Hacking Meat: An Open Source Farm-to-Table Wish List

Hacking Meat is an online conversation exploring how can information and technology be used to hack (or reimagine) a more sustainable, profitable and healthy future of meat. Join the conversation and share your ideas or product requests in the comments, on Twitter using #hackmeat, on Facebook or at the Hack//Meat hackathon happening December 7-9 in NYC.

Guest post by Rob O’Donnell of Applegate

As consumers become more informed about our food system through events like “pink slime” they will increasingly ask “What is this stuff?” and “Where does it come from?”

Telling the farm-to-table story for meat will be easier for some to tell than others. For example, the “further-processed” meat story may be a more complex one than the raw meat tale. Similarly, a vertically-integrated company may have an easier time connecting the dots as compared to a company with an outsource model.

The phrase “farm-to-table” implies collaboration. There are handshakes to be made up and down the supply chain.  Data connections to be made. But how?

There are plenty of consultants and software vendors out there to help companies with their product traceability efforts. However, smaller sized companies are likely to struggle with the associated costs and challenges. Without a compelling “what’s in it for me,” these companies may either do nothing or start to develop home-grown tools in an attempt to get organized.  In developing these tools, the hurdles reveal themselves.

Barriers to the meat traceability process can include:

• Budget – systems to manage the traceability process can be costly as are the costs of the human capital required to take on the initiative.
• Technical Capabilities – some processors may be using their ERP and barcode technology to automate while others are using clipboards and spreadsheets. Each solution may be effective and appropriate for where the business is at its growth stage, but these process disparities make data sharing a huge challenge.
• Data Standards – something as simple as agreement on how date will be represented can create challenges, not to mention which date.
• Meat cuts – different parts are used for different products, sometimes at separate facilities. Tracking a whole animal is one thing, tracking the parts down different paths becomes more challenging.
• Motivation – without a compelling reason, partners are only going to be willing and able to commit a certain level of energy towards a program. Compliance will only get you so far. Real business value must be achieved in order to have a sustainabl
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In order to connect the dots, each partner must have their own house in order. Everyone is dependent on their partner one step up and one step down the supply chain. Any weakness along the way makes the process exponentially difficult for everyone downstream.

There exists a wide chasm between home-grown solutions and automated ERP systems. Could open source solutions help bridge this gap and get more players participating?

• What if processors uploaded their raw data to a cloud server to be shared with partners? How would they overcome privacy and competitive issues that arise?
• What if the clip-board savvy folks were allowed to remain so? Could their physical logs be faxed or scanned and turned into data? Let’s meet people where they are at.
• What if individuals interested in the movement were able to help sort, scrub and connect the data in a crowd-source fashion? What would their motivation/reward be? I can put up some free hot dogs.
• What if this shared data were leveraged to help partners collaborate in other ways, like forecasting?

What are your “what ifs”?

How else would you solve the “what’s in it for me” dilemma?

What are your thoughts on how these challenges can be tackled?

I have a case of hot dogs waiting for you…

Share your thoughts in the comments below, on Twitter using #hackmeat, on Facebook or at the Hack//Meat hackathon happening December 7-9 in NYC.

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Rob O'Donnell is VP of Digital Media at Applegate, the leader in Organic & Natural meat. He joined Applegate in 1993 and has spent much of his career finding unique ways to use technology to fulfill the Applegate mission. Rob studied music at Berklee College of Music, but these days his performances are limited to entertaining his wife, to the chagrin of his four kids. Follow him @rodonnell on Twitter to see what a geek he can really be.