A Brief Note On Agro Terrorism And Its Effects On Society

Agriculture is a key component and driver of our economy as well as the main food source for US citizens. The US serves as one of the largest exporters of food supplies to nations around the globe. (1) A significant disruption in our exports would have ripple effects within the US and throughout the global health system. The potential impacts of an Agroterrorism attack would be devastating to public health, both nationally and on the global front could be significant. (2)

“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack

The Department of Homeland Securities 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) identifies six prevailing strategic challenges for the United States for the next several years. Those challenges are; the threat of terrorism, cyber threats, transnational criminal organizations, natural hazards, nuclear terrorism, and biological concerns. These threats represent challenges not only for the local communities, but the nation as a whole. There are a number of ways for states, local communities, and tribal organizations to prioritize and assess the greatest risks applicable to them, and the means in which to implement mitigating measures to reduce the risk from identified threats and hazards.

As we move into the twenty-first century people are confronted with complicated and compromising matters affecting the intricately convoluted global system. New forms of aggression and threat are the faces that greet policy-makers as they spend many hours arranging ways to counter future attacks such as terrorism or massive drug trafficking across national borders. President George W. Bush has issued a mandate in an undertake to regain control over future acts of aggression such as terrorism in the United States; he issued the Executive Order of Homeland Security as that initial step.

American’s fear of terrorism is founded on the ideal that it can effect anybody at any point: no one person is safe from terrorism (Anderson). This belief is also demonstrated in the Chapman Study, where participants listed terrorism as one of the five things they most fear (Chapman). By examining expert advice from homeland security and scholars, coupled with images from similar resources, I hope to further the understanding of how America can safe guard against terrorism, while also not compromising the values of liberty and

The potential effects from an Argo terrorism attack on the U.S. agricultural sector and economy could be very significant. In the dissertation Threats and Risks to U.S. Agriculture: An Overview, written by Dr. Franz, he states that “The U.S. food and fiber industry generates nearly $1 trillion in revenue annually” (Franz, 2005, p. 1). Franz also goes on to explain that “…[the united states’] efficiency in this sector is unsurpassed and serves as a stimulus for the rest of the economy…” (Franz, 2005, p. 1). This means that the industry and profits affect everyone, not only the farmers, ranchers and plant workers. Franz elaborates further on this point, when he states that “…an economic attack such as [foot and mouth disease] FMD in our livestock herds would have an almost immediate and very personal impact across the country…at the supermarket…” (Franz, 2005, p. 2).

Bioterrorism is directly focused on the livestock and crops, which are valuable sources of food. The agroterrorism attack in the U.S. has started an economic warfare, which can turn fatal to most Americans. Economic warfare has calculated of being damaging to the

Agroterrorism is a substantial threat to the United States economy and agricultural sector. As Olsen (2012), mentions, the U.S. agricultural sector is extremely vulnerable to attack and an attack has already been considered by Al Qaeda. The two biggest potential effects of an agroterror attack would be fear and economic stress.

I agree with Peter Chalk’s statements that the agricultural sector is vulnerable and the U.S is not prepared for dealing with acts of agro-terror. The United States agricultural system is a very important system for which it provides food for millions of people. However, such an important system, which keeps the citizens feed is not very well protected. With all the hormones used in present times to make the animals grow faster in order to feed all the citizens it weakens there immune system which makes them for susceptible to infections. A terrorist can easily expose a huge livestock farm with a foreign virus or bacterium that would not kill the livestock but infect them, consequently infecting all the people that eat the infected meat.

In the Food and Agriculture sector there is a CARVER and Shock vulnerability assessment tool. This is target critical when there are new threat agents introduced into locations that would have a significant health or economic impact. The C in CARVER is intended to address the critical criteria runs on a ten point scale starting with one to two equating to a no loss of life or less than $100 million dollars, and nine to ten equaling loss of over 10,000 lives or the loss of $100 billion. The A is for accessibility to address when the attacker can reach the target to conduct attack and egress for the target. R is recuperability which is used to measure the time to recover productivity ranging from one month through more than one year. Vulnerability is the measure of the ease in which the threat-agents can be introduced in quantities significant to achieve the purpose once the target is reached. Effect is the percentage of productivity damaged by an attack at a single facility inversely related to the number of facilities that produce to product. Recognizability is the degree the target can be identified by an attacker without confusion with other targets or components. The Shock tool is broken in to a combined measure of health, psychological, and collateral national economic impact. It is also run on a ten point scale beginning with no historical, symbolic, or religious importance to

According to this week lesson notes, agroterrorism is “an intentional introduction of a plant or animal disease with the purpose of causing monetary losses, creating fear, and/or undermining social stability” (AMU 2015, para. 1). The effects of agroterrorsim could be detrimental to society within the United States. The consumption of food to sustain life is vitally important. If a population felt that their food sources were truly threatened, an effective fear could be inflicted and in turn cause irrational behavior from the population. The United States agricultural sector would feel effects according to how effective of an attack is provided from the terrorists. Also mentioned in the lesson notes, the United States population spends significantly

In regards to America’s agriculture sector and food supply to agroterrorism, terrorist deem this as a high target. This is because “they have noticed that its food supply is among the most vulnerable and least protected of all potential targets of attack” (Olson 2012, 1). Agroterrorism is defined as, “the deliberate introduction of an animal or plant disease for the purpose of generating fear, causing economic loss, or undermining social stability” (Olson 2012, 1).

- Can interagency cooperation increase authority or target funding for specific invasive species like hydrilla in Florida? Working groups set the plans.

In a New York Times Magazine article 10 years after 9/11, titled “How Ready are We for Bioterrorism?”, our country’s readiness against a bioterrorism attack is carefully assessed. The article states that with the sophisticated laboratories and technologies we have today, “a person at a graduate-school level has all the tools and technologies to implement a sophisticated program to create a bioweapon”(Hylton p.2). This means that the number of potential perpetrator goes up exponentially and we are not ready for this reality. The article also puts emphasis on how simple the object of the biological attack can be: “a handshake, a breath can become a poison”(Hylton p.1). In the article, a simulation known as Dark Winter took place and the results were not close to satisfactory levels. In conclusion, United States is not prepared for a biological

Biosecurity as a definition, according to the textbook, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, by Jeffrey R. Ryan, is the measures taken to help protect a nation’s food supply, as well as, agricultural resources from a biological terrorist attack (Ryan, 2016, p. 26). Similarly, the term Biodefense as a definition, according to the textbook Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, by Jeffrey R. Ryan, is a procedure designed, by a nation, to protect and improve biological defenses in the case of an attack (Ryan, 2016, p. 26). Why is bioterrorism such an extremely effective way to bring terror to divergent countries? Pursuing this further, most of the common biological agents found in pathogens are obtained from a natural environment (Ryan, 2016, p. 31). In fact, these “biological