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Food Supply Update: May 2002

 

U.S. Terrorism Puzzle Missing Picture on the Box

Copyright ã 2002, by Geri Guidetti

 

 

This Food Supply Update may be reprinted and distributed as hard or electronic copy only in its entirety, including attributes and contact information. It must be offered free of charge. Edited versions must receive prior consent of author. Email: arkinst . Permission of author must be obtained for posting on any commercial web site or reprinting in any commercial catalog or publication. Previous issues of the Food Supply Update are archived at The Ark Institute's web site at www.arkinstitute.com

The Ark Institute, PO Box 142, Oxford, OH 45056 800-255-1912

 

 

 

Today is Day 8. For eight days now television, radio, the Internet and newspaper stories would have us believe that the single most important issue facing this nation is whether George W and Associates knew that terrorists were planning to attack us on September 11th , and then either naively, stupidly, deceitfully or incompetently squandered an opportunity to stop it. Eight days, so far, of the same faces asking the same questions of the same handful of experts and officials who respond with the same answers. Now will come the investigations, and perhaps months more of mind-numbing, repetitive coverage of same.

"Here, let me help!" my mind screams. "Here are the results of the next nine months of investigations: Our government made mistakes. The 10,000-piece Intelligence Jigsaw Puzzle held all the clues to the September attacks. The puzzle pieces were spread out too far. Nobody knew what pieces everyone else had. Nobody shared. Nobody knew where their little pieces fit in because somebody lost the picture on the box! Everybody thought the President had it. He didn't. A guy in Phoenix did. Let's get a copy of the picture on the box to everyone with puzzle pieces. Give each of them a cell phone and the address of one guy who will put all their tiny, assembled puzzle fragments together on that big table in the White House."

Cynicism aside, we need to stop talking and get to work. We are wasting critical, precious time and resources that would be better spent infiltrating the minds and activities of our enemies. Any group with little else in this world but the companionship of a cult of hatred, and the assurance that a legion of virgins in heaven stands ready to reward their martyrdom, will not rest until they are successful. No free country with open borders can identify and eliminate every one of these living and yet-to-be-born time bombs. This amorphous, programmed enemy lives among us and among other peaceful societies in Europe, Africa, Asia and everywhere, it seems. They have been educated, indoctrinated and organized. Like so many fissionable atoms, they are reaching critical mass.

We, on the other hand, are on a steep learning curve. They commandeer our aircraft with box cutters; we hit them with 5000-pound bunker-busters. They try clever, six-ounce shoe bombs in the air; we fire clever, laser guided missiles into hiding holes in the Afghan hills. We think big and wipe out small; they think small and wipe out big. While that's not entirely accurate or fair, I think it is part of the big "picture on the box." We are so focused on the broad, ugly, global terrorism picture, and on the myriad of possible political and hi-tech military solutions, that we are missing the millions of low-tech, small vulnerabilities that can bring us, our great nation to its knees. Nowhere is this more evident than in agriculture and food.

For years, The Food Supply Updates have been sounding an alarm: our sophisticated, hi-tech seed and food system technologies actually create new and dangerous vulnerabilities to our food supply. (You can read archived issues at The Ark Institute's web site: www.arkinstitute.com) Our nation's newfound awareness that a clever enemy lives among us, that many of its members likely participate at one level or another in free trade with us, and that members may even be involved in the very industries that feed us, is a wake-up call that we simply cannot afford to ignore. Those who scoffed, only a few years ago, at the idea that abundant, safe food could ever be threatened in the U.S., are beginning to think about it for the first time. A May 12th UPI science news story reports:

"Since Sept. 11, bioterrorism became the federal government's number one priority. The subject includes food security--protecting the nation's food supply from a bioterrorism attack......advanced technology and a decentralized food supply make it possible for terrorists to contaminate the U.S. food supply and sicken or even kill thousands of citizens."

The reporter asks if Mad Cow Disease could be intentionally slipped into the U.S. meat supply. Answer: they're watching. Could our fresh vegetables be laced with harmful bacteria? An FDA (Food and Drug Administration) spokesperson said, "It is FDA's policy not to discuss potential threats." That is part of the problem! No one wants any of us to get upset over the possibilities; no one wants to create anxiety or to cause any negative impact on the corporations that process, sell and serve food. If they are worried that publicly discussing threats to our food supply is going to give would-be terrorists ideas, they can stop worrying. Sept. 11th should have taught us that terrorists have already found our weaknesses! We all need to begin to think like them!

