Based on the course material, examine the potential effects of agroterrorism, as a subset of biological terrorism, on the United States agricultural sector and economy. How significant a threat do you view agroterrorism as broader subset of biological terrorism?
Agroterrorism what exactly is it. Well it is defined as an “intentional introduction of a plant or animal disease with the purpose of causing monetary losses, creating fear, and/or undermining social stability”. (Bergeron 2011; Monke 2006) Based on this definition it looks like that agroterrorism in basic terms is when something is intentionally brought into an organism that will cause bodily harm to others. By doing this it would cause mass panic.
The agriculture and food industry are something that the United States needs to continue stability and life. There is so much revenue that is generated from these industries and introducing a weapon like this would cause many issues. Typically the main threats that came to food was diseases and pests that are accidentally introduced to the food supplies. Introducing a bioterrorism weapon like that to the food supply would cause much hysteria throughout the United States. Maybe even across the world. We need food to survive and so on.
“The goal of agroterrorism is not specifically the death of plants and animals, but rather an agroterrorism event is an avenue to undermine consumer confidence, cause social turmoil and create a host of other concerns.” (Stirrup 2007) With this being said if the consumer has no confidence in what they are selling and the crops that they are planting damaged in a way that they would not be consumed the consumer would then loose funds that they need to survive. With that as well tampering with the nations food supply would impact the publics feelings of certain consumers food chain and cause many issues.
The threat of agroterrorism is a widespread prospective event that may require a vast knowledge base; extensive resources and a fundamental understanding of emergency management response. With all of this being said I do believe that it is significant enough to be considered a way that many people could attack the nation because sometimes things that introduced to plants or animals can go undetected for different amounts of time.
Monke, J. 2006. CRS report for Congress: Agroterrorism: Threats and preparedness. (CRS Report for Congress RL32521).Retrieved from the Congressional Research Service website: http://www.cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/06Sep/RL32521.pdf
Monke, J. 2006. CRS report for Congress: Agroterrorism: Threats and preparedness. (CRS Report for Congress RL32521).Retrieved from the Congressional Research Service website: http://www.cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/06Sep/RL32521.pdf
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