Jan 06, 2022 - This brief shows how blockchain technologies, combined with mobile access to drones, sensors, satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and other innovations, can secure our global food supply, one farm at a time. The solutions it explores focus on topsoil to mitigate the harmful effects of chemicals, aggressive tillage, monocultural crops, and climate change. The goal is to give smallholders—often the poorest farmers with less than two hectares of land in jurisdictions hardest hit by environmental and humanitarian crises—the tools and training they need for sustainable food production, transforming the long-term...

Jan 16, 2018 - This manifesto for change calls for a new social contract, one that redefines the relationship between individuals in society and the institutions they have created to self-govern. It looks at the four drivers of this change—the Fourth Industrial Revolution, globalization of ideas and the economy, climate change, and demographic shifts due to war, drought, and oppression. It identifies such global disruptions as structural unemployment and inequality; failing education, healthcare, and research and development; human rights violations; and a biosphere in crisis. It identifies the four core change makers—the private sector, the state, civi...

Dec 15, 2017 - This research looks at smart contracts and distributed ledger technology applied to farming and food sustainability. Its use cases include food provenance and food safety from farm to fork, local agricultural cooperatives creating local prosperity, and financial innovations in funding and insurance tailored to underserved communities of farmers.

Sep 28, 2017 - This case study looks at Walmart’s pilot projects with IBM to track mangoes in the Americas and pork in China, from farm to table with focus on food safety. Blockchain technology helps to identify the source of contamination quickly, so that food producers, processors, distributors, and retailers can act quickly and protect the public from harm.

Oct 22, 2019 - This case study looks at how blockchain technology could help us clean up our vital ocean ecosystems, from shorelines and coral reefs to Arctic sea ice platforms. It spotlights the work of Ocean Marine Blockchain Solutions, in collaboration with the Girguis Lab at Harvard University and the Jamaican agency Alligator Head Foundation. Together they’re creating a digital and economic data framework that is reframing the situation from an environmental problem to an economic opportunity, which may succeed in driving a much-needed sea change.

Jan 30, 2018 - In the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the agenda for sustainable development, this project provides a taxonomy for analyzing what the blockchain community is doing to counter the adverse effects of human activity on the planet. It explores such approaches as developing less computationally demanding consensus algorithms, aligning stakeholder incentives, and combining distributed ledgers with other innovations such as artificial intelligence, sharing economy, Internet of Things, and big data analytics.