Am I real?

I’m sure everyone has been obsessing about AI and its effect on jobs and the like, but there is a far bigger problem which is only just getting thought about.

In the simplest terms, how do you know that what your being served up is real and what it says it is?

Digitally, you can make anything you like and the words “Deep Fake” were coined to show that very thing. I daresay the next iteration of AI systems will have either an inbuilt BS assessor or a new AI system that you can use to run something through for verification.

But it’s not very satisfactory is it? And most importantly, what about the food and drink we consume? What if that continues to suffer from what one might call fake food syndrome?

The whole point of the projects like the Red Tractor is that they certify a thing is what it says it is. I regret to tell you, that depends entirely on what gets fed in at the start. One wrong keystroke and everything might as well not be there. As a very prim and proper lady said to me the other day “Shit in Shit out”. Never was a truer word said and delivered by her had even more impact.

We all know how good blockchain is for certifying the truth, but the same strictures apply. That means that anything certified as real and true has to have been tracked literally from before it existed. To take an example. Wheat. So the elements that create the wheat that makes the bread which is the bit you want finally certified are as follows: The land; the weather; when and how planted; where the seeds came from and are THEY certified; nutrients and pesticides applied; the moisture content when harvested; how harvested; how long before delivered to the miller; what the miller did; characteristics of the flour produced; where stored before transport to baker; how the baker treated the flour and what it produced; how it was delivered to the supermarket and when it was displayed and for how long. Now that list is by no means exhaustive, but it is possible to make that loaf of bread completely certified from start to finish. Bearing in mind the issues with food adulteration, this is the way things will be done in the future. Remember the horsemeat scandal in lasagna? Never mind that people thought it was better than beef, they were not told what it was. Had they been told and still bought it that would be fine and is a choice we make every day about all sorts of things.

It is the blockchain that enables this mass of data to be stored and certified. When I’m lecturing, I make the point that the blockchain is really just an extremely large and efficient Excel spreadsheet with the added benefit that you cannot alter it once data is entered. If you need to change something already on it you have to enter new data. As a result, for every entry there is a trail of what happened and as a result of that there is one point of truth. Particularly with something so critical as food, being certain what you are actually dealing with is an invaluable tool. The beauty is that using the data as a digital corridor can and will sort out our outdated supply chains.

It has lots of other benefits as well. In the simplest terms take milk going from farm to processor. Now you may not know this (but a moment’s thought would probably make you realise it). Milk gets sloshed around and mixed with milk from other farms and even areas. How do they know its compatible? Is milk from a Fresian in Dumfries all right to mix with milk from a Hereford in Ayrshire? What are its final characteristics? The processor, believe it or not, has seven (I’ll repeat that– seven) lots of certified information from each farm to work through. That takes literally hours and hours of man-hours to get through (and don’t tell me about AI – as of now it doesn’t understand what it all means). The system being developed would allow ONE certificate which would mean all those bodies sitting around calling farms and drivers to find out what is happening would be redundant. And by the way, no truck driver when asked how far away he was ever said anything other than “I’m just round the corner!”. One relatively small processor is already using trial digital compliance certificates and reckons he is saving more than £100,000 per WEEK. Given the extremely small – nay, almost non-existent  - margins in milk this is a huge win as far as they are concerned. Farmers, processors and in the final analysis customers will benefit massively from these kinds of new processes – and potentially from better pricing. More for the farmer, the processor and the retailer but a lower price for the customer.

In an aside I cannot resist, you have probably not seen that the Scottish Government has managed to collect £60million LESS tax than before it imposed VAT on private schools. Think of what we were told. Millions more for other schools! More teachers! Better schools! Except sadly that is complete hokum. The truth is you interfere with what exists at your peril and in particular you cannot buck the Laffer curve. There is now LESS money for schools, not to mention fewer people paying tax as they are no longer employed. That situation will compound. Never mind the utter chaos and disruption caused to families and children and the increased costs for other schools including larger classes (and by the way we were told these would be minimal). In any sane world the vat on private education (and who TAXES education?) would be reversed and maybe just maybe things would improve. But I regret to say that our lives are entirely ruled now by ideological jealousy and a lack of economic nous. My cleaning lady, -who avers her entire street have always voted Labour since time immemorial - says she and her mates will never vote for them again. They are voting Reform for good or ill. As she says, they can’t be any worse.

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