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Americans' Food Vulnerable to Attack by Terrorists NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON – A simple handkerchief wielded by a resourceful terrorist could cause billions of dollars of damage to America's food system and untold terror in the nation's kitchens, senators were told Wednesday. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, government officials have secured cities, airports, harbors, government buildings and tourist sites, but food experts say more attention should be focused on the country's food supply. "We have become a nation concerned about receiving anthrax in our mailboxes," said Dr. Tom McGinn of North Carolina Department of Agriculture. "Imagine what it would be like to be a nation concerned about opening our refrigerators and anthrax being in our refrigerators as well." A terrorist could easily use a handkerchief to spread a disease, such as foot and mouth disease, which affected 2,000 farms in Britain in 2001. "If you exposed livestock before they were being shipped back to the farm from a state fair, you would have dispersed the disease across the state, frankly, in a saddeningly efficient way," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Those and other nightmare scenarios show why government officials should pay more attention to the vulnerabilities of America's agriculture system, officials said. And using bioterrorism to attack the nation's food supply could be very attractive to terrorists, said Senate Government Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine. Such an attack would have a devastating effect on the American economy, with food production accounting for about 10 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and generating cash receipts in excess of $991 billion in 2001, said Peter Chalk, a Rand Corp. analyst. In addition to financial stress, an agricultural attack with a disease that can jump from animals to people could cause panic. "It could have severe repercussions in terms of galvanizing a mass public scare throughout the country, particularly if human deaths actually occurred," Chalk said. "Terrorists could use this to their advantage, allowing them to create a general atmosphere of fear and anxiety without actually having to carry out indiscriminate civilian-oriented attacks." While the agricultural system is vulnerable and should be improved, America's "food supply is the safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world," said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo. "That was true before September 11th and that is true today," said Talent, chairman of the Senate Agriculture subcommittee for marketing, inspection and promotion. "I am confident in our government's ability to work with industry and our research institutions to protect the commodities that our farmers and ranchers produce."
© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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