IBM's wants to make food smarter
Big Blue offers systems for tracing the raw materials of food products through “an increasingly complex global supply chain”
IBM has a television ad in frequent rotation on the national news lately about smarter food. The ad is about a smarter planet generally, but the script mentions food in a list of human activities that may need smartening up.
This new IBM ad seeks to attract participation in the IBM campaign to “build a smarter planet.”
Jim Algie writes in the Chicago Sun Times that the “smarter planet” talk refers specifically to nine areas of activity of which food is one. Others mentioned are energy, traffic, infrastructure, banking, and telecommunications. “The world is becoming instrumented,” the IBM Web text says, predicting “a billion transistors per human” by 2010. “All things are becoming intelligent,” the company’ Web site says.
IBM has products that are relevant to food production and distribution. The company offers systems for tracing the raw materials of food products through “an increasingly complex global supply chain.” IBM provided consulting and project management services for a 2008 traceability, pilot project in Manitoba using data from sixteen supply chain partners including beef and pork farmers, feed manufacturers, processors, truckers, and retailers.
IBM’s Web site also refers to biological research designed to make food “heartier.” The company’s definition of smart food, then, involves hearty products processed with increased safety and economy by using minutely documented supply chains.
IBM began by building mechanical adding machines in upstate New York in the early twentieth century. Within 100 years it has grown to employ 350,000 people worldwide. IBM’s six-month financial report in June cited earnings of $5.4 billion from sales of a wide variety of computer equipment and consulting services to a global customer base.
