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All Michigan cattle because of our TB in the state, have got an RFID ear tag in their ear.
RFID is radio frequency identification. They have to have that RFID tag in their ear, this
round button, before they leave the farm of origin. In order that, if we find an issue
with them at harvest that they can be traced back to the farm of origin. In this project
that we are working on locally, we are trying to expand that a little bit further, such
that we can trace individual animals to the plate basically. So we can through a series
of transferring the RFID ear tag to a two-dimensional bar code throughout the processing steps,
that we can actually label the pieces or packages of beef with that same code so we can trace
this back, not only to the farm, but actually to the animal itself. And so through that,
we hope to expand our ability to not only say it is local but to prove that it is local,
such that somebody can scan that at either a kiosk or with a smart phone and be able
to go back and find out exactly where that beef came from, where it was processed and
so forth. Exactly what the consumer would like to know about that piece of beef.