What’s Going On Here?
A blockchain start-up, INS Ecosystem, has announced its ambitious intentions to reinvent the food industry. It aims to decentralise the grocery market by connecting producers directly to consumers using blockchain technology.
What Does This Mean?
One problem is waste. Supermarkets are built around avoiding stock shortages, not avoiding waste. This means that in countries like the UK retailers oversupply and waste a lot of food.
Another issue is the distance that food travels from production via retailer to consumer. In INS’s model the marketplace supply responds to demand, rather than the other way round.
INS’s platform follows three main stages:
1, Producers list their products on the INS Ecosystem platform.
2. Consumers use crypto-tokens to make purchases and orders are fulfilled via smart contacts.
3, Couriers deliver the products directly to the consumer. For the user, it’s like Deliveroo but for fruit and veg ????????.
Why Should We Care?
Globally, we throw out about 1.3 billion tonnes of food a year, or a third of all the food that we grow. Some argue that the current market structure can’t resolve these issues and so a new concept, such as blockchain, should eventually take its place.
By connecting producers to consumers, markets can skip the middleman – the large retailers – and create a more efficient and thus environmentally friendly marketplace. As there is a reduction in waste from because food is not stockpiled by producers. And, in theory, us consumers pay less for goods. Kerchingggg ????
Not only will you get fresher, cheaper, and greener produce to your door, you will also slash your carbon footprint. ????
Be Curious
This technology is a long way from being mainstream. However, there’s plenty we can all do right now. Buy from local producers and make sure you know where your food is coming from. And try to make sure that you waste as little food as possible.This is a great campaign to help you make a positive change in your home: Love Food Hate Waste
If this got your interest, we’ve got loads more on blockchain and the environment on our blog. Check out it out here.
