The government of New Zealand is reportedly planning on tagging all cattle with RFID chips by 2011. The development is a harbinger of things to come for the U.S. agricultural industry. In addition to letting farmers and ranchers track individual cattle by the age, sex and breed, the chips will also allow agri-business to monitor the animal all the way from the farm to your local grocery store.
This tracability will allow consumers to know everything from what anti-biotics the animal was injected with, to whether it was fed with organic feed and raised in a “free-range” environment. The tracibility will also ensure that businesses and governments are quickly able to recall meat in the event of a disease outbreak.
When one further considers how “smart” smart-phones will get in the future, I can easily envision consumers soon using their phones to scan products in the store for information—including genetic information — before they actually make a purchase.
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