A trust framework for digital food systems

The full potential for a digitally transformed food system has not yet been realized — or indeed imagined. Data flows across, and within, vast but largely decentralized and tiered supply chain networks. Data define internal inputs, bi-directional flows of food, information and finance within the supply chain, and intended and extraneous outputs. Data exchanges can orchestrate critical network dependencies, define standards and underpin food safety. Poore and Nemecek1 hypothesized that digital technologies could drive system transformation for the public good by empowering personalized selection of foods with, for example, lower intrinsic greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we contend that the full potential of a digitally transformed food system can only be realized if permissioned and trusted data can flow seamlessly through complex, multi-lateral supply chains, effectively from farms through to the consumer