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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food system

As We Redesign the Food System Post-COVID, We Need To Build It To Look More Like the Internet

If you’ve ever talked to a computer network engineer about their job, there’s a good chance the topic of conversation will eventually turn to redundancy and resilience.

There’s a good reason for that: computer networks like the Internet need to be adaptable in order to withstand shocks to the system.

Compared with our modern food system, where interruptions have become the norm during our recent pandemic, the contrast is stark. But what if we could build a food system designed to look more like the Internet, where redundancy and resiliency are features built into its core?

That was one of the topics discussed yesterday during The Spoon’s virtual event where two members of IDEO‘s Design for Food team -— Holly Bybee and Rebecca Chesney — joined me to discuss how we could rethink our food system in a post-COVID world.

Much of the conversation focused on how so much of today’s food system is designed for efficiency rather than resilience. According to Chesney, the roots of this focus on efficiency took hold after World War II when “a lot of our focus went to producing as much food as we could as cheaply as possible because people were hungry. “

However, if the pandemic has shown us anything, systems optimized for speed and efficiency often don’t adjust well to changes in the operating environment. In other words, our modern food system is brittle and the stresses of COVID-19 caused it to crack.

So what would a food system with redundancy and resiliency built in look like? According to Chesney, that means thinking of the supply chain as a network rather than one linear line, where efficiency and redundancy are embraced rather than designed out.

One example Chesney gave is moving away from highly centralized meat processing plants that supply meat to an entire region. Instead, we would rely on a network of smaller players that do the same thing.

Now might be just the right time for a rethink of the food system. As Chesney pointed out, the last big redesign for our current system took place during the second World War. Today, with so many of us revisiting and reevaluating how we do business, maybe it’s time to think big and design a system built for the next 100 years.

You can watch our entire conversation below. If you’d like to join us for future virtual events (including next week’s workshop on becoming a food futurist), head over to our Crowdcast page and sign up.

Designing a Resilient Food System For A Post-COVID World

You Are What You Eat. Augmented Transparency Can Tell You Exactly What That Is

We hear the refrain “consumers want transparency” a lot these days. As we grow more and more conscientious about where our products come from and what went into making them, brands are under increasing pressure to offer up the kind of “insider” information no one would have even thought to demand 20 years ago.

That demand’s perhaps loudest in the food industry. In a 2016 study, 94 percent of respondents said it was important for food-manufacturing brands to be transparent about what’s in their food and how it’s made. And 83 percent of said access to more extensive product information would be “valuable.”

Driving many of the efforts to provide this level of transparency is something called augmented transparency (AT). Though a bit of a nebulous of a term, AT is technology—often a group of technologies working together—that gives us more in-depth information about our food: what’s in it, where it comes from, the resources used to produce it, and so on. The hope of many is that AT will use multiple channels (apps, websites, QR codes, etc.) to deliver expert information to consumers about what they eat. Think of it as a “behind-the-scenes” look at your food.

Timing-wise, there’s enormous need for this. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has a long history of fighting transparency. As a result, consumer trust in these brands is weak. And, from a practical standpoint, there’s limited space on, say, a box of cereal to fit ingredients, allergens, and other nutrition information, never mind information about sourcing and supply chain.

AT and the companies experimenting with it may not solve these problems overnight with a single solution. But a number of folks are making some promising headway:

Chicken of the Sea. Head to the company’s traceability website and you can track the production journey of your tuna by entering the number found on the bottom of each can. The rationale here is to make transparent every step of the manufacturing process, including the legality of the fishing vessels and treatment of the workers. To that end, the traceability website includes information about the species, methods used to catch it, where it was processed and canned, and a glimpse at Chicken of the Sea’s sustainability policies and progress. The company wants to make such transparency available for its entire shelf line at some point in the future.

Co-op Italia. This “supermarket of the future,” done in partnership with Accenture, keeps products on interactive tables and smart shelves. When a shopper touches a product, a system powered by Microsoft Kinect sensors will detect the movement and display product information on a nearby screen: nutritional information, allergens, disposal instructions, and related items. Data for cooking suggestions, top-selling items, and other information is processed and displayed in real time around the store. Co-op Italia is betting on this combination of connected devices, personalization, and real-time knowledge to become the norm for grocery stores in the future.

SmartLabels. Not to be confused with “smart labels,” the SmartLabels initiative is the work of Trading Partner Alliance, a group formed by the GMA. Via the app or website, curious shoppers can scan products and get instant access to information about ingredients, allergens, and claims and certifications. It’s expected that 30,000 products will be available to scan by the end of 2017. The idea is great in theory, though it remains to be seen how widespread the technology will become, and how transparent it will actually be. Skepticism over this product has existed since SmartLabel was announced in 2015, and, as noted above, the GMA doesn’t have the cleanest track record when it comes to transparency.

There are some smaller but no less important initiatives at play. Hershey’s A-to-Z glossary of ingredients lists what all those strange, eight-syllable words in processed foods are and what they do. Catelli Brothers, who make veal and lamb products, uses a 24/7 remote-video-monitoring system called Arrowsight to give consumers a view of all livestock-handling procedures. JW West and Companies also keeps cameras to display its animals and their conditions.

Finally, Future + Food coLab was a partnership between Target and the MIT Media Lab. Here, scanners used lightwaves to determine the properties of a food product and provide more information to consumers. Future + Food coLab shut its doors this past June, when Target stepped away and alternative investment couldn’t be found. Nonetheless, it’s worth a mention. The project may be dead, but the technology and ideas are still very much alive. Here’s hoping they make their way to other companies and AT initiatives in the future.