By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia
When the word “terrorism” pops up, the first image in most
people’s heads is not a field of soybeans.
But maybe it should be.
Terrorism isn’t limited to blowing up buildings. Food supplies
can also be a target.
That’s why Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who chairs the U.S.
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, asked
John Sherwood to participate in a Senate biosecurity and
agroterrorism hearing July 20 in Washington, D.C.
Sherwood, head of the University of Georgia’s plant pathology
department, was one of eight experts to testify in the hearing
and one of four to address the agrosecurity partnership between
public and private sectors.
The latter group addressed what’s being done for U.S.
preparedness at local levels in coordination with farmers and
ranchers, the scientific community and industry.
Partnership
“No effort to prepare for an attack can be successful without a
healthy and strong public-private partnership,” Chambliss
said.
The agrosecurity hearing, only the second after the Sept. 11
attacks, reviewed national efforts to protect agriculture and
the
food supply from a deliberate attack of a biological agent, a
toxin or a disease directed at crops and livestock.
Agriculture accounts for 13 percent of the U.S. gross domestic
product, Chambliss said, and 18 percent of domestic employment.
With the U.S. Department of Labor reporting the civilian
workforce at 149.1 million, those in agriculture-related jobs
numbers nearly 27 million.
“Securing our nation’s crop production systems requires a
multifaceted, multi-agency and highly coordinated effort,” said
Sherwood, who also represented the American Phytopathological
Society.
Challenge
Preventing 100 percent of agricultural diseases is impossible.
Scientists and farmers alike are struggling with soybean rust
and
sudden oak death, diseases new to certain parts of the United
States.
“There is not just a single disease that’s going to impact
agriculture,” Sherwood said. “We have to be aware of new
diseases.”
He emphasized “the need to fund competitive research, continue
to
support the National Plant Diagnostic Network and establish the
National Center for Plant Biosecurity” at the hearing.
Chambliss said the events of Sept. 11, 2001, “propelled the
government into action and forced federal agencies to rethink
the
threats facing agriculture and the need to take steps to prevent
agroterrorist attacks.”
The hearing offered “useful dialog,” he said, as the Senate
committee works to enhance agricultural protection in follow-up
legislation to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and
Bioterrorism
Act of 2002.
State preparedness
The week before Sherwood went to Washington, Georgia was already
strengthening its forces. The state’s agroterrorism committee
and
the Georgia National Guard partnered to help keep the food
supply
secure.
The meeting at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta allowed the
two parties to share expertise “on how to best prepare and
respond to agriculture and food-related acts of terrorism,” said
a state Department of Agriculture release.
“As the lead agency in the state in charge of agriculture and
food defense, my staff is committed to doing everything in its
power to protect the people of Georgia and the state’s
agriculture industry,” said Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture
Tommy Irvin.
Nets and bolts
The meeting wasn’t just talk. The National Guard showcased its
mobile laboratory capabilities and showed the proper
biocontainment, sample collection and personal protective
equipment to use when contact with dangerous pathogens is
necessary.
The training continues. At different times throughout 2005, UGA
Cooperative Extension will provide basic agroterrorism awareness
training through a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. The next session will be Aug. 4 in Vienna. Visit
www.agrosecurity.uga.edu for other class dates and locations.
“We were the first state to include local jurisdictions in our
statewide homeland security agriculture assessment,” Irvin
recently said of the training. “We knew we had to get down to
the
local level to adequately build a proper defense against
agroterrrorism.”
(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
