.

FoodPlus received equity investment from Enterprise Ireland (though they didn’t disclose how much). They’re currently bootstrapped and plan to start fundraising in early 2019.

In the end, I’m skeptical as to whether their global clients will actually care much about FoodPlus’ noble food waste mission. However, they will definitely care about a fatter bottom line. Whatever they choose to buy or sell on FoodPlus, the end result is the same: less food waste. And that’s always a good thing.

Announcing the Smart Kitchen Summit 2018 Program

Hard to believe, but we’re just six weeks away from the Smart Kitchen Summit, our flagship industry event that brings hundreds of executives, innovators, startups and media together in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall for two days to forge the future of food, cooking, and the kitchen.

It’s been three years since we held our first in an old cannery in 2015, and since that time we’ve become the hub across three continents for the world’s biggest brands in appliances, food, and tech to connect and discuss food tech.

And now, after lots of emails, planning meetings and Google sheet rejiggering, we’ve released our agenda for the Smart Kitchen Summit! We’ve got an incredible lineup with panels, TED-style talks and fireside chats featuring some of the most exciting people in the space. Check it out!

A few highlights:

  • The Wall Street Journal’s Wilson Rothman will sit down with the person who ran product on both the Amazon Echo and the Juicero –  Malachy Moynihan – to ask why kitchen products succeed or fail.
  • Dr. Karsten Ottenberg, the CEO of one of the world’s biggest appliance manufacturers, BSH Appliances, will talk about how his company is building its future around services.
  • Executives from Cafe X, Chowbotics and Zimplistic will talk about the future of food robotics
  • Walmart’s VP of Food Safety Frank Yiannas will speak on a panel with Raja Ramachandran of Ripe.io and Jasmine Crowe of Goodr about the potential for blockchain to increase transparency and reduce waste throughout the food system.
  • The CEOs of June, Brava, Tovala, and Suvie will talk about how cooking appliances will change over the next decade.
  • We’ll find out why Eli Holzman, the creator of Project Runway & Project Greenlight, has made the intersection of technology and cooking his next big project.
  • Tom Mastrobuoni of Tyson Ventures, Carmen Palafox of Make in L.A., and Brian Frank of FTW ventures will explore strategies for food tech investment, from hardware to CPG and beyond.

That’s just the start. We have sessions on personalized food, the future of restaurants, AI & food, cooking robots, food & cooking data, blockchain & food, IoT security in the smart kitchen, reinvention of the grocery store and much more.

Peppered throughout the day we’ll also have 12 new startups (companies to be announced soon!) pitching their companies before a panel of investors and executives. Our panel of judges will vote on the winner, who will get a $10,000 cash prize! You can view the new full conference schedule here.

Our last shows have all sold out, so make sure you grab your tickets now, and we’ll see you in October!