Workshop to raise agroterrorism awareness
Invitation-only session to get event responders talking
MOSES LAKE — Several local attendees will be on hand next week to discuss possible local responses in the event of an act of agroterrorism.
An invitation-only workshop will be held at the Moses Lake Armory Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Those attendees for whom a press release from the workshop's presenter, the Western Institute for Food, Safety and Security, suggested be in attendance include emergency responders, law enforcement officers, fire/rescue workers; federal, state and local public health agencies, hospital administrators, environmental health and public information officers, agriculture industries and elected or appointed public officials. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Washington State Department of Agriculture are also presenters and sponsors of the sessions.
Sharon Avery, WIFSS program director, defined agroterrorism as an intentional criminal act perpetrated against some segment of the agriculture industry or food system, intended to inflict harm on public health or cause an economic disruption. As in the case of all terrorism, the act would be to obtain an objective, i.e., scare people, she added.
"I can't say we're expecting an attack on our food system next year," she said. "I think what you have to say is we live in a different world right now, and terrorism is a concern. When we talk about terrorism and the general intent, which is usually to scare people, attack on the food supply would be a way to do that. It's certainly not to instill panic or make people worried that the food they eat isn't safe, which we all feel like it is, it's more to just raise the level of awareness that, geez, you know, this is a possibility."
WIFSS, located at the University of California Davis, has a six-course agroterrorism preparedness curriculum. The first course is being delivered in California and 12 other states, with three locations in the area, in Moses Lake, Kent and Hermiston, Ore. Avery said the goal is to present the other five courses as well.
"The overall goal of the training is to have a local team that's educated in agroterrorism and if there's an event, their response would be quicker and more complete," Avery said. "We have front-line responders in most all communities, counties or regions, and they're trained for fire, flood, earthquakes, on and on, but this training is focused on our food system, and so it's a little bit different."
The course tries to bring in traditional front-line responders, but also tries to bring in the agriculture industry to get to know one another and talk about what an event would look like if it was targeting the food system, Avery explained.
The point of the course is to raise the level of thinking and get people talking, Avery continued, and increase general awareness of the threats, covering what a threat is, what it might look like and might feel like, as well as some general information about how to perform an assessment of vulnerabilities.
The sessions are not open to the press and public, Avery said, because of the sensitivity of the information presented. Those invited to the course would be anybody with a role in an event, should one actually take place. Those not invited should get in touch with key contacts on a local level, she continued, or access the WIFSS Web site at wifss.ucdavis.edu for more information.
Avery called for a pat on the back for front-line responders who want to be educated to increase their response time.
"When your response time is quick, then your recovery time is quick, and the magnitude of the event is less," she said. "And also pat the (agriculture) industry on the back. They already do a lot to make sure the food is safe, and they are interested in making sure they stay up with other things that need to be done."