Food For Thought

H. Donald Ratliff, PhD, heads Georgia Tech's SCLI Integrated Food Chain Center in Atlanta.  In a recent column, he discusses the increasing necessity of integrated food chains.  Not desirability, not advantage, not importance.  Necessity.

His thesis is that there's got to be supply chain integration among the several entities within the food chain, that the enterprises involved "must cooperate" to achieve results.  So far, so good.  He goes on to outline three trends that will force a greater level of integration.  They are: 1) impending food safety legislation; 2) technology for monitoring and control; and, 3) the need for better analytics in an increasingly complex environment.

Hey, Don's a cool guy (pun intended).  And brighter than a collector's set of mint condition state quarters.  But, I think there's an element of success that's missing in this analysis.

No quarrel with the trends and their importance, but the idea that this integration has to be forced doesn't bode well for sustainable collaboration among food chain partners - or for cheerful and whole-hearted cooperation.  Further, I'd submit that the real secret sauce in food chain integration is building the kinds of business relationships among key players that can take the core ingredients of regulation, technology, and analytics - and transform them into a dish that is not only good for you but that tastes really good, too.

What do you think?  Have I been spending too much time watching the Food Network?