World Hunger Day 2019: Sustainability

World Hunger Day 2019: Sustainability

Today, May 28, is World Hunger Day 2019, an initiative by The Hunger Project. According to their website: More than 821 million people do not have enough food to eat. 60 percent of the world’s hungry are women. 98 percent of the world’s undernourished live in developing countries. Hunger kills more than Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. The Hunger Project is focused on solving a number of issues associated with food. Their view, according to their website, is that: Hunger is not just about food. Hunger and poverty are...Continue Reading...
The Grocery Shopping Experience: Fresh Foods, Fresh Ideas

The Grocery Shopping Experience: Fresh Foods, Fresh Ideas

The grocery shopping experience continues to evolve. More than one third of U.S. grocery shoppers are now shopping online, according to Coresight Research. In their U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2019 that was recently referenced in The Supermarket News, 36.8 percent of those polled bought groceries online over the past year. This is up 23.1 percent from the previous year. They figure that this represents about 93 million online grocery purchasers, a gain of nearly 35 million from 2018. However, their research also showed that only 39.5...Continue Reading...
Rethinking Food Safety and the Supply Chain

Rethinking Food Safety and the Supply Chain

Recently, I saw the Produce Marketing Association’s Dr. Bob Whitaker present on food safety and the supply chain. Dr. Bob, as he’s affectionately known, was the opening keynote speaker at the Salinas AgTech Summit in March and also the closing keynote speaker at this month’s PMA TechKnowledge conference. At both events, his message was about the need to rethink how we, as an industry, address food safety challenges and the supply chain. For me to summarize his presentations would be challenging as they were quite comprehensive and...Continue Reading...
Blockchain for Fresh Food Supply Chains – Reality Sets In?

Blockchain for Fresh Food Supply Chains – Reality Sets In?

When it comes to implementing blockchain for fresh food supply chains, has reality set in? Back in late 2017, blockchain was seen as a messiah, of sorts, for food safety and traceability. It seemed like it was hard to go a day without seeing an article in the press about this. Blockchain was going to solve all of our supply chain problems for freshness, traceability and food safety. Has it? Gartner’s Opinion Last year, in August of 2018, Gartner, the internationally recognized analyst firm, in its Hype Cycle for Emerging...Continue Reading...