ASA is pleased to provide the following two abstracts which highlight an area of highest importance and that will be presented and discussed by the authors at CBMTS-Industry IV:

Global Agroterrorism

Lee M. Myers, DVM
State Veterinarian and Assistant Commissioner,
Georgia Department of Agriculture, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The intentional use of any CBRNE weapon against agricultural or food industries, with the intent of destroying these resources and causing serious economic harm, is known as “Agroterrorism”. The global transport of people, and agricultural and food products, places nations at risk for the accidental or intentional introduction of dangerous pathogens and chemicals. High consequence livestock viral pathogens, such as foot and mouth disease, classical swine fever, rinderpest, nipah, highly pathogenic avian influenza, or exotic Newcastle disease, are potential biothreats that can destroy a nation’s animal agriculture and its associated economy. Many agents are also zoonotic significantly impacting human health and can spread to non-targeted species, such as wildlife. The introduction of bioweapons is not reliant upon a sophisticated system but can be easily accomplished utilizing low technology. Agrosecurity practices should be implemented along the continuum from the farm gate to the consumer’s plate. Critical infrastructure and key resources identified as vulnerable targets should be fortified. Notwithstanding sound preventive and mitigation practices, rapid detection and response are the key functions to defending agriculture and food systems. The concentration of agriculture production and processing activities, the intense transportation of agricultural and food products, and the highly contagious nature of pathogens of concern are examples of unique factors that challenge prevention, detection and response capabilities. History has demonstrated various social and political fall-outs as a result of agricultural emergencies, including mental health impacts on responders and government destabilization. The best defense is to raise awareness among individuals working in agriculture and food sectors and to train a cadre of responders in multiple disciplines to effectively utilize incident command. The presentation will discuss the impacts of agroterrorism and outline strategies for agriculture and food defense.

Agroterrorism: A Scenario Based Study for Brazil

Guilherme G. Santana, National Petroleum Agency, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Alexandre Rands, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

Agriculture today is a strategic economic sector for several developed and developing countries. It represents for the Brazilian economy; for example, over half of all exports and employs millions of people in several related industries and supporting services such as trade, logistics, consulting and financing. Brazil is also a major exporter of meat (cattle, swine and poultry). The Brazilian economy, which is the 12th in the world, is agro dependent.
The events of 9/11 generated a growing interest in the issue of terrorism, including the aspect of vulnerability of countries, regions, sectors of the economy and so on. Agriculture, in this context, has been largely overlooked. Whenever it is taken into account, the analyses are often fragmented, not in depth, and usually out of context of the global dynamic of markets. Moreover, these analyses more than often do not consider the small, medium and large-scale impacts beyond the cultures with economic value such as all the potential detrimental effects over the complete chain of production, local community and international trade aspects.
It is the objective of this paper to analyze and simulate the macro and micro economic consequences of an agro-terrorist attack in Brazil. This paper also addresses the issues of vulnerability and prevention mechanisms adopted by Brazil.