Another interesting story by Reuters appeared on May 1st. Entitled "Lax Security at USDA Labs Putting Farms at Risk", it describes the shockingly poor conditions at the National Veterinary Services Labortories in Ames, Iowa. And what do you suppose this facility is responsible for? How about testing animals for Mad Cow, anthrax, Foot and Mouth Disease and other deadly animal diseases now seen as bioterrorist threats? The story cites labs with "poor ventilation, rodent infestation and outdated buildings." The head of the USDA laboratories told Reuters, "It is embarrassing when people from other countries come and visit our facilities. One of the nicer comments they have said was that it was 'appalling.' " An 11-month review of USDA facilities by the National Association of State Agriculture Departments noted that the USDA facilities had problems "so deep that the system cannot appropriately respond to a severe animal health crisis." Read that last quote again. Let it sink in.

USDA officials say they expect to have their laboratories modernized by 2006. They also say they are prepared to "handle any major outbreak of an animal disease that could pose a threat to U.S. agriculture.

Do you feel safe now?

Remedies in the works at the FDA include planned spending of $98 million in 2003 for food security, the hiring of 250 food safety inspectors, and authorization to hire 650 new field personnel for inspections. Food companies are boosting technology to monitor employees, to reduce the risk of break-ins, to limit access to products. As many hurdles as possible will be constructed between the terrorist and the consumer, they say.

All of this is good. Really. We need to do all of these things given our current of food system infrastructure, but we need to do much more if we are going to avoid deadly food supply crises. Here are three of our most critical vulnerabilities. I will cover more in the next Food Supply Update:

 

 

 

Foot and Mouth Disease. A serious outbreak that began earlier this month in South Korea continues. (Why aren't we hearing about it? We're too busy investigating, naming and blaming for 9-11.) So far, 110,000 animals have been slaughtered to "contain" the outbreak. This highly contagious disease afflicts cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, deer and other cloven-hoofed animals. Over two-thirds of South Korea's livestock markets are closed. A similar outbreak in Britain in 2001 caused the slaughter of millions of farm animals and devastated family, farm, food service, restaurant and tourism economies. The widespread, yet nearly simultaneous, outbreaks in the entire United Kingdom have led many experts to suspect bioterrorism was the real cause of the epidemic. With our highly concentrated system of feedlots for cattle and concentrated quarters for pigs, a similar outbreak in the U.S. will prove disastrous to the U.S. meat and dairy industries, to the restaurants and the economy in general. We are sitting ducks! Foot and Mouth disease is a highly accessible potential bioterrorist weapon and can truly become a weapon of mass destruction--of food and dairy animals, and of our economy.

During the anthrax attacks on the U.S., Iowa's National Guard was activated to bolster security at the USDA labs that store harmful bacteria and viruses that could attack humans and farm animals. The Guard was no longer in place at the labs six months after the attacks. In its May 1st story on USDA lab security, Reuter's quotes an anonymous US meat industry official who said, "I honestly don't know how we have been successful in escaping a major outbreak like in Europe. Our labs are a joke." Now, do you feel safe?

Unpleasant as it is, we have no choice but to think worst-case scenario with respect to Foot and Mouth. Keeping this virus out of the U.S. is improbable, if not impossible. The FDA, USDA and meat/dairy industry leaders need to rethink and revise how we raise animals, and begin acting proactively--now. We need to develop contingency plans for the potential disruption of this part of the food system immediately.

The government needs to engage all of us in the process. They need to encourage everyone to stock sufficient food supplies to get them through any possible food supply disruptions. Reinforcing the illusion (delusion?) that supermarkets will always have what we need and want every day, and fast food restaurants will always be there to satisfy our every food whim, is unconscionable in this dangerous new world. It might be good for business, but it is morally unconscionable. This can be done in a way that does not create panic. Friendly ads about families ready for anything: hurricanes, power outages, etc, would help. Individuals and families would be wise to explore meatless eating, even dairy-free eating, now. It is better to consider and plan for disruptions before they occur.

Oil to Fork Our entire food supply is dependent, at one point or another, on robust oil supplies. We now import about 60 percent of our oil and the lion's share comes from the embroiled Middle East. Fertilizers. Pesticides. Herbicides. Tractor and combine fuel. Food processing equipment. All are completely dependent, at one level or another, on oil. We virtually eat oil! Is there anyone in the U.S. that truly believes that our government can assure an uninterrupted oil supply today? If there were a sudden cut-off of Middle Eastern supplies, if there were several major refinery attacks here in the U.S., every part of our oil-dependent economy would suffer within days. What if it continued for weeks? Months?

