top of page

Food Safety and the Fragile Supply Chain

Mar 614 min read

Updated: Mar 14

Person in orange gloves handles mesh bags of apples. Outdoor setting with blurred background. Focus on vibrant red and orange colors.
Source: Alfo Medeiros via pexels.com

In this episode of Signal Shift, we explore the fragility of our food system, focusing on food safety and the innovations shaping its future. We start with some alarming food recall statistics from 2024, the impact of climate change, and the increasing risks in the food supply chain. We also discuss how emerging technologies like AI and real-time monitoring are transforming food safety. From contamination concerns to the evolving role of farmers, we uncover signals that may redefine how we grow, handle, and consume food. Join us as we analyze what the future holds for our plates and beyond.





Selected Links:





Episode Transcript:

Sue: Welcome to Signal Shift, by Horizon Shift Lab. We're your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals in technology, culture, and society, uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.


00:37 Unveiling The Fragility of Our Food System


Sue: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Signal Shift. I've got Raakhee here with me and Lana is out. 


Today we wanted to talk a little bit about our meals. And so recently, have you sat down for a meal and you looked at your food and you're wondering not only how was it grown, but how the heck did it end up on my plate? And maybe if you're like me, you're wondering that even more these days, cause making meals have gotten really complicated recently, right? 


In the past few months, everyone's talking about bird flu and the price and supply of eggs. It's just outrageous. And it's not just that, right? There's the mix of food shortages, recalls, there's geopolitical conflict, higher wages. I mean, food's going away to climate change. We've talked about that in so many episodes. And it just over and over demonstrates how fragile our food system is. 


So at least to me, it seems like these days it's a miracle. Food is ending up on my plate and into my body. And so we wanted to take a little time to talk about what is behind it. 


So we are focusing today on the food supply chain and it involves a number of actors. It's very complex. So I'm really curious what signals we picked up today. So Raakhee, what does the future hold for us? Well, yeah, what did you find this week?


01:57 The Alarming Rise of Food Safety Recalls


Raakhee: I think for me, one thing that came up was, you know, there's many paths to the food supply chain. There's sourcing, there's distribution, packaging, everything you kind of mentioned. And throughout that whole journey, there's the management and the handling of food.


And the one thing that was scary, I think we all experienced this last year, was the many food safety recalls. And it just made headlines, right? There were a couple in very quick succession last year that I think got everybody kind of like, what is going on? 


The Boar's Head contamination was horrific. That was really a scary story.


So I picked up a report by the US Public Interest Research Group, which is a nonprofit consumer protection group. And they analyzed the data from all these food recalls in 2024. And I just want to understand what is happening here and what does this look like? What's the true story here?


What we do know about 2024 is that hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food doubled in 2024. Ninety-eight percent of all the illnesses were linked to just 13 outbreaks ranging from cucumbers to deli meat. And the biggest threat, the biggest threat really stems from the fact that it came from Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli. And these actually increased by 41% last year, 1,400 people got ill from these specific food recalls. 


The deaths doubled from eight to 19. It was actually 10 people alone from the Boars Head incident. So that particular one being so bad skewed this, so keeping that in mind. 


I think it's also useful to know what else made us sick. One was that they were toxic levels of, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this the right way, but muscimol or muscimol, okay, which is found in edible mushroom products. So all these microdosing chocolate bars, infused gummies, those kinds of things. That was one.


Another one was 551 people that we know of got sick from cucumbers containing salmonella. Okay, so cucumbers are the staple in most homes. Interesting, recalls of pet food increased from seven to 11. Nine involved salmonella, or listeria, and two involved metal in the food. 


And I think something we forget, but we have to remember is when humans actually even just handle pet food, you can get sick from handling contaminated pet food. It's not just about consuming. 


