Monday, October 24, 2011
Sarajevo this evening
Look at this picture. It shows one of the many cemeteries after the siege of Sarajevo. Seeing how the cemeteries have replaced parks and sports facilities in the urban landscape is a testament to the suffering of Sarajevo.
But we humans don't change. We may think we are civilized and that law and order rules. We are so wrong!
The idea that a group of people can claim land where others live still lives on. The German ideas of lebensraum and übermensch have been inherited by disgusting regimes in Asia Minor, the Holy Land, former Yugoslavia, and so on. A common factor seems to be that some old story justifies sionists', serbs and others claim to land that is inhabited by others.
If they were in their right, then native americans could claim the Americas, the sami people could claim Scandinavia, and Scandinavians could claim the Hunnic empire. But that wouldn't make the world a better place, would it. So why does the international community allow this mentality to live on?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Applications of EPICS in food supply chain management
I'm presenting at the workshop Applications of EPICS in food supply chain management in Oslo 16. November. This workshop is based around the work done by SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, Matis and TraceTracker (where I work) in the eTrace project.
I hope to see you there if you are interested in the use of EPCIS for applications like traceability, sustainability, logistics optimization and supply chain management!
Monday, October 17, 2011
TraceTracker Data Uploader and the 5 step model
Earlier this week I had a customer in central Europe wanting a canned version of a product demonstration I just gave them. Well, the raw material proved too large to be distributed in email, so I ran it through Windows Movie Maker before uploading it to my YouTube account. I guess I should have used the TraceTracker account, but I forgot. Anyway, according to rumors it was a great success.
If you need a manual way to upload traceability information to the Global Traceability Network you can take a look yourself here.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Even smaller
Did you read about the juvenile lizard? Well, during this year's autumn break we found an even smaller one, see picture.
We were four dads and six boys in the mountains west of Eggedal. We rented a nice cabin with all modern facilities, including a sauna. During the days we went walking in the mountains and the nearby Trillemarka nature reserve. On one of our tripe we found the small lizard in the photo. I have not seen such a small specimen before. Although we had nice weather, it was cold. I would have thought such a creature should have entered hibernation much earlier. But no, some of the boys used their young eyes and discovered it. How lucky we were!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Salami and tomato on lego
This year's topic for First Lego League is "food factor". This means that the participants shall study food quality issues, find ways to improve it, build lego robots to solve tasks etc. And my youngest kid has drafted me to help his team!
The different tasks in the challenge have not been distributed among the participants yet, but it feels like an adventure. At home we started by locating his brother's Lego Mindstorm set, so that we can practice at home. I even took some parts and build myself a salami and tomato on lego. What a treat!
Part of the challenge is to find some candidate food products for further study. I had hoped to find some fish products that carry information about the catch, the vessel and so on, but that proved more difficult than expected. I found one processed product from Domstein, but it contained too many ingredients compared to the limit in the challenge.
It remains to be seen where the project develops, but I hope for a memorable learning experience for the kids.
The different tasks in the challenge have not been distributed among the participants yet, but it feels like an adventure. At home we started by locating his brother's Lego Mindstorm set, so that we can practice at home. I even took some parts and build myself a salami and tomato on lego. What a treat!
Part of the challenge is to find some candidate food products for further study. I had hoped to find some fish products that carry information about the catch, the vessel and so on, but that proved more difficult than expected. I found one processed product from Domstein, but it contained too many ingredients compared to the limit in the challenge.
It remains to be seen where the project develops, but I hope for a memorable learning experience for the kids.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
My favorite meeting facilities
Occasionally I experience things that I really like. This time I have discovered my favorite facility for meetings. A bit impractical as it lies in Germany while my work is based out of Norway. However, I am willing to travel when invited!
The building pictured on the right lies in Ludwigshafen in Germany. It is referred to as Gesellschaftshaus, which means something like "party house", but these days it is also used to house business meetings. Not only are the meeting rooms agreeable and well furnished. There is also a restaurant there where one can have both lunch and dinner served. And the food is very good.
Last week I enjoyed a meeting there for the second time. Travelling down on the 24. August was a bit difficult, as a storm closed down Frankfurt airport before I was scheduled to land and my train to Mannheim was delayed.
But the meeting, lunch and dinner the next day at the Gesellschaftshaus was a pleasure!
Earlier visits to Ludwigshafen have been alluded to here and here. At least!
The building pictured on the right lies in Ludwigshafen in Germany. It is referred to as Gesellschaftshaus, which means something like "party house", but these days it is also used to house business meetings. Not only are the meeting rooms agreeable and well furnished. There is also a restaurant there where one can have both lunch and dinner served. And the food is very good.
Last week I enjoyed a meeting there for the second time. Travelling down on the 24. August was a bit difficult, as a storm closed down Frankfurt airport before I was scheduled to land and my train to Mannheim was delayed.
But the meeting, lunch and dinner the next day at the Gesellschaftshaus was a pleasure!
Earlier visits to Ludwigshafen have been alluded to here and here. At least!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Agro based clusters and traceability
With the recent ecoli incidents in Europe I suspect it may get even worse for farmers in developing countries to sell their products. German authorities are now certain that it was locally grown products that were to blame, but the average consumer may have become more conscious that it matters where foodstuff comes from.
So what should growers of fruit and vegetables in developing countries do to secure market access?
Last weekend I read a FAO report on Agro based clusters in developing countries. I have become involved in the design of such a cluster, with focus on using electronic traceability for creating product documentation. This solution is intended to support the cluster in creating market advantages through the use of modern export and sales support technologies. But can this also be used to make the end consumer trust the products?
A pilot in the eTrace project had success with using traceability information in the dialog with consumers at the point of sale. According to the fish monger “Instead of selling just a few kilos a day, I sold more than 150 kilos over 4 days. This is a very significant increase for us.”
Can similar effects be expected if flowers, fruit and vegetables from developing countries are equipped with traceability information? And how should it be done, by printing the information on the packaging or by providing links to online solutions like this (in Norwegian)?
So what should growers of fruit and vegetables in developing countries do to secure market access?
Last weekend I read a FAO report on Agro based clusters in developing countries. I have become involved in the design of such a cluster, with focus on using electronic traceability for creating product documentation. This solution is intended to support the cluster in creating market advantages through the use of modern export and sales support technologies. But can this also be used to make the end consumer trust the products?
A pilot in the eTrace project had success with using traceability information in the dialog with consumers at the point of sale. According to the fish monger “Instead of selling just a few kilos a day, I sold more than 150 kilos over 4 days. This is a very significant increase for us.”
Can similar effects be expected if flowers, fruit and vegetables from developing countries are equipped with traceability information? And how should it be done, by printing the information on the packaging or by providing links to online solutions like this (in Norwegian)?
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