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The average American spends about 11 percent of their income on food, compared to the worldwide average of 20 to 30 percent; this statistic demonstrates what a safe, plentiful, and inexpensive food supply the United States is fortunate to have. In fact, the prosperous economy of the United States is directly linked to this abundance, with nearly one out of six U.S. jobs being linked to its trillion-dollar agricultural industry.

These facts combined with the vulnerability and lack of protection surrounding the U.S. food supply makes this industry is also a very tempting target for terrorists. It is no surprise that when the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2002, U.S. agricultural documents and al-Qaeda training manuals targeting the nation’s agricultural industry were found.

While agroterrorism can cause great physical harm to a targeted population, attacking the economic stability of the United States is a greater goal. Economic crises in the agriculture and food industries can easily result if the health of the nation’s animals and plants is threatened. Social unrest and a loss of confidence in government are secondary goals, just as they are with any other form of terrorism. During World War II, the Japanese infected cattle and other

animals with anthrax in their conflict with Russian troops in northern China. The Japanese also released fleas infected with plague over wide areas of China, hoping to infect both humans and livestock. In Europe, the British naturalist Richard Ford has claimed that the Germans dropped bombs containing Colorado potato beetles on Great Britain, causing these insects to appear there for the first time; this claim has been disputed. This attack was allegedly kept secret by the British government in order to avoid public alarm.

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What Is Agroterrorism?

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