The ‘Age of Intelligence’ offers an opportunity to advance food safety

Last September, Sam Altman – the CEO for Chat GPT penned a blog post titled “The Intelligence Age.”  Through his writing, Altman paints a picture of what our future could look like with the benefit of advancements in AI; effectively shifting us from the Information Age forward.  He states:

Our grandparents – and the generations that came before them – built and achieved great things. They contributed to the scaffolding of human progress that we all benefit from. AI will give people tools to solve hard problems and help us add new struts to that scaffolding that we couldn’t have figured out on our own. The story of progress will continue, and our children will be able to do things we can’t. 

Altman points out something that is increasingly clear to me: the world is on the brink of significant transition due to the possibilities of AI – and the agriculture industry is no exception.

At the crux of the transition is data, specifically how we understand it, how we analyze it, and how we process it. 

At California LGMA BB #:210653, we’re finding new ways to use data to proactively advance food safety. 

In one such project, the Romaine Test & Learn, which began in 2023, LGMA members are sharing their pathogen testing data to be analyzed for potential key learnings. This follows the development of improved testing protocol for pre-harvest and post-harvest pathogen testing on Romaine lettuce. 

To collect data, LGMA is working alongside Western Growers BB #:144734 and utilizing their GreenLink data-sharing platform.  To date over 40,000 samples, representing over 75,000 acres have been provided in the Romaine Test & Learn program.  

“While the initial numbers from Test & Learn are impressive, the most remarkable outcome has been the industry coalescence around data efforts. Food safety data is often a sensitive topic, leading to siloed learnings and fragmented food safety cultures. Collaboration within the Test & Learn program has highlighted that the data isn’t the only thing we are building – we are accelerating the design and practice of risk-based food safety culture within the industry, learning from each other to drive improved best practices,” said Joelle Mosso, AVP Science Programs, Western Growers.   

To date, we’ve gotten some insight into the seasonality of positives (pathogen tests) across the industry.  And our Data Governance Committee is working on processing the data to translate observations into applied learnings for industry.

We are still in the early stages of the Intelligence Age, and the possibilities that lie ahead are truly limitless.

While we await the full insights from our data sharing and analysis project, one clear takeaway has already emerged: as an industry, we not only can—but should—embrace the power of data. By leveraging data more effectively, we open the door to new opportunities for growth, innovation, and advancement in our collective efforts.