Learn to tame Big Data, not fear it
MONTEREY, Calif. - Some of us hear Big Data, and we're filled with conflicting emotions: fear, confusion, optimism, disgust.
What does it even mean?
Big data is just the collection and science of taking a lot of information and finding something useful in it.
At least that's how Tim York, CEO of Markon Cooperative, Salinas, defined it, as he moderated a food safety panel July 30 at the Produce Marketing Association's annual foodservice conference.
The session description touched on more than half a dozen points, which was going to be tough to unpack in an hour, but afterward York said he was glad the panel focused more on what big data is and what it means to the produce industry.
Panelist Lance Donny, CEO of On Farm, an agriculture technology company, said modern farms collect more than one million data points in a year, so they need information systems to help them optimize decision-making.
Bob Whitaker, chief science and technology officer for PMA, said companies have been collecting data for years.
"It's about getting the right data," he said.
York said the key to using data is to filter the data points to ones that lead to action.
Of course there are risks to collecting data.
York made a joke about the Democratic National Committee's leaked e-mails, which were very embarrassing, and asked the panel how companies should protect their data.
"I don't think you totally can protect it," Whitaker said, not reassuringly. "If you're going to measure and analyze data, you have to be prepared for the consequences and act on it."
This isn't all bad though.
The panel didn't mention it, but in the past 10 years, the produce industry has seen more food safety outbreaks, but they've been more contained. No doubt this is partially due to the better data collection at the early stages of outbreaks and improved traceability to keep them from exploding.
Better data means we find more outbreaks that weren't detected in earlier times, but it doesn't make fresh produce less safe now. It makes consumers more safe.
Another risk to data collection is what it may reveal about certain crops or geographic areas.
Let's say the data shows certain land plots have more need for irrigation or food safety issues than surrounding plots.
We may not know why that's the case, but it could affect land value, among other things.
It comes back to making big data work and getting into pieces that make us more effective.
If it's a grower, it's finding out what day, or even hour, is the optimal time to harvest.
If it's a packer, it's finding out what time increments slow down and have mistakes on a packing line, and addressing that.
If it's a grower-shipper, it's finding out which products are expanding sales versus cannibalizing them.
If it's a retailer, it's finding out how high the price on an apple variety can go before sales plummet.
If it's a media company, it's finding out which stories readers are clicking on most and doing some follow-up reporting on those issues.
That's right, we deal with big data at The Packer, and hopefully it brings more meaningful coverage to the produce industry.
Most companies in produce already collect far more data than they know what to do with, so we all need to have a chat with our technology partners and tell them "give me data I can use, not just big data."
So the next time someone tells you something about big data, you can say, "Big Data works for me."
Greg Johnson is The Packer's editor. E-mail him at gjohnson@thepacker.com.
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