The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Richmond/Norfolk offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sponsored a conference on agroterrorism at the Smithfield Center last Thursday. Several people from VDACS agency participated, along with members of industry and law enforcement from local, state and federal agencies.

VDACS Commission Todd Haymore says he was pleased at attendance, about 130 people from as close by as Isle of Wight County and as far away as Los Angeles, California.

He says, "As we were planning this conference, I was surprised at the number of people who said they had never considered that agriculture might be a target of terrorism. Believe me, we have been thinking about that at VDACS for years. Our thinking and our actions generally have two prongs. The first is preventive, what can we do to prevent such an attack from occurring.

"Of course no one can promise that we are 100-percent safe from a terrorist attack on the food supply, but we work with farmers and industry constantly to help them be more secure. The second is mitigation, what we can do to minimize the damage. Then there is a third prong, a part of which is outside our particular areas of expertise, and that is response. We depend on agencies like State Police and the FBI for the criminal investigation part of the response.

"As prevention goes, we’ve had a lot of practice. Through personal contact and a Food Security newsletter we constantly advise farmers and agribusinesses on minimizing the likelihood of intentional contamination of the food supply.

"Some of this is just common sense: limit access to your farm or facility, perform background checks on your employees, lock storage sheds, know who comes and goes from your place and if someone appears to be acting suspiciously, ask what he or she is doing there. If after confronting them your suspicions continue, call 911 or local law enforcement. We don’t want to make people paranoid, but we do want them to be on guard and to be pro-active.

"Protecting the food supply and our agricultural infrastructure goes way beyond these common sense measures, however. According to speakers at the Agroterrorism Conference, you need to learn how an extreme activist or terrorist thinks. You need to get to know and trust others who would work with you during and after an event.

"And, here’s the hard part, you need to be able to distinguish an intentional act of contamination from an accident or natural occurrence. For those of us in food and agriculture, at least initially it’s going to be difficult to tell if a crisis event was accidental in nature or a malicious event created to cause panic or harm. A food-borne illness outbreak can come from poor sanitation, a highly contagious animal or poultry disease can spread from animal to animal via natural means, and a plant disease or pest infestation can spread via the wind or by insects.

"If it appears that we can rule out Acts of God or infection spread by usual means, then early on we need to bring in people who have been trained to investigate criminal activity. I think it’s a positive thing that most of us can’t even conceive of something like contaminating milk headed for the school lunch program. It is not a positive thing, however, if we refuse to recognize that there are people out there who can conceive of and carry out such a plan.

"One of the speakers at the conference, an FBI agent from California, began his presentation by saying, 'Now I don’t want to alarm anyone.' As he spoke those words, his PowerPoint presentation was flashing the message WARNING, WARNING, WARNING in bold, red, capital letters. Mixed message? Indeed. But his point was, while there’s no need for panic, we do need to be aware that there are people who would think they were serving a greater good by burning down a research laboratory or production facility.

"These folks, he said, would not be conflicted by causing millions of dollars worth of damages, destroying personal or public property and creating panic in the streets. We need people like this FBI agent to remind us of that and to work with us in responding to criminal acts.

"I can’t say I left the Agroterrorism Conference with warm, fuzzy feelings. I can say, however, that I left with a high degree of confidence in our ability to respond to an emergency should one occur. One of the most important things those of us in agriculture can do is get to know our partners in crisis, the folks from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, FBI, Food and Drug Administration, state and federal Departments of Health and our own Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services who would work with us to mitigate the effects of a terrorist event, to keep the public informed about prudent courses of action and to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

"It’s not something I like to think about, but as VDACS Commissioner, it’s something I need to think about. Mostly I need to leave it to the experts and have confidence in their ability to respond quickly and appropriately. These include people like Dr. Don Butts and Bruce Chisholm of our Office of Emergency Management; Don Blankenship, our Deputy Commissioner; Dr. Richard Wilkes, State Veterinarian; Doug Saunders, Deputy Director of the Division of Animal and Food Industry Services; Dr. Chris McNeil, veterinarian; folks like Ryan Davis and Pam Miles in the Office of Dairy and Foods; and people like Liza Fleeson and Doug Edwards in the Office of Pesticide Services; Dr. Don Delorme, Milton Hargrave and Bob Bailey in the Office of Product and Industry Standards; and Larry Nichols in the Office of Plant and Pest Services.

"Each of these people took part in the conference and contributed from their own expertise. If an event involves anything from spilled pesticides to missing fertilizer, soybean rust to Foot and Mouth Disease, I’m glad that our experts in these and other areas have had training in how they will respond and how they will protect the public from collateral damage."