Agroterrorism is one of the most overlooked and yet most dangerous forms of terrorism. When people think about terrorists they don't think about having the food supply becoming contaminated. People tend to think about bombs, guns and chemicals and that really starts to rally the fear from within. When talks of agroterrorism start that could be something that could cripple a nation from the inside if not caught quickly and effectively. The US exports over 150 billion dollars a year in agricultural trade (USDA.gov, 2016). This shows that a major part of the United State’s economy falls through agriculture. If there is an agroterrorism attack this could severely damage that economy. If the livestock gets infected that could result in either contaminated products or having to lose all that livestock at the hands of a terrorist attack and could cause massive loss in finances. This could affect job growth and wages for people living in the United States.
Aside from the economic issues that this cause there is also the fact that people could start to develop dangerous sicknesses caused by eating contaminated foods. This could vary as minor as diarrhea or vomiting to potentially even death if the contamination is severe enough. This could cause casualties and in a halt in progress if enough people are infected. By combining the trade issues with the sick people and this could have catastrophic consequences on the nation as a whole.
This will also cause mass fear. The swine flu epidemic, mad cow disease, and bird flu could all take forms of agroterrorism. When these diseases had their moment under the spotlight the entire nation was talking about and was fearing that anyone could be infected with it. This causes paranoia within society and makes people very uneasy about eating or drinking any water.
Agroterrorism is by far one of the most dangerous forms of terrorism. It has so many different levels of damage that it can cause and it really only takes a few bad people in different parts of the country to greatly affect the whole nation if their attack is successful. I also is not that difficult if someone wanted to create an attack. As quoted by “There's a huge turnover in a labor force - it's quite easy for someone who wanted to do this to find a way into a processing plant or any segment of a food system.” (Jones, 2007). The agroterrorism threat is something that is protected but is way more vulnerable than the majority of the public knows or would like to know.
USDA.gov. (2016, August 15). Agricultural Trade. Retrieved December 08, 2016, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/agricultural-trade/
Jones, J. (2007, November 28). Agroterrorism: Preventing a Silent Attack. Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://www.govtech.com/featured/Agroterrorism-Preventing-a-Silent-Attack.html
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