Cargill’s blockchain tells the story of your Thanksgiving turkey

The power of the blockchain is coming to your Thanksgiving table this year.

For years, there has been a growing trend in consumers wanting information about where their food comes from. This year for Thanksgiving, Cargill Inc. is responding by tracking 60,000 of its well-known Honeysuckle White brand turkeys on a blockchain constructed in-house.

The turkeys have a six-digit number printed on the label that consumers can type into a Transparency Code box on the website. The site will then return details about the farm where the turkey was raised including information about the farmers and their families.

Furthermore, the site will give information about the individual turkey, including what it ate, how long it was at the farm, and where the bird was processed.

“We’ve always worked with independent family farmers, which is why we’re such big supporters of the farm to table movement. And now, through our new traceable turkey pilot program, we’re taking it one step further,” states the Honeysuckle White website.

In the United States as well as other industrialized nations there has been a strong move toward locally sourced foods and other products and in some cases there has even been suspicion cast upon larger food production firms.

Blockchain technology can help large agribusiness producers overcome the idea that their products are inferior to local ones because of their methods of production or miles traveled.

For years food suppliers have been attempting to digitize data concerning their products. But it is only now with the power and promise of blockchain technology that growers believe that true transparency and traceability can become a reality.

There are four farms participating in the Honeysuckle White blockchain trial program, all in Texas. If the program is successful it could be expanded after the holidays.

Blockchain is coming to transportation and companies that are interested in participating in the development of this technology are encouraged to join BiTA. 

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