Seminar raises awareness about potential attack on local food
supply
Hollister – San Benito County law enforcement and agriculture officials got a crash course last week from the Department of Homeland Security in preventing and preparing for a possible terrorist attack on the food supply, which would have a devastating impact on public health and the local economy.
The day-long seminar brought together officials from both law enforcement and the agriculture community in an effort to raise awareness about the vulnerability of the local food supply chain, and also what agencies and organizations would be charged with responding to an ag-related terrorist attack.
Ron Ross, a senior biologist with the San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner’s office, said the main goal of the seminar was to bring people together.
“The idea is that in the case of some type of emergency, we don’t want everyone to be taken by surprise,” he said. “If we can build relationships now, before something happens, we can be better prepared.”
Although experts believe such attacks, also known as agroterrorism, are unlikely because they lack the sensational impact of a bomb or chemical attack, it is still a plausible threat, Ross said. Agroterrorism attacks could involve terrorists slipping food-borne bacteria such as E. coli or chemical poisons into the food supply at any number of points in the food production chain, from harvesting to packing to shipping.
“It’s not just blowing up buildings,” he said. “We are also vulnerable to economic terrorism involving the food supply chain – if anything happened in this region, Hollister would be impacted.”
San Benito County Farm Bureau President Paul Hain agreed.
“It could be crippling to the entire industry,” he said. “Even if there was just the perception of contamination here, it could decimate the industry.”
In the event of an agroterrorism attack, the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department would be the lead response agency, said Sheriff Curtis Hill.
“There is a time lapse before we can rely on the state and the feds,” he said. “So we plan everything toward being on our own for the first 72 hours.”
Hill said the seminar was effective in bringing people together and raising awareness.
“It was basically an orientation for producers, growers and distributors, and an opportunity for everyone to get together, talk and exchange business cards,” he said.
Although Hill and his deputies would take the lead, the Agriculture Commissioners Office would also play a major role in responding to an attack, Ross said.
“The local agencies would initially respond, before state and federal agencies got involved,” Ross said.
Ross said the Ag Commissioner’s Office would be charged with quickly identifying those affected and helping to set up quarantines to mitigate the affect of some kind of contamination – whether biological, such as a disease or food virus, or a chemical poisoning situation.
The seminar proved to be effective in raising awareness for many local farmers and ranchers, Hain said.
“It was a wake-up call, even once people start going to the hospital, it could be days before health officials recognize the pattern,” he said.
Hain said the seminar taught him to be more vigilant, but said he probably wouldn’t change the way he conducts his own poultry and walnut operations.
“I’ll certainly be more aware,” he said. “But I doubt I’m a likely target.”
County supervisor and local apple grower Anthony Botelho said the experience was valuable.
“From the producer’s end, I know the effect that an attack could have on the economy. We need to keep our practices vigilant throughout the industry,” he said. “And as a supervisor, I learned how invaluable input from the private sector would be in an emergency – we all need to understand that we can and should communicate as much as possible at the inception of such a problem to keep it from getting out of hand.”
