Pardalis CEO Presents to Beijing Food Traceability Symposium
Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 1:28PM Beijing, China, October 18, 2007 — Steve Holcombe, CEO of Pardalis, Inc., presented today to the International Symposium on Certification and Traceability for Food Safety and Quality held in the Central Garden Hotel, Beijing, China. Mr. Holcombe submitted his paper Banking on Granular Information Ownership.
“There are two products being produced by farmers around the world today,” said Holcombe. “One is the traditional agricultural product itself whether that be a livestock product or a crop. The other is an information product that, if shared, can inform downstream consumers about the safety and quality of the agricultural product.”.
“Pardalis is introducing granular information ownership in the form of affordable internet services that empower even the smallest agricultural producers with the ability to trace-forward their information products,” Holcombe said. “Information sharing systems for tracing information forward should be seriously considered for complimenting existing industry and governmental traceback systems for the purpose of increasing the sharing of trustworthy informational products by farmers.”
The symposium is organized and sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS), Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards (IFAS) at Michigan State University, and Mead Johnson Nutritionals.
Opening remarks for the two day meeting were made by the representative of the Chinese Minister of Agriculture, Ms. Zhang Yuxiang, Chief Economist of the Minister of Agriculture, Director General, Department of Markets and Economic Information; the representative of the United States, Dr. Betsey Kuhn, Director, Food Economics Division, USDA/ERS; Prof. Zhang Lijian, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS); Prof. Ma Aiguo, Director General, Agri-food Quality and Safety Center, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture; and Prof. Ian Gray, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, Michigan State University (MSU).
Keynote presentations were provided by Prof. Lawrence Busch, Distinguished Professor, IFAS, Michigan State University; and Prof. Jin Fazhong, Deputy Director General, Agro-food Quality and Safety Center, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.
Other symposium papers were submitted and presented by Prof. Sterling Andrew Starbird, Operations & Management Informations Systems, Santa Clara University, California; Prof. Ye Zhihua, Director General, Institute of Quality Standards & Testing Technology of Agro-Products, CAAS; Prof. David Jukes, Senior Lecturer in Food Regulation, The University of Reading, U.K.; Dr. Deepa Thiagarajan, Assistant Professor, MSU; Prof. Feng Zhongze, Senior Agronomist, Agro-food Quality and Safety Center, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture; Mr. Peter Sousa Hoejskov, Associate Professional Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Prof. Liu Shihong, Director of Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Technology, Agricultural Information Institute, CAAS; Ms. Jean C. Buzby and Dr. Fred Gale, Senior Economists, USDA/ERS; Prof. Shou Yingheng, Dean, College of Economic Management, Nanjing Agricultural University; Ms. Zhang Wen, Deputy General Manager of Department of Quality Management, Yili Group Company Ltd.; Prof. Yang Shuming, Director of Animal Products Lab, Institute of Agricultural Quality Standard and Testing Technology, CAAS; Mr. Ma Mingzhu, General Manager, Dongsheng Farm, Guangdong Province; Mr. Daniel March, Director, Food Safety Global Quality Assurance, Mead Johnson Nutritionals; Mr. Li Yang, Director General, Green Food Development, Center of Heilongjiang Province; Ms. Linda Calvin, Economist, USDA/ERS; Ms. Song Yi, Director, Aquatic Products Certification Branch Center, Center for Agro-products Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture; Mr. Luis Flores, MSU; and Mr. Gao Shan, Senior Research Fellow, Beijing Ruide Jinsui Information Technology Center.
“I was very fortunate to be invited to present at this symposium, and to experience the friendliness of the Chinese people,” Holcombe said. “For those interested in more information about the presentation, please see the paper, Banking on Granular Information Ownership, retrievable from Pardalis’ homepage.”
About the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture handles farm-level food safety regulations and policies. One of its most important duties is to regulate and enforce the use of chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides on farms. The Ministry of Agriculture is also responsible for animal health, and has handled the bird flu (avian influenza) outbreaks and the mad cow disease prevention measures. The Ministry of Agriculture works with local governments, operates disease research laboratories, and administers vaccinations and emergency response measures. See Food Safety in the People's Republic of China’ in Wikipedia.org.
About the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS)
The mission of the USDA/ERS is to be a primary source of economic information and research in the USDA. The USDA/ERS conducts research to inform public and private decision-making on economic and policy issues involving food, farming, natural resources, and rural development.
About the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
The mission of the CAAS is to conduct the task of the agricultural research sponsored by the People's Republic of China.
Institute of Food and Agricultural Standards (IFAS)
The mission of the IFAS at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan is to raise fundamental issues with respect to equity, fairness and transparency of food and agricultural standards at the local, national and international levels.
About Mead Johnson Nutritionals
Mead Johnson Nutritionals, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company, is a world leader in nutrition, dedicated to providing infants and children with the best possible start in life. The company’s Chinese facilities are located in Guangzhou, China.
About Pardalis, Inc.
Pardalis' mission is to introduce the sharing of confidential, trustworthy and traceable data along complex and poorly coordinated supply chains with innovative Common Point Authoring™ methods for protecting the ownership rights of information producers. For more information, call 877-OWN-DATA (in the United States) or visit http://www.pardalis.com.
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