And outside of these specific food recalls, the truth is that contaminated food in stores or restaurants actually has always been a very, very real problem. To the extent that I did not realize. But the CDC estimates that one in six Americans become ill every year from contaminated food or beverages. We just kind of pass it off, right? Like, okay, you know, something didn't agree with me or so. But it could very much be something in the food quality. And about 3,000 people, they think, die every year from this type of… sort of contamination,you  know, so separate to those food recalls, but this other issue that happens and that's a pretty big number. 


So there's definitely something around food safety and some questions around that. The truth is that with abnormal climate shifts, the pest and disease ranges, I mean, we see it, they're expanding, right? We have increasingly volatile conditions and this means that there is a growing risk of encountering contaminated food products.


There's a flip, good side to this and we will get into that. But yeah, I think about food safety really differently now. 


Sue: Yeah, Raakhee, I was wondering after you looked at all these signals, what you're thinking about in terms of going to your next restaurant or going food shopping. This is really, once you see it, it's very hard to unsee.


I'm really glad you went into the safety recalls, because even just a cursory glance of the recalls at the end of last year, I mean, it was insane. I think that's when the Boars Head thing happened and the carrots maybe, as well. And maybe we can get into it a little bit later. 


But this is also related to some of the transparency around how many different organizations, entities, just hands, touch a piece of produce from growing it from seed or even the fertilizer before then, right? All the way into your home and onto your plate. 


But yeah, I guess, Raakhee, just with all that news, is there a hopeful signal that you've seen that may be addressing some of this into the future? 


Raakhee: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And that's the other side of this because it a little scary.


06:48 How Technology Is Transforming Food Safety


One thing is for sure, they are catching them sooner and the trace back is way better than we could even imagine it being at this stage. So that's all really good. And this is where, and Sue, you and Lana know, I'm pretty pro tech most of the time.


This is another one of those cases where AI and data analytics, analyzing vast amounts of real-time data, ranging from the weather to the soil to pest behaviors. It's kind of around-the-clock crop monitoring that really allows farmers to address issues before they have escalated. It's pretty phenomenal and is changing how we manage all those points of contact that you mentioned.


I attended a talk on digitization and food safety that was held by the Food Safety Magazine. And it was really interesting, right? There was a panel of experts, including a representative from McDonald's, somebody in their food safety space, a director from there. And there were some really cool shares from the session.


I think, yeah, just to answer immediately, there is some really exciting and good stuff and technology is going to play a really good role in that. 


Sue: I think this might sync up well with one of the signals I found.


8:02 The Future of Farming: The Next Generation


I was really thinking about who are the people involved in this supply chain?


And for me, it starts with who's growing our crops. And so overall, I found one other worrisome sign is, at least in the United States, the average age of the farmer keeps going up. So I think when I last looked, it was at 58 years old now is the average age. And 14% of that whole population is actually over the age of 75. And I think the percentage was maybe 8% are 35 or younger, right?


I really wanted to see any signal that might be encouraging, like, is there a new generation of farmers taking over and taking the wing? And unfortunately, in the US, it's not really there yet, although there's some hopeful things about, you know, some high school education and some university programs that are increasing enrollment. 


But the one signal I found that was really, really encouraging was in Bloomberg. And it was actually a story about Brazil and how they are really reshaping their farming sector. So they have a very similar median age to the United States, but their average farming age has dropped to 46 years old. It's huge. And so I was like, how did they do that. 


So there are a couple takeaways from it, but maybe one thing I would just share is, you know, it's deeply ingrained in the culture is a really cool thing to do, right? Like there's a business mogul that started as a family farmer and he's flying around in a private jet and stuff like that. 


But one really interesting idea for the younger generations involves technology and that--it's farming is more equivalent to being a rural entrepreneur. And before even going out in the fields, they are using tech and business to really think about this. So they're securing financing, they're working with drone technology, they're thinking about blockchain, how to use all of these things to improve profitability on the land that they already have. 


So I thought that was a really, really interesting perspective of thinking how do you change, yeah, how do you change the people who are really thinking about food supply in all these different areas?


Because we're going to continue to need that, especially as you said, as climate, pest control. There's so many new issues with food that we have to think about. 


