June 23, 2009
YottaMark Advisory Board Adds Bruce Peterson To Roster
Some individuals seem to always attract the interest of many in the
trade. So it goes with Bruce Peterson. We have covered his actions
and recorded his insights many different times:
Wal-Mart's Bruce Peterson Resigns
Bruce Peterson Focuses On Traceability
Bruce Peterson Lands At Naturipe As Its New
President/CEO
Naturipe's Peterson Builds All Star Management
Team
Peterson Steps Down As President/CEO Of Naturipe,
But Joins Its Board Of Directors
Now comes word that Bruce is involved with a new industry
activity:
"Bruce Peterson Joins YottaMark Advisory Board: Former Wal-Mart
Executive to drive policy and retail strategy for the HarvestMark
fresh food traceability business."
As we told USA Today, YottaMark is the leader in this
field and with Bruce's long time interest in traceability, this is
a good place for him.
What the industry thinks of as YottaMark has a particular scope as
a traceability tool. Although the company
actually sells various options that encompass case-level and
pallet-level capabilities, its marquee product is an item-level
label. It is wonderful with a clamshell or bag and on products
where the primary issue is a risk of contamination at the source.
It doesn't really provide a solution for repackers or situations in
which contamination occurs later along the supply chain. In other
words the product doesn't track what wholesaler or purveyor or
trucker handled the product.
We do suspect, though, that its "item" orientation, as opposed to
the Produce Traceability Initiative's "case" orientation, is more
in consort with whatever regulations the federal government may
come up with in this space. We suspect that this opportunity to
sync industry technology with any future federal regulation is part
of what would make this opportunity appealing to Bruce.
For ourselves, we have been impressed with the potential for
YottaMark as a marketing tool. We have done much work in traceability but also much in sustainability, and we think the ability for
consumers to not only trace back their food but to come to know the
farmer or the farm through written narrative, online audio and
video and photos is very likely to change the way consumers relate
to brands and to food.
We wish both Bruce Peterson and the folks at YottaMark a rich and
productive collaboration.