ACADEMIA
Researchers earn patent for grain-tracking method
Two NCSA employees and a University of Illinois faculty member have received a patent for a process to track grain from the point of harvest until the last moment before use. Robert Hornbaker, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics, and NCSA's Volodymyr Kindratenko and David Pointer have developed a way to use RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags to provide processors and consumers with a wealth of information about the grain that enters our food supply. Their collaboration was fostered by the NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellowship Program; Hornbaker was a fellow in 2002-2003. In the patented system, small RFID tags are distributed among the grain in the combine hopper at harvest; almost immediately the RFID tags can record the age, point of origin, and other factors about the grain. Because the tags are approximately the same size and weight as individual pieces of grain, one or two tags simply float amid every 100 to 200 bushels of grain as it travels. At each stop the grain makes along its journey, additional information can be written to the tags, noting every detail about the processes the grain goes through. Then, near the end of the process, the RFID tags can be removed from amid the grain and the information stored on each tag can be read.
"This technology will allow consumers to be confident that their food is made from the grain the food producer claims it is made from," said Kindratenko. "The information stored in the RFID tags will be sufficient to reconstruct the entire history of the grain from the moment it was harvested to the moment it went into the final food production cycle."
Specifically, each tag records "events," which can be broken down into harvesting, transferring to vehicles, unloading, etc. One of the keys to the patent is the way in which time is recorded -- through an absolute atomic clock time/date stamp. The tag also stores the exact location of the event, using the worldwide latitude and longitude provided via a Global Positioning System installed with the read-write device. Then, the RFID can track down which exact bin or container the grain has been deposited into at any "event." Assuming the tags are inserted during harvest, it is even possible to determine which acre of land the grain came from.
The system could give grain processors important information about the age of grain and how many handlers it has passed through -information that could improve food-processing efficiency and safety. Processors could also offer higher premiums to farmers who provide tracking documentation and higher quality grain. Hornbaker believes that economic incentive could help the technology take hold.
"There needs to be food security, but there also needs to be an economic benefit," he said. "Many consumers want to know the origin and other attributes, such as variety, of the grain used to produce food products. The economic benefit would be driven by the processor -- like, say, processing corn into corn chips." Consumers who do not want to eat genetically modified food, for example, could be assured by processors that the grain their food has been made from has not been commingled with genetically modified grain.
"The processor then has more information for identifying high quality or value grain," Hornbaker said. "If 'variety z' is good, the question becomes 'who has variety z' and 'how do we get it.'"
"This technology will allow consumers to be confident that their food is made from the grain the food producer claims it is made from," said Kindratenko. "The information stored in the RFID tags will be sufficient to reconstruct the entire history of the grain from the moment it was harvested to the moment it went into the final food production cycle."
Specifically, each tag records "events," which can be broken down into harvesting, transferring to vehicles, unloading, etc. One of the keys to the patent is the way in which time is recorded -- through an absolute atomic clock time/date stamp. The tag also stores the exact location of the event, using the worldwide latitude and longitude provided via a Global Positioning System installed with the read-write device. Then, the RFID can track down which exact bin or container the grain has been deposited into at any "event." Assuming the tags are inserted during harvest, it is even possible to determine which acre of land the grain came from.
The system could give grain processors important information about the age of grain and how many handlers it has passed through -information that could improve food-processing efficiency and safety. Processors could also offer higher premiums to farmers who provide tracking documentation and higher quality grain. Hornbaker believes that economic incentive could help the technology take hold.
"There needs to be food security, but there also needs to be an economic benefit," he said. "Many consumers want to know the origin and other attributes, such as variety, of the grain used to produce food products. The economic benefit would be driven by the processor -- like, say, processing corn into corn chips." Consumers who do not want to eat genetically modified food, for example, could be assured by processors that the grain their food has been made from has not been commingled with genetically modified grain.
"The processor then has more information for identifying high quality or value grain," Hornbaker said. "If 'variety z' is good, the question becomes 'who has variety z' and 'how do we get it.'" 