The production miracle of our sophisticated food supply comes at great cost--the cost of dependence on foreign oil to feed us every day. The miracle continues only as long as oil flows freely. Any government effort to ensure the food security of Americans must include sufficient oil stocks to assure the current needs of "factory farms" and processors and then, more importantly, an honest assessment of the wisdom of an agricultural system that relies on fossil fuel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) needs to put a substantial portion of its anti-terrorism, food security budget into the promotion of and assistance to organic farmers who do not use oil-based fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides. Every state, every community with hospitable soil and climate should be encouraged and supported by the USDA to develop local organic farms and markets. They should encourage the further development of community gardens. An attack on any part of the food supply infrastructure could result in food shortages.

In the climate of terrorism, local and regional food self-sufficiency should be national policy.

 

In addition, individual families should be encouraged to grow family gardens. Remember the Victory Gardens of World War II? This is the time to resurrect them.

 

Seed Security. In 1997, in Florence, Italy, there was an important conference entitled,

International Workshop on Seed Security for Food Security. The title says it all: seed security for food security.

The preface to the conference proceedings states international concerns quite clearly:

"It is estimated that 1.4 billion people live in farm families which are still self-provisioning in terms of seeds. These families typically save a portion of seed from each year's harvest to use for planting the following season. Production on these farms....rests on a biological foundation which is effective and time-tested, but one which can be extremely precarious in the modern world. Wars, civil strife and natural disaster can prevent farmers from saving seed and can, almost overnight, destroy their self-reliance in seed and planting materials. The effects can be devastating and long-lasting--to the people, to the environment and to the productivity and sustainability of the farming system itself."

There are several very important truths in this preface, truths few Americans ever think about. First, 1.4 billion of the world's people depend on their own saved seed to grow their own food each year. They do not have to buy seed from some giant multi-national seed company in order to eat. In fact, they don't want them because their own seeds are adapted to their own climate, even to their own garden's microclimate. Their seeds are non-hybrids that will reproduce, true to type, from year to year. They have wisely and competently selected for the largest, best, earliest, etc, food crop traits by taking seeds from their best fruits, grains and vegetables each year. Their seeds are their heritage, having been passed down from their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. They possess a great variety of seeds. Their seeds are their food security.

Most of our food is produced by huge commercial farming businesses using expensive seed purchased from large seed companies that specialize in genetically modified varieties which allow for high productivity, ease of harvesting, herbicide resistance, pesticide traits, etc. Much of our seed is produced in other countries! What's more, the variety--the important diversity of seed stock--is very limited, very narrow. Most of the seed cannot, because of hybridization, genetic engineering, or by legal restrictions, be saved to grow next year's crops. Add to that picture, the coming commercialization of the USDA-sponsored Terminator gene technology (2003? See archived Food Supply Updates) which will genetically render seed sterile so it cannot be saved to grow food next year, and you have a set-up for potential catastrophe. The peasant in the developing world may prove to have greater personal food security than those of us who live in the greatest agricultural nation on the planet!

Another truth in their statement: any natural or manmade disaster can destroy, "almost overnight", a population's seed self-reliance, hence their food security. "The effects can be devastating and long-lasting--to the people, to the environment and to the productivity and sustainability of the farming system itself." Pre-September 11th, it would be almost unthinkable to most people that any disaster could be widespread enough to threaten a whole nation's seed supply, especially this nation's. In fact, most people likely don't give a thought to that seed supply.

Though the seed security conference focused a great deal on the effects of disasters on populations dependent on their own seed production, its message has, perhaps, even greater relevance to populations such as ours. We, as a population, are completely dependent on corporations and industrial farms to produce seed and food for us, year in and year out. In many ways, we are even more vulnerable to a disruption in a season's crops.

This absolute dependence on others to produce seed for us is the greatest threat to our personal, fundamental survival.

 

Seeds are the very foundation of our food security. A foundation of seed that cannot be saved and reproduced by a nation's people is a prescription for catastrophe. Oil and chemical dependent agriculture is dangerous, especially now, for a country dependent on others for its oil and chemicals! Foot and Mouth Disease must be considered an imminent threat to our current food supply. We must develop national and personal contingency plans right now.

Terrorists plan to hit both our food and water supplies. We are not ready! As our government reacts to the events of September 11th , as our journalists and politicians react to government and agency missteps, we have to come to terms with our own reality right now. We must be proactive as individuals and communities. We need to honestly assess our personal food security. In the event of an attack today, tomorrow, next year, we will be our own "First Responders." We must be prepared to protect ourselves from harm by an enemy who lives among us. .........Geri Guidetti, The Ark Institute

 

 

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