Agroterrorism

Seems the International Symposium on Agroterrorism is taking place in Kansas City this week. Steve Kraske had Dr. David Franz, who is, among other things, the Chief Biological Scientist with Midwest Research Institute here in beautiful midtown KC.

They discussed preharvest and postharvest biosecurity and Dr. Franz didn't seem too thrilled with the progress being made. I didn't catch the whole show, but it ended with Dr. Franz painting a frightening picture a hoof and mouth outbreak. Billions of dollars could be lost overnight from killing all infected cattle and their herds. But also, travel could be severely limited to prevent the spread of the infection. Food prices would go up, tourism would go down, shipping things cross country by truck could be next to impossible.

But I wonder whether this is really Al-Qaeda's style. Doesn't seems flashy enough. Since hoof and mouth is naturally occurring, they risk people thinking they are just trying to take credit for a natural disaster. On the other hand, Al-qaeda's probably not the only entity interested in taking the US down. Another nation-state, (Iran for example), may be more results oriented.

Well, if you needed something else to worry about, you've got it.