Conclusion

As the global agri-food supply chain has been rapidly changing and expanding, there seems to be a need to innovate governance tools by leveraging disrup­tive technologies. The most recent statements from the FDA Commissioner

and Deputy Commissioner (who piloted blockchain at Wal-Mart before serv­ing at FDA) also underlined “emerging track and trace technologies that can assist response efforts to allow FDA to intervene in time to alert consum­ers, implement recalls, and avoid human illnesses...

Although there has been support for the application of blockchain to the global supply chain to deliver enhanced transparency, traceability, safety, and authenticity; to comply with regulatory requirements; and to gain consumer

Blockchainizing Food Law 101 trust,^[367] the technology does not come without shortcomings. Blockchains can introduce data transparency, traceability, and immutability to help address information-oriented issues in the traditional, manual, and labor-intensive sec­tors. Yet, as argued previously, there are also problems regarding operational knowledge and technical expertise, implementation and standardization costs, cybersecurity and data protection, and the inherent limits of the technology— which may adversely impact the effectiveness and the efficiency of this new governance tool.

How do we fix the challenges posed by this “technical fix” when we shift toward the new trust machine and blockchainizing food law? Preliminary thoughts include the following. At a certain level, to scale up the existing pilot programs and implement blockchain technologies to make the global agri-food supply chain “smarter,” diverse participants must work on a minimal level of digitalization in order to take advantage of blockchain technologies. Governments may also need to provide infrastructural or research and devel­opment (R&D) support to reduce implementation costs (particularly in areas with fewer resources) and scalability problems. It is crucial that such infrastruc­tural support and R&D investment address priority areas identified through a public-private, multi-stakeholder decision-making process. The “code as law” promise of blockchainizing food law inevitably relies on an adequate level of data integrity and digital infrastructure in the industry, which allows computer codes to discipline interactions and shape behaviors in cyberspace in a poten­tially more influential manner than traditional law and regulation.^[368] In the long (and perhaps more futuristic) term, as argued by Yochai Benkler, there may be further development of ways in which networked information infrastructure facilitates broad communication and diverse cooperative mechanisms in the agri-food sector and beyond.^[369] In this sense, the role that blockchain technolo­gies can play in the regulatory system extends well beyond computer codes and may include other hybrid forms of rules to operate as autonomous normative systems.

In the cross-border context, harmonization and interoperability of stand­ards set by both public and private institutions are of significant importance. Harmonization is likely one of the most daunting tasks (especially in the North-South and South-South context) given the extremely diverse social, economic, political, and culinary underpinnings of different jurisdictions. Institutional and industry culture may also play a role in promoting reliable use

of technology to strengthen food safety oversight and consumer trust.^[370] Col­laborative actions may need to be taken by international organizations and/ or other stakeholders, paying due attention to the distributional justice and sustainable development dimensions to ensure that most market players benefit from the productivity gains. At the same time, there are some inherent limits to the technology as a technical fix, and these call for additional governance methods as gatekeepers to ensure accountability. All in all, cooperation and dialogue between public and private institutions at various levels and sectors in the agri-food industry will help to create a better regulatory environment for blockchainizing food law.

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