Stephen Johnson from Fair Source Botanicals and Andy Thorton from Sylvan Ingredient Ecosystem gave a fascinating presentation on their work with the frankincense and myrrh sourcing networks at the January Monthly SHI meeting. Below are a few notes from the discussion.
Core Challenge
Stephen framed the core challenge: three stakeholder groups operating in isolation with little real communication.
- Scientists prioritize conservation (what’s best for the trees)
- Harvesters prioritize prosperity (what’s best for their families)
- Companies prioritize profit (what’s viable for business)
Fair Source is working to address all three concerns while making solutions that are both “good enough” and practical enough to scale across supply chains.
Traceability Gap
Though companies believe their resins are traceable when they can trace it back to the village, but most villages pool resins from different harvest sites. There’s no record of which trees are tapped, making it impossible to assess tree health or understand impacts on specific harvesters and communities.
Stephen demonstrated their ARC GIS mapping work to establish baseline traceability by tracking individual trees.
Key Tensions
Andy identified the key tensions below, tensions that don’t just pertain to the supply networks they discussed:
- Risk vs. Impact vs. Price – What drives company decisions? What gets cut first under pressure?
- Market willingness to pay – How detailed can traceability be given the costs? If different stakeholders benefit, how should costs be shared?
- Homogeneity vs. Traceability – Terroir creates variability, but markets demand homogeneity and consistency.
- Storytelling vs. Data – Do companies actually want the data to back up their stories?
Discussion Themes
- Data security and access versus sovereignty concerns
- Cost-sharing mechanisms for this level of research
- Need for consumer education on two fronts:
- What traceability actually means, its value, and how rare it actually is for brands to have this level of traceability.
- Natural variability—what it means and what actually matters and how to balance that with homogeneity.
- Time horizons: Companies struggle to invest long-term. When finances tighten, companies cut these investments first, forcing constant restarts. How do we help companies understand this is about feeding the soil of the industry for long-term resilience?