Future Fare Alberta Lamb Traceability Pilot Project Alberta Livestock & Meat Agency June 14, 2010 Susan Hosford Project Manager Alberta Agriculture

Why … Global triggers …. globalized food supply chain growing competition for resources Regional triggers… producer profitability, narrowing margins consumer food safety fears retail consolidation cheap food, high value markets legislation, regulations

The Alberta LTP project … Project Goals Find, adapt, develop and pilot a working traceability system for the lamb industry Look for potential benefits to be gained by implementation of electronic technology for mandatory traceability: costs / benefits hands-on experience enhanced industry buy-in, uptake develop capacity of industry to utilize technology and to meet new requirements

A stakeholder approach … Pilot project stakeholders Farms, feedlots, buyers, shippers, truckers, auctions Lamb processors – federal, provincial Agriculture colleges Provincial & national producer organizations Commercial suppliers technical equipment; IT systems-software development and support; communication links, databases Governments – program development, legislation, implementation and evaluation

A systems approach … Technology ‘bits & pieces’ - very few ‘complete packages’ - new technology for agriculture, small market demand A system = RF ID tags, tag readers, computers and management software. The ‘brain’ is the software Supplementary equipment improves system efficiency and usefulness The systems must be able to communicate across the whole supply chain – people and databases

Supply chain capacity … Interest Engagement Training, leadership ‘Mental-shift’ Adaptation, development Precision management

All the links in the chain … Processor(s): existing infrastructure; small plant(s); multi species; electronic systems, grading, data verification; internal data transfer; data exchange between plant, producer, CCIA etc. SheepCentral database for information exchange, data storage, carcass data, traceability components

Making it all work … Innovation: new ideas, enhanced systems and support structure Collaborative action: supply chains, organizations, governments Commitment: program development, funding

And the future … “The food market (including the tagging of farm animals and tracking of fresh produce throughout the supply chain) will rank as the largest RF ID market by 2017. The forecast is for worldwide sales of RF ID systems to rise from $531 million US in 2007 to $6.5 billion in 2017.” (RF ID for Animals, Food and Farming 2007-2017, IdTechEx)