The risk of food terrorism in Canada is real, said security expert Asa Hutchinson.
Speaking to the Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon recently, the former undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that there is a continued global threat to the agricultural community.
“Let me assure you that if you are a thoughtful terrorist and you look at ways to attack United States or Canada or western civilization, you will consider agriculture as a terrorist target,” he said.
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U.S. agriculture represents 13 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, employs 15 percent of the population and has $50 billion in exports.
Canada’s numbers are smaller but also significant.
“It’s a perfect symbolic and economic target,” said Hutchinson.
In 1952, he said an African insurgent group used a local plant toxin to kill cattle at mission stations.
In 1978, the Arab Revolutionary Council poisoned Israeli oranges with mercury, injuring 12 people and reducing orange exports by 40 percent.
In an effort to protect the food supply chain, Hutchinson urged industry to implement its own security measures in partnership with government.
“It’s better to have a thoughtful approach in advance. Rather than inspecting everyone that goes on the airplane, what we should have done is to rely on intelligence to identify and try to inspect people who pose a risk to us as the Israelis do,” he said.
“To identify your threat, you have to first identify your vulnerabilities and develop a security plan that meets those threats and vulnerabilities that is suitable and matches your environment.”
Hutchinson says those working in agriculture need to take responsibility to protect agriculture because the risk is substantial.
“It’s your market. It’s your revenue stream. Not that someone would attack your farm but that there’s an attack on the marketplace itself and the public loses confidence,” he said.
Hutchinson said food processing plants are the most vulnerable because there are large quantities of product passing through a confined environment.
Animal welfare activists are also threats to the industry, citing videos posted on the internet of a downer cow at a U.S. beef slaughterhouse.
“Be careful who you hire and if you are in charge, know your business. You will be held responsible,” he said.
