International Business Machines (IBM) has landed a contract to develop a food-safety traceability system for a Chinese supermarket chain.
It has also won another contract to develop a system for pork producers, packers and retailers in one part of the country.
Here in North America, we expect governments and industry organizations to develop the systems.
China also depended on government officials, but learned from bitter experience that those systems failed. Western nations have, of course, been quick to jump on the Chinese failures, hoping, no doubt, to stem the inroads the Chinese have made into their markets.
There is far less transparency about North American failures, especially the failures of government inspectors. Maybe we should hire IBM.