Raakhee: I love that, Sue. We don't think about it, right? But we need farmers. Like, my gosh, if there's anything we need, we need farmers. And you always hear these stories about, of course, people leaving rural areas, wanting to go to cities, and young people just wanting to leave.


I have to share my parents at a point in time in their life did farm in India and we had land and so my father and my mom were involved in that for a period of time and then they went into kind of retail and we didn't keep that land, et cetera, but I'm so divorced from that. And this just reminds me, I should look into that and learn more about that world. 


It's just so critical that our farms are taken care of and our food is grown the right way. And we all have this connection to the land. 


So really interesting what you shared about Brazil and the technology. And is there anything else that you picked up around just maybe the behavioral shifts or even the cultural shifts that are enabling than thinking, know, younger people thinking differently about it?


11:31 Cultural Shifts and the Modern Farmer


Sue: Yeah, it's really interesting how ingrained it is in the pop culture around farming, but really like the rural life. And they liken life on the farm in rural areas, popping champagne. It's a very lux life. And so that's already different from some of the ways we think about that here. That’s really important. 


There are a lot of business and industry titans who come from the agricultural sector that people look up to. And then I think just in terms of policy, in terms of government, there's a big caucus that's represented by farmers.


And so I think all of that is kind of related to this popularity and kind of this trend. Of course, we haven't even talked about social media, right? Like there's Gen Z Farmer, like there's all these other things on TikTok and stuff like that that are helping, too.


Raakhee: There any shifts like that that are happening here or? 


Sue: Yeah, I mean, it's not at a scale that we need in the US. But there are a couple of hopeful signs.


There are a couple agricultural universities. I think there was one in the Midwest in particular that said that they're seeing record high enrollment into agricultural majors. And so I think the more that they can innovate and integrate some of these fields, whether it's tech, it's AI, business, right? I think that'll be hopefully really attractive to the next generation. There's still a lot of barriers, especially around land access on how you can do this. At least in terms of interest, those were some hopeful signals. 


Raakhee: Yeah, that's really hopeful. I love that. It just shows the kind of change in mindset, you know. 


I have to say I'll share some of those things I learned from the food safety session and you know what was encouraging about it. 


But one of the things that was also a positive and a really exciting thing they spoke about is, you know, Gen Z and younger folk being so, you know, digital native sort of, really kids who are embedded in tech, they are picking up the technology really quickly. They are very much on board with technology for food safety and all those things. And so that's making that journey and those changes a lot easier than it is at kind of management levels, where, you know, you're still having debates about should we implement it or not. 


But you have these Gen Z kids are like, yeah, just give me the system. I got this. This is how you use it, which I think is exciting about the bridge between technology and, I think I'm kind of seeing this picture of like, wow, the youth and technology and farming and how that's going to change and it's going to be safer and better and be able to withstand some of the climate issues. 


14:16 Innovations in Real-Time Monitoring and AI


But Sue I'll run through some of the other things that I picked up in the session, know, they were really positive and encouraging us to know food safety is going to become less of an issue over the years.


The ones I really want to share, these are really exciting. So the McDonald's representative, he shared that there's something that they've tested in one of the markets they're doing right now is that they digitally capture a hand image to identify if hands have been efficiently cleaned or not. Hand washing in restaurants and with people handing your food is critical if we have not learned this from COVID, right? 


But this is really cool. So after you wash your hands, you take an image and however the technology works, it can tell if your hands are contaminated or not. And they haven't really had this kind of real-time monitoring without doing a chemical test or something, which is just not feasible. Again, kind of game-changing at the restaurant level in terms of cleanliness and hygiene. I was like, wow, that's really interesting. So it's something they're using in one of their markets. 


Another interesting one, which I had not known about it, only just learned about, but it's the real-time monitoring and these advanced thermometers that now you cannot just trace like, if you have a fridge, you're typically monitoring the temperature of the fridge itself, or the freezer, and hoping, OK, things are all OK within there. 


