RE: Blockchain Intervention: FoodCoin & INS
Not sure what field you work in @whd but as @heiditravels mentioned, I make Veggiwors, a homemade vegan, healthy sausage (I've had absolutely no food production and selling experience, except making dinner and persuading people they want to eat it) and I'm wondering if this wouldn't open up the market for small scale producers like me.
Each month I have to bulk buy supplies from multiple sources (and multiple countries) to get the best value I can. It's insanely time consuming and because I'm a small-scale producer I'm not even able to access some of the markets. I think I'd benefit from a shared common database where I could source all the products I need from one place. And allow me, and my suppliers, to better negotiate the supply chain and help reduce costs. At the same time, it could open up sales channels to consumers wanting to buy my product.
And as a small-scale producer I sell a lot at markets and have met so many other producers who face the same challenges as I do. We'd love to scale up but there's a real need for a network to help us to do that sustainably. That network currently does not exist.
If there were a network that allowed me to have direct access to the farms growing the ingredients I use or the manufacturers processing them it would revolutionise my business.
I'm very new to the blockchain philosophy so I may be missing something glaringly obvious but I really like the idea of Foodcoin from not only a practical but ethical viewpoint. I would love to support producers without having to go through the middle-man. The middle-man has grown so huge that their bargaining power is less bargaining and more steem-rollering. Why do you think you have so much mass produced/processed food on the shelves? It's because the 'middle-men' have so much power in the whole supply chain that small-scale producers simply can't meet their margins and to make it onto the shelves (and make a profit) production has to be on a massive scale.
I also think there's a growing movement of people wanting greater transparency in food production as they want to know what they're really consuming.
Perhaps there's no a need for it to use blockchain technology but interested to hear your thoughts.
wow thats a huge reply!
I think I'd benefit from a shared common database where I could source all the products I need from one place.
You would benefit from a shared common database but it does not need to be decentralized in that case.And allow me, and my suppliers, to better negotiate the supply chain and help reduce costs.
Sure you can negotiate with your suppliers to reduce costs, but tell me which suplier would like to make his all deals public? I dont know such supplier, deals 100% must be private, so other buyers wont see your deal details such as amount discount etc.
Also i don't know how 'small' is your business, but here in my small european country i see a lot organic food producers who handle everythig very well.
I guess valid points. Especially when it comes to making deals public, which of course everything would be but in an idea world wouldn't that be a refreshing idea!
And I'm based in Cape Town, South Africa and growing everyday whilst juggling my 'day-job' as a TV director and spending way to much time getting sucked into the concepts and ideas of crypto!