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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Cumbersome, but cam you imagine the benefits to health, if expanded to food production, when an e.coli etc. outbreak happens or mad cow, etc. Trace back the farm and know exactly which lots to pull.

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This is called traceability, and it's a fundamental aspect of food quality and good manufacturing practice (GMP) throughout the food industry. The devil is in the documenting.

Understood. But as it stands now the CDC has a tough time tracing origins with certainty quickly. If they implemented something commensurate it would be a great help to food safety (and reduction of food waste by not having to overreact and dump perfectly healthy/edible foodstuffs).

I promise you, everyone is trying their best. But the food and ingredient supply chain is extremely complex and doesn't lend itself to strict structure. Tracking an ingredient through multiple vendors in multiple countries while it changes form from raw material to component ingredient to sub-product to product requires a massive effort, care, and judgment. And it's definitely a chain that's only as good as its weakest link, so one small mistake early in the chain can void all subsequent efforts, no matter how diligent. My point is, it's really hard to do well, and nigh impossible to do perfectly.

You've illustrated the complexity in foodstuffs which have complex sourcing histories. Makes sense. I do find it a little incredible how difficult it is to trace an unprocessed good like lettuce, or meat or eggs. At times it gets hard to navigate thru all the middle sellers processors, etc. to trace an unaltered good with a single source down to its source.

Cue the food industry crying about massive increase in costs (to track, but also to drop cheap ingredients sourced in PR-unfriendly ways).

I think the difference is that we're still valuing marijuana at prohibition prices, which means the producers have enough money left over they can bear the price of a system like that and still make a hefty profit. With something like corn, it takes an acre of land to net as much money as you'd get from a couple ounces of weed. [1]

[1] http://smallbusiness.chron.com/profit-margin-raising-corn-34...

It is. DNA Traceback is a huge deal in the beef industry.

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