But now we've got to a point where with advanced thermometers, you actually are monitoring the product itself. So every piece of it, you know the changes it's going through. All the data gets stored, the kind of trend analysis they can do, and putting things in the right spaces, and monitoring actual temperatures of actual pieces of food. Again, game changer, like things we just don't think about, but really changes stuff, especially, I think, with things like meat and dairy, right? Really, really important. 


And then this is something I have to learn a lot more about, but had to mention, which is that all the foodborne illness data that government agencies are collecting, they are now able to use whole genome sequencing data. And that's its own thing, which we'd have to discuss.


But they can use that now to really get on top of potential outbreaks in various markets. So, also another game changer. So I thought those were like three really interesting forms of like how technology is changing, you know, control and managing food safety issues for us.


Sue: All the things you mentioned just made me wonder what kind of jobs or kind of sub-industries, sub-types there will be in the whole food system. And so as you were at this conference, were you already seeing new types of roles popping up? Yeah, tell me about it. 


Raakhee: I didn't have it on my notes, but I 100 % thought of that when that session was happening.


I know it's something we're going to be talking about and is part of what our work entails. But I saw plenty of things just start to pop up in my head as they were talking. 


And I really came in with a sense of, wow, there's so much opportunity. I think what's happening is people just, they don't know. People don't know that these kinds of roles are going to exist. And there's this kind of, because there's a lot of places where you're still going to, humans are critical, actually, to work with this technology. 


So it's not as simple as, we're losing our jobs, but there's a massive transformation of the type of work. I think young people are getting it. I definitely think middle and upper management are just, they're not seeing it yet. But I think there's gonna be such interesting roles in the future in these kinds of spaces, so spot on, Sue.


Sue: One thing I liked in the Bloomberg piece was they profiled a family of farmers in Brazil. And it was kind of like that, the father, he was managing the whole farm, but the kid was bringing in all this new technology to really help out farm operations. So you could almost see the succession plan of what this was to bring in the future.

The father was like, yes, bring it on. This is what we need to be able to evolve to really help continue and sustain our operations and to grow them. So that was a really cool juxtaposition. But I know it could be full of upheaval, full of disruption, too. So there's a lot going on there. 


18:37 Food Transparency: Tracing Your Meal's Journey


Yeah, we could talk about this for so much longer. There is one thing around transparency I thought was interesting. Just to go to the grocery store again, just where we started, like, where did your food come from? What are all the ways that it was handled before it even got to your place and to your point in a way that is still healthy and hygienic. 


And I saw that there is maybe a QR code you can actually scan at the grocery store. I think only Walmart and maybe a few other places have this where you can actually see all the touch points. And so I thought as a person who wants to know where my food was grown, like where it came from, you know, all of how long it took to get to the grocery store, all of those things. I think that would be encouraging. 


It's not really ubiquitous in terms of its use, but knowing that there are efforts also for transparency, I think will help for the consumer. 


So, yeah, are there, what thoughts do you have to wrap up? 


Raakhee: I think that was a great wrap up of what we can see already, you know, so I definitely want to go and check that out, Sue. I think, I think that's the future. I think we will see that more and more. And that kind of, you know, that end to end ownership we spoke about. 


So I'm really excited and I want to reconnect with my own family's farming roots and I don't know, just, you know, learn more, maybe find some pictures from that time or something like that. But you've helped me kind of reconnect to that and the importance of farming carrying on from generation to generation and young people developing a passion and love for it.


Sue: I love that. I hope you do. And if you have any photos, I hope you share them. That would be great. 


Well, for all of you listening, thank you for sticking with us for this really important just eye-opener on all the intricate ways our food system operates to get us to have food safely and fresh, hopefully.


Hopefully there'll be a lot more innovations you're gonna see at the grocery store or wherever you buy your food and your produce or where you go out to eat. So stay tuned for that. And as always, if you have any comments or questions, go to horizonshiftlab.com, leave us a message or note there and we will see you soon. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.

Tags:

Comments

bottom of page