Late spring and early summer are busy times for farmers, but they can also be dangerous times. Severe storms, tornadoes, lightning strikes, flooding and the like can interrupt business, damage or destroy crops, or kill or severely injure livestock. Now you have a new one – agroterrorism.

Certainly more emphasis has been put on agroterrorism in the last decade, but it’s now consider part-and-parcel of the threats that can befall an agriculture business. The terrorism threat is still, thankfully, just a potential threat and not a realized one, but agriculture agencies and the federal government are giving real credence to the potential. The USDA listed agroterrorism as one possible source of loss exposure that farms face.

An attack on the food supply could have devastating consequences. Shipments off infected farms would halt. Quarantines would be enforced. Highway traffic could be halted on routes where suspected contaminated trucks have traveled. And the dollar amount could be devastating – a 2001 UK-based outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease alone cost $3.3 billion (US dollars) in losses and caused the euthanizing of over 6 million animals. Another $8.3 billion was lost in tourist dollars.

While the majority of threats to the country’s food supply have come from natural elements – disease and Mother Nature – the government is placing enough emphasis on the possibility of terrorism that agribusiness owners should have a plan in place to reduce the chances of terrorists reaching the food supply. The livestock ID program started in 2004 was the government’s first real attempt to put controls around the food chain.

Also, the government has tightened security at US entry points to try quelling any attempts to import dangerous pathogens.

In order to reduce the chance of an attack on your livestock, the Congressional Research Service at The Library of Congress suggests the following:

• Make sure your livestock enclosures limit contact between livestock and people or wild animals.
• Make sure all people, clothing, vehicles, equipment, and supplies entering the farm are disinfected.
• Use existing testing and detection methods for locating and managing natural/accidental disease outbreaks.

Review your insurance coverage. Will it respond in the event of a terrorist attack on your animals or grain? If you have questions, call your insurance broker or me. I specialize in farm insurance coverage, and I’d be happy to provide you with the most updated coverage information.

Flickr photo credit: stuck in customs

Filed under: Agribusiness by afis blogger