Agroterrorism: Threats and Preparedness
The potential of terrorist attacks against agricultural targets (agroterrorism) is increasingly recognized as a national security threat, especially after the events of September 11, 2001. This report focuses primarily on biological weapons (rather than chemical weapons) because biological weapons generally are considered the more potent agroterrorism threat. This report also focuses more on the threat of agroterrorism against agricultural production, rather than on food processing and distribution, although the latter is discussed.
Agrosecurity: The Role of the Agricultural Experiment Stations
In order to protect the pation's agriculture and food processing systems from the new threat of bioterror ism, agricultural and food technology research must be effectively harnessed and applied. The U.S. conducts the majority of its agricultural research through state-based Agricultural Experiment Stations. To respond to the new challenges of biosecurity, and to facilitate communication between the federal research system and the state-based agricultural research system, the Directors of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAES) facilitated the creation of a National Institute for Agricultural Security (NIAS). The mission of NIAS is to help address national homeland security and. biosecurity issues that affect the nationa's ifarus and ranches, food production and distribution system, and rural communities by barnessing coordinating, and targetting agricultural research and food science technology projects. NIAS was created to provide a from door and one-stop shopping for federal agencies and the public, NIAS is currently developing projects to improve site security at SAES field stations and laboratories. The Institute is facilitating is facilitating the development of pronotype-secured information technology networks. NIAS is serving as a Ilaison to federal agency offices to help identify high priority agricultural and food science research needs. The Institute is also exploring the possibility of collaborating in the devleopment of regional pathogen outbreak simulations with the regional university coordinators of the Dept. of Agriculture's National Plant Diagnosites Network (NPDN). NIAS is collaborating with the Institute for Countermessures Against Bioterrorism to host an international workshop on the managing of events when harmful pathogens are introduce into the food supply. And, NIAS is exploring the potential role of university Cooperative Extension Service as part of the first responder network, as first detectors, and as facilitators for helping rural community leaders plan to address homeland security concerns.
Biological terrorism targeted at agriculture: The threat to US national security
The Midwest is reelingfrom an infestation of corn blight. Over 200 farms in Iowa alone have reported infections. Plantpathologistsnote that the pattern of infestation is inconsistent with a natural outbreak since the infections occurred in many places at once and were found informs along major interstate highways. Scientists found that the infecting strain is identical to one found in Asia. Recently, this news station has received a letter from a group calling itself the Guardians ofGaia. They have claimed responsibility for the outbreaks and stated that they will continue to attack America 's corn crops until farmers disavow the use of genetically modified franken-seed. 'Already, several countries and food companies have turned to corn producers from other nations to avoid consumer backlash against the tainted produce. A USDA spokeswoman has claimed that corn blight is completely harmless to humans and consumers have nothing to worry about from eating infected corn. Furthermore, she stated that'' the actual damage to the crop has been minimal. However, the $20 billion a year corn-growing industry is already unable to sell its stores of corn....