RFID Tags to Track Your Food

Angry_Admin writes "According to the article at IT World Canada, 'Recent food security scares have triggered public outcries and intense concern. People want to know exactly what is in their food, and what is done to it by whom. In response, Canada and many other countries are introducing traceability requirements - records that track all links in the food supply chain, from farmers to processors to retailers to consumers. The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada agency recently released a policy framework, stating the goal is to make 80 per cent of all food products traceable by 2008.'"

Comments

this isn't the only problem with the food chain!

[yagu]

What's missing in this picture is some approach that makes food safe, period. While it's laudable to want to have our long arms of the law around the whole food chain of command, it hardly addresses (in my opinion) real evil, and general detriment to the humanity collective health. There are products and chemicals in food today that for various percentages of the population cause severe side effects, and potentially (probably) are more dangerous than the highly publicized "contamination" food issues.

If you want an example of one good read about just one chemical (MSG, introduced in many nefarious and hidden forms to our foods), read and branch out on this site .

The RFID idea doesn't address:

• artificial sweeteners (I am one of the "urban myth" people who gets excruciating migraines if I ingest nutrasweet.)
• synthesized fats (olestra?) (make sure you're keeping track of the nearest available rest rooms!)
• MSG (see above) (and read the referenced site, you're likely to be surprised -- the biggest surprise for me was how many different forms MSG takes, i.e., what amounts to MSG can take forms in which the manufacturer is not required to label it. Even more insidious, they can label their product "MSG Free"!)
• preservatives
• salts (I'm just guessing, but if you take common foods (mainstream), and by the time you ate the RDA calorie-wise, the sodium that came along for the ride would exceed the RDA by at least a factor of 2)

I see what this article talks about as useful in some sense, but the sum total malaise caused by contamination of our food supply with weird (and to many, unknown) chemicals outpaces, outweighs, and almost trumps the money that would be spent on a massive RFID program.

Please note:

[saskboy]

The RFID tags are not going to be in the food you eat, rather they are in the packaging the food comes in. This presents a problem for things like fruit, since now you might only be able to buy fruit and veggies from a store if they are already in a bag, or in a specific bag with the right ID tag.

It is not a ploy to get you to swallow tags so your toilet can analyse your leavings, like in the recent hit movie "The Island".

Canadian ranchers are also working on getting every cow RFID tagged, and testing each one for BSE before it goes to market.

People want to know exactly what is in their food

[dangerz]

Huh? Where are these 'people'? People don't give two craps about anything, let alone where their food has been.

If people really wanted to know what's in their food, chains like McDonalds wouldn't be in business.

I disagree

[Infonaut]

I see what this article talks about as useful in some sense, but the sum total malaise caused by contamination of our food supply with weird (and to many, unknown) chemicals outpaces, outweighs, and almost trumps the money that would be spent on a massive RFID program.

Tracking food is very useful when your distribution system is so bad that people are starving because the food isn't making it to market. Talking about the corruption of the food supply is a luxury afforded only to those who have enough food in the first place.