Walmart Shareholders

6 • Walmart Shareholders • 6.2.2019 NORTHWEST ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF REPORT Walmart Inc.'s new requirement that some suppliers use a blockchain ledger to track food from farm to table is just the latest example of the retailer's leadership in innovation, a supply chain expert says. The Bentonville retailer told its suppliers of leafy green produce in late September 2018 that they must begin by September 2019 to en- ter tracking information for their products into IBM's Food Trust network. The technology will speed the process of identifying the source of any outbreak of food-related illness. A letter addressed to "fresh leafy greens suppliers" dated Sept. 24 outlined the basic ele- ments of Walmart's Food Traceability Initiative. Citing a multistate outbreak earlier this year of illnesses related to Arizona-grown romaine let- tuce contaminated with E. coli, the letter from Walmart U.S. food executives states food safety is a shared responsibility achieved through col- laboration with suppliers. Walmart is "taking a big leadership step here, and to do that, they're requiring their supply chain partners to participate," said John Kent, director of the University of Arkansas' Supply Chain Research Center. "Without will- ing participants in the supply chain, this initia- tive will not work." Kent likened Walmart to a good football coach, saying the company comes up with new ideas and then implements them. "They don't just talk about them," he said. Eventually the entire retail supply chain will use blockchain tracking technology, Kent said, but ensuring food safety is an obvious place to start. PILOT PROGRAM Blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger originally developed to record transactions made with the virtual currency bit- coin according to Investopedia. Documents en- tered into the system are the blocks, which grow into a chain as new information is added. The technology is now being applied in numerous commercial applications, including retail. Because the information entered into the chain is available for everyone in the network to see, blockchain is considered a transparent system of record keeping. A Walmart news re- lease notes this transparency makes it extremely difficult to falsify information. Any attempt to change or alter records is clearly evident. Another advantage of blockchain is the speed with which information can be processed. With the traditional ledger system used by most farms, tracking a product's origin can take up to a week, said Frank Yiannis, vice president of food safety and health for Walmart and Sam's Club. Considering the path a product takes from the farm to a processing center to a warehouse and eventually to the store, Yiannis said the Food-tracking plan wins praise Expert touts Walmart as innovator in blockchain ledger use Walmart's new Food Traceability Initiative requires suppliers of leafy greens to use a blockchain-based program so foods can be traced back to the farm in case of an outbreak of E. coli or other food-borne illnesses. Suppliers of leafy greens are the first to be affected and have until Septem- ber 2019 to join up. NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO See TRACKINIG, Page 8 News all day. Your way. You can depend on the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for daily in-depth local news reporting as well as breaking and national news. Your daily subscription includes unlimited access to our digital products. To subscribe visit nwadg.com/subscribe or call 1.800.641.6882 Get our e-paper app! Available at:

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