On November 22, visitors to the annual Zhejiang Agricultural Fair in China met with a peculiar sight of chickens raised using blockchain. A booth by local vendor Taishun Mountain Gardenia showcased ‘running chickens’, which are sold after they run a million steps, reported Hangzhou Net.
The chicken’s foot is equipped with an Internet of Things (IoT) tracking device which stores information about the bird on a blockchain. The idea is to allow buyers to view the growth cycle and living environment of each chicken.
Poultry farming has been criticized for raising the birds in an unhealthy environment. This includes cramping the chickens in small cages and using antibiotics to boost their growth. The blockchain showcased at the Zhejiang Agricultural Fair deals with this concern by providing consumers with accurate data that the chicken was raised in a healthy environment.
Potentially the lifecycle details stored on the blockchain could include the type of feed, medical information and details of the farm on which the chicken was raised. In France, major supermarket Carrefour is tracking its Quality Line of chickens.
The initiative is another example of blockchain food traceability which is garnering attention in China. Chinese provider VeChain is helping Walmart China to track food, and also has a solution for sought after teas. An Australian company targeting China is BeefLedger which has a blockchain that tracks information such as a cow’s health history, where it was raised, transport after slaughter and the processing technique.
Another firm focused on livestock is BeefChain, which aims to provide ranchers with better prices for the cattle raised in healthier conditions.
Earlier this year, food traceability firm TE-Food offered governments a free solution to mitigate the effects of the deadly African Swine Fever (ASF) disease in rearing pigs.
