The reduction in the world’s bee population has made headlines in recent years, with the impact on global food supplies making it certainly worthy of study – some 77% of all the food we eat depends on pollination, and 1.4 billion farmers’ livelihoods rely on pollinators. This is why Oracle teamed up with the World Bee Project in 2018 to use the latest technology to try and understand the decline, including AI, data visualization, and cloud technology to. Recently they have added another technology has recently been added to the mix – blockchain.
Oracle Buzzing About Blockchain Potential
The World Bee Project’s Hive Network operates hundreds of interconnected beehives worldwide using IoT sensors to capture a wide variety of data on the hives, such as sound, humidity, temperature, and the weight, data that is stored and shared across Oracle’s blockchain. The use of a transparent blockchain will allow another partner, the University of Reading in London, to analyze the data for patterns that will help inform and implement global actions that contribute to improving biodiversity.
BeeMark Label of Authenticity
Alongside the data collection aspect is the creation of the “BeeMark” label, a stamp of authenticity that ensures honey is being produced from sustainable sources. The eventual aim of the partnership is to allow consumers to scan QR codes from the BeeMark label to validate that the honey they wish to buy came from a particular source. The system uses Hyperledger Fabric, the same underlying technology as IBM’s Food Trust which is running food tracking pilots with Nestlé, Walmart, and Carrefour. A key difference here though is that Oracle has partnered with a non-profit organization hoping to reverse world bee decline by raising customer awareness through the BeeMark as well as using the data provided by the latest technology, including blockchain.
