The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“AN AGROTERRORIST ATTACK--ARE WE PREPARED?” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S11472-S11473 on Sept. 15, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AN AGROTERRORIST ATTACK--ARE WE PREPARED?
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the need for greater preparation to protect our agriculture from a terrorist attack.
After September 11, the President placed agriculture on the list of critical infrastructure that deserved to be protected from an agroterrorist attack. Since then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, has moved to improve our preparedness to prevent and respond to an attack upon our agriculture. The President's February 2003
``National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets'' also outlines a strategy for increasing our ability to react to an agroterrorist attack. Yet, we still have a long way to go in protecting our agriculture industry.
There has been a steady drumbeat of warnings about the vulnerability of our agriculture. Two major studies were recently released that concluded we should do more to guard our agriculture. The Council on Foreign Relations, CFR, published a report on our emergency response capability that said we lacked an effective response to an attack on our national food supply. The report recommended spending an additional
$2.1 billion over the next 5 years to improve our ``animal/
agricultural'' emergency response.
On the heels of the CFR report, the Partnership for Public Service issued a study that examined whether the Federal Government has the necessary expertise to defend against a bioterrorist attack. In regards to agricultural security, it said that federal agencies responsible for safeguarding our agriculture and food supply from bioweapons would face
``crushing burdens'' if our food and water supplies were contaminated.
These are just the most recent reports that recommend we need to do more to increase our guard. Last fall, the National Academy of Sciences published a major study on vulnerability of U.S. agriculture. The General Accounting Office, GAO, has issued three reports in the last year that looked at food processing security, foot and mouth disease, and mad cow disease. All suggested that we still have a way to go to prevent or prepare for an attack on our agriculture.
An attack on our agriculture could have serious consequences. Agricultural activity accounts for approximately 13 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and nearly 17 percent of domestic employment. The United States is a top producer and exporter of agricultural goods, including beef, pork, poultry, wheat, corn and soybeans. Major agricultural States could be severely affected depending on the nature of the attack.
States with large cattle herds could be devastated by a deliberately set outbreak of foot and mouth disease. There were over 96 million cattle and calves in the United States valued at some $70 billion in 2003. Texas has the largest number by far, 14 million animals, and could be particularly hard hit. In 2001, the cattle industry generated
$6.8 billion in income for Texas. The breeding herd of beef cows is particularly concentrated in Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas, with each State having have more than a million head of beef cows.
Dairy States could also suffer. The United States has over nine million milk cows that produce almost $25 billion in income. California and Wisconsin are the largest producers. Both have more than a million milk cows that yield close to $8 billion in income. But a number of States--Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington each have more than 200,000 cows, contributing substantially to their economies.
Hog-raising States also could be vulnerable to the spread of foot-
and-mouth disease, or to an outbreak of African swine fever. The United States had almost 60 million hogs and pigs valued at over $4 billion dollars in 2002. Iowa has the largest industry with more than 15 million animals valued at over a billion dollars. North Carolina is next with some 9.6 million animals valued at a half a billion dollars. Ten additional States have substantial industries with more than a million animals: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.
States with large poultry industries are vulnerable to Exotic Newcastle Disease or avian influenza. In 2002, 14 States had flocks of over 15 million birds each: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Iowa alone has over 40 million birds valued at over $64 million.
Crops, such as wheat, could also be a target. A purposeful spread of the Karnal bunt wheat fungus could have a strong adverse impact on U.S. exports. The United States is the world's leading exporter of wheat, accounting for almost one-third of world wheat exports valued at over
$3.5 billion in 2002. Since almost 80 countries do not allow Karnal infected wheat to be imported, a ban on U.S. exports could have a substantial effect on the U.S. economy. The Economic Research Service of the USDA estimated that the total cost of a reduction of exports from 2003 to 2007 could be over $7 billion if there was such a ban. The top wheat-producing States--Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington--would be particularly hard hit.
I have been concerned about the vulnerability of our agriculture for quite some time. When I was a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, I was a supporter of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHIS. APHIS plays a critical role in guarding our borders and farms from agricultural pests and diseases, something that is of prime importance to Hawaii. As a Senator, I continue to be concerned about this problem. In the 107th Congress I introduced a bill to enhance agricultural biosecurity in the United States.
In this Congress, I have introduced two bills that will help address our shortcomings in agricultural security preparedness. The Agriculture Security Assistance Act, S. 427, and Agriculture Security Preparedness Act, S. 430, are designed to address the need for increasing coordination in confronting the threat to America's agriculture industry. The two bills provide for better funding and better-
coordinated response to an incident of agroterrorism. The bills will also serve to increase our defenses against debilitating agroterrorism attacks.
The Agriculture Security Assistance Act is primarily aimed at assisting States and communities in responding to threats to the agriculture industry. The legislation will provide funds for communities and States to increase their ability to handle a crisis. It also will help animal health professionals to participate in community emergency planning activities to assist agriculturists in strengthening their defenses against a terrorist threat.
The Agriculture Security Preparedness Act will enable better interagency coordination thereby enhancing agriculture security. The legislation will establish senior level liaisons in Departments of Homeland Security, DHS, and Health and Human Services, HHS, to coordinate with USDA on agricultural disease emergency management and response. The bill requires DHS and USDA to work with the Department of Transportation to address the risks associated with transporting animals, plants, and people between and around farms.
Recently Mother Nature has provided warnings of the costs and dangers of a possible agroterrorist attack. In May, Canadians discovered that an 8-year-old cow that had been killed in January was infected with mad cow disease. The same disease affected cattle in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s leading to a slaughter of over 3.7 million animals.
Canada faced an enormous adverse economic impact due to the discovery of the mad cow disease. Canada's cattle industry generates $7 billion in cattle sales and the industry remained paralyzed during the period immediately following the discovery of the disease. Major importers of Canada's beef, like the United States, Mexico, Japan and Australia, temporarily halted their imports causing almost $8 million a day loss to the cattle industry. The news also affected companies like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Tyson Foods.
Canada acted to control the spread of the disease by quarantining herds of suspected cattle and slaughtering them to test for the presence of the disease. All the herds believed to have come in contact with the infected cow were quarantined and killed for medical examination. More than 2,700 Canadian cattle were slaughtered and eighteen farms were quarantined in the process of determining the disease's source and to control the spread of the disease.
In the United States, the southwest poultry industry has been beset by a costly outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease, END, since last fall. The outbreak was first detected in a backyard chicken flock in Los Angeles County in early October 2002. It then spread to Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Over the past months, some 25 countries including the European Union have put embargoes on chicken from affected areas. In Texas, where the poultry industry employs about 15,000 people and is ranked sixth in the Nation, the industry said it could lose about $100 million as a result of the embargoes. In California, State officials ordered the destruction of more than 3 million birds, enforcing a quarantine over a wide area. The outbreak in 2002 and 2003 cost the state almost $100 million to control the spread of the disease.
We all know an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The Nation's capability to counter agroterrorism is increasing. But agriculture's central importance to our country suggests greater efforts are needed. As the recent cases of Mad Cow and Exotic Newcastle disease dramatically demonstrate, the consequences of a lack of preparedness could be quite high. Containing these naturally occurring diseases was costly and it involved extensive coordination. It could be much more difficult to counter a deliberate attack. The two bills I have introduced will help us to act now so that a future agroterrorist attack can be avoided, or dealt with rapidly before it can get out of hand. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
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