Old Bin Laden had a farm…

Jenningsj

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Old Bin Laden had a farm…

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• Arts

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• Publié par: ycyzadom
• Nombre de lectures: 50
• Langue: Français

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T

here is no doubt that agri-

terrorism is the poor relation of

‘normal’ terrorism. We are used to

agricultural outbreaks so it is all

wrapped up with established norms, and

as such it rarely grabs either red or blue

force in the same visceral way as a

chemical device at the Superbowl, for

example. But the pair of them are on a

par in terms of the impact that they

would cause. Dr Vroegindewey cites a

case where two cows in the US were

diagnosed with Foot and Mouth Disease,

and the cost to the US (not including

other parts of the world) was $27 billion.

To put that into context, the cost to the

US of the Amerithrax incident is

estimated to be $1 billion: economically,

agri-terrorism has an ability to punch

far above its weight (especially in the

US). Where the two scenarios divide –

Superbowl vs Breakfast Bowl – is in the

layers of security. It would be difficult to

try and gauge the amount of visible and

covert checks that Superbowl spectators

go through before they take their seat,

but suffice to say any attempt to

smuggle a device in would be one of

serious effort and organisation. The

same is not true of agri-terrorism; many

of the desired agents are extremely

hardy, and the ability to insert them into

the system is straightforward (cattle

markets, feed barns, grain silos etc.).

Indeed, in his 2004 resignation speech,

the outgoing Health and Human

Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson

said, “For the life of me, I cannot

understand why the terrorists have not

attacked our food supply because it is so

easy to do.”

Dr Vroegindewey is not new to the

concept of agri-terrorism. Before he

joined the University of Maryland he was

the Director of the DoD Veterinary

Service Activity at the US Army

Veterinary Corps, so he has seen life on

both sides of the divide. He suggested

that the 27 billion dollar figure was not

exceptional (as the Amerithrax figure is

– since lessons learned should cut it

exponentially). He said, “Agri-terrorism

is largely economic terrorism. If you

look at the cost of SARS: 80-90 billion

dollars, total cost, investigation, time

lost, tourism – it is the loss of

commerce and trade. Following mad

cow/BSE in the US, over 100 countries

embargoed the export of US beef and

used it as a trade tool to circumvent

trade treaties, so countries that did not

import US beef to speak of would put an

embargo on it. So the cost was not

investigation or clean-up, which was

pretty minor in terms of response to the

occurrence, the cost was the loss of

trade to our trading partners and the

loss of that trade in exports. If you lose

trade there is knock on to the feed

industry, supplies that the meat

packers need etc.”

The impact of a trade

embargo on the largely

agricultural Midwest

US states is

likely to be large enough to bring the

state to a bankrupt condition and

provoke a massive Federal bail-out.

Indeed Rand studies in California

suggested that the cost to them of a

trade sanction would be one billion

dollars a day for each delay in the

control procedures. That figure is a

55

Spring 2011

CBRNe WORLD

www.cbrneworld.com

CBRNeWORLD

CBRNe Convergence 2011, 1-4 November, Askeri Müze, Istanbul. More information on www.icbrnevents.com

Dr Gary Vroegindewey, Director of the Global Health Initiative, at the

University of Maryland, tells Gwyn Winfield about curbing agri-terrorism

Old Bin Laden

had a farm…

Admit it. You went Aaaahhh. Yet this little piggy could cost the economy millions

©ADP