City hosts agro-terrorism workshop

Amber Wilson of SES, Inc. told law enforcement, public health, veterinarian school and agricultural production representatives this week that an attack (natural or intentional) on Alabama’s agricultural industries could be devastating to the state and the country.
Wilson’s presentation at the Eufaula Community Center was made to help ensure Barbour County is prepared in the event of such a crisis.
“You already have 80 percent of what you need to deal with this emergency,” said Wilson. Her task, she added, was to teach her audience about “the unique 20 percent.”
The AgroTerrorism Awareness and Planning meeting was sponsored by the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries and SES, Inc. During the meeting, Wilson, an expert in animal science, shared with her audience several worst-case scenarios in which a region’s agricultural industries were compromised and how local authorities should handle such situations.
“(An agricultural) disease could spread to 4-5 states before we even realized we had a problem,” said Wilson.
She pointed to the recent tomato-salmonella scare in the United States as well as the 2001 and 2007 foot-to-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom.
She used both examples of how great an impact an agricultural crisis could cause not just for the region, but the nation. She added that Alabama’s agricultural industry doesn’t just affect crop, livestock and dairy producers, but tourism and other local industries as well.
Wilson said agriculture is a $5.1 billion industry in the state, that Alabama produces 1 billion chicken broilers, 23,000 cattle farmers as well as thousands of egg-laying chicken farms and catfish farms. She said 21 percent of Alabama’s population is employed directly or indirectly through agriculture - so the threat posed by an agricultural crisis is clear.
During the meeting, Wilson also spoke of intentional terrorist threats to the state and nation’s food supply through contamination during production, transportation and retail. She added that crop and livestock producers as well as agricultural transportation should be wary of suspicious activities around their crops, stock and goods.
“You have to protect the entire chain from farm to table,” said Wilson. “We have to protect food to the point where you eat it.”
The program also provided simulated disease outbreak scenarios and provided a template as to what should be done during such catastrophes. Wilson also took into account agricultural producer compensation during the program for producers that lost crops or stock due to de-contamination.
She said the program’s main focus was to improve Barbour County’s local emergency plan and coordinate efforts of law enforcement and public health with those of veterinarians and agricultural producers.
Wilson also provided her audience with a list of federal veterinarians across the state to be contacted in the case of a livestock disease outbreak.