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Vulnerable to Agroterroism So Inspections Drop...Go Figure!
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Imported food vulnerable to ‘agroterrorism' - Inspections drop as imports rise
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Inspections of imported food at the nation's entry ports have declined since the Department of Homeland Security took over the job in 2003, a new government report says. The drop means the government is reducing its first chance to discover a foreign disease or an act of “agroterrorism” before the food is distributed nationwide.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Wednesday that when the Department of Agriculture was still responsible for imported food inspections in fiscal 2002, there were 40.9 million inspections. In fiscal 2004, after the Homeland Security Department took over the task, there were 37.5 million inspections, even though food imports rose.
The drop came at a time when “experts agree that U.S. agriculture is vulnerable to agroterrorism because of the relative ease with which highly contagious diseases can be introduced in livestock and crops,” the GAO reported.
In a written response to the report, Homeland Security's Steven Pecinovsky said the department plans to hire 500 agriculture specialists over the next year and is training existing inspectors to more effectively target high-risk cargo.
Although Homeland Security was given the responsibility for inspections at the nation's ports, several government agencies are charged with safeguarding the nation's food supply, including the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, which also came in for GAO criticism.
The non-partisan GAO investigates federal agencies and reports to Congress. Its report expressed concern about whether the government would be able to respond quickly and decisively to a terrorist attack on the food supply or a naturally occurring outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which devastated Great Britain's livestock population in 2001.
“This report makes it clear that the administration is wasting time in securing our food from field to fork,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.
The GAO also found:
•The Agriculture Department does not use rapid-detection equipment to test animals at the site of a disease outbreak, even though that could speed diagnosis and minimize the number of animals that need to be slaughtered to contain a disease. Agriculture officials told the GAO that the department considers the technology to be still under development.
•The Agriculture Department stores vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease, but the vaccine cannot be deployed within 24 hours of an outbreak because it is not stored in a ready-to-use condition. It would first have to be shipped to the manufacturer in Great Britain to be tested and bottled.
Point/Counterpoint
03-14-2005, 17:15
Vulnerable to Agroterroism So Inspections Drop...Go Figure! 
