Dairy Farmers of America partners with ripe.io to test blockchain in food and agriculture

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a national cooperative owned by dairy farm families across the U.S., has announced that it has partnered with blockchain startup ripe.io to test the potential of blockchain technology in food and agriculture.

According to the official announcement, the pilot project is currently underway. It will utilize the ripe.io platform and data from a group of DFA member farms as well as one of DFA’s manufacturing plants to support more consumer engagement.

The key objective is to enhance supply chain transparency by providing end-to-end traceability and improve the connection between farmer owners and customers.

“Consumers today want to know where their food comes from and blockchain technology, like ripe.io, gives consumers real-time data, which can really help increase trust and confidence about food production from start to finish,” says David Darr, Vice President Sustainability and Member Services at DFA. “For now, our goal is to evaluate the technology and explore how it might benefit our supply chain.”

Founded in 2017, ripe.io is a food tech startup focused on using blockchain technology to transform the food supply chain for data transparency. It recently completed the 2018 Sprint Accelerator program, which is also sponsored by DFA.

“We’ve led and participated in many other pilot projects and know there are tremendous possibilities with blockchain and agriculture,” says Raja Ramachandran, CEO and co-founder at ripe.io. “DFA has been a great partner for us, and we look forward to working with them to better understand the potential value blockchain can provide for dairy.”