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SC Agriculture Vulnerability Assessment
| Name | Howard J. van Dijk | | Situation | America has witnessed awesome tragedies due to terrorist activities and we are told to anticipate more. Official reports have revealed that terrorists target our country’s most vulnerable aspects of our society. One of the most vulnerable areas is agriculture and our daily food supply. It is reported that we have a 4-5 day supply of fresh produce and meat supply in the food chain which points out that we could go hungry very quickly if there were an agroterrorist disease introduction. Federal and State Authorities are allocating resources to protect agriculture and our daily food. The Extension Service is uniquely qualified to educate the agriculture community on this potential terrorist threat and to educate our clientele on biosecurity and food safety measures.
| | Response | In October 2003, SC-SLED requested that Clemson University Extension Service help conduct an agriculture vulnerability assessment of the 46 counties and provide guidance to the counties on how to prepare for agroterrorist activities. This assessment was authorized through ODP - Office of Domestic Preparedness, which allocates Homeland Security funds to the states to counteract terrorist activities. It was this agent’s task to communicate plans to other county extension agents and county emergency managers. I assisted in organizing a local team to compile a list of all vulnerable agriculture sites in each of the counties. Through much coaching and encouragement this was accomplished. The data was compiled and summarized for the state. As a member of the State Agroterrorist Prevention Team I was able to review the county assessments and make suggestions. I served on a grant writing team and wrote a grant to fund training for extension agents, farm producers, and food service providers, on biosecurity measures and agroterrorist prevention. Many hours and days were allocated on the agriculture assessments, on the grant writing, and grant defense. SC-DHEC, SC Dept of Agriculture, CULPH, Clemson University Plant Regulatory, Dr. Susan Barefoot, and Dr. Fran Wolak, all participated in this process and have specific functions and allocations in the final grant proposal.
| | Impact | SC-SLED has indicated that Clemson University was successful in the grant process and will receive a significant allocation to plan, conduct education in the area, and will receive significant funds to support laboratory equipment for early detection of possible weapons of mass
destruction. This truly is a cooperative effort and will take much cooperation to conduct a successful program for each of the clientele categories specified in the grant proposal. Clemson Extension agents will be asked to help coordinate first responder teams at the local county level, on regional first responder teams, and on state special teams. These first responder teams are called CART’s which stands for County Agriculture/Animal Response Team. Early detection of an agroterrorist event will be essential to preserve our way of life and our state and national economy.
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Last update10/5/2007
This website is maintained by Tiffany Rodgers.
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