How blockchain can make farm-to-fork meat sourcing transparent and fair

here we go again.

Congress wants to reinstate country of origin labeling, also known as COOL, on meat products. This is difficult. An earlier version was found to be illegal by the World Trade Organization, pushing the United States to the brink of crisis. trade war Canada and Mexico.

There is bipartisan support Although it was developed for COOL 2.0, there is no agreement on whether it should be made WTO compliant.of Beef origin labeling liability law I say it should be done.of Country of Origin Labeling Enforcement Act 2023 It says it doesn't matter what the WTO “or any other international organization” thinks about the new version.

That's the wrong choice. Let me tell you, it's not because of politics, it's because of technology. Blockchain is the solution.

Let's start with the inside story.

America roll out COOL1.0 in the early 2000s. Supporters argued that consumers want to know where their beef and pork comes from. COOL provided this information on a label, but the label was confusing. It defined nationality according to where cows and pigs were “born,” “raised,” and “slaughtered.” Meat processors were responsible for auditing all this information and had an incentive to source domestically since imports increased record-keeping and verification costs.

Canada and Mexico This was challenged as a technological trade barrier. WTO control The Appellate Body concluded that there is a large discrepancy between the cost of record-keeping and verification of imported products and the amount of information contained on labels. Excluding restaurants from COOL requirements had no effect.

COOL 2.0 may use the COOL 1.0 definition of “Made in the USA.”Compliance is Required than that Voluntary Because even if consumers want to know the origin of their food, no evidence They will pay for this information.

This is where blockchain comes into play.

blockchain enable Share secure and verifiable data almost instantly. Consider a DocuSign contract that can be updated at any point in a global supply chain on a decentralized platform.

Crucial to COOL 2.0 is the ability for upstream suppliers and government regulators to share nearly unlimited tamper-resistant data with each other and with consumers. Consumers can scan her QR code to get a digital label on their mobile phone. This digital label can also suggest additional resources.

The data collected by the meat processor is then matched with the information conveyed to the consumer by the label. This will fix many of the things WTO didn't like about his COOL 1.0.

Blockchain is already being used for food traceability.as the world bank explain, Food traceability involves tracking many agricultural products from supplier to processor to consumer. The decentralized app enables dynamic record-keeping and verification of all shipments.

This is not just about digitizing forms that are currently filled out on paper. It's about leveraging technology to fully democratize farm-to-fork food audits.

An added benefit is that blockchain also eliminates the need to exempt restaurants from COOL 2.0. Patrons are used to scanning her QR code to get the menu. Embedding digital COOL labels in these menus has the potential to address one of the WTO's most important concerns regarding COOL 1.0.

Politics brought out the worst in COOL 1.0. Blockchain may bring out another aspect of COOL 2.0.

Mark L. Busch is the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Diplomacy and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center's Waba Institute for Strategic Competition. Follow him on Twitter @marclbusch.