Kansas State University co-hosted a discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C. last month that focused on potential bioterrorist threats against agriculture and ways to ensure biosecurity.
Included in the panel discussion was Interim President of Kansas State University Gen. Richard Myers, former Senate Majority Leader and co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center Tom Daschle, and former Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.
The panel discussed the 2015 Blue Ribbon Panel on Biodefense report, which said the United States remained vulnerable to biological agents and natural diseases to agriculture.
“I think these are issues that deserve the highest attention and the most critical prioritization as we look at public policy in the context of national security,” Daschle said. “I don’t think anyone disputes the importance of the issue, but what I don’t think has happened is that we have given it the kind of attention that it so justly deserves.”
Myers said that agriculture was an under-discussed aspect of potential bioweapons targets and that a major outbreak of animal or crop diseases would not only create a negative economic impact, but would undermine the public’s trust in the government.
“Food crop diseases are almost the perfect weapon because they involve relatively soft targets,” Myers said. “There is no danger to the perpetrator because they’re not going to be injured by what they are doing. It will take some time to discover it, especially with our current surveillance methods, which are inadequate. Plus, it will be very difficult to have attribution.”
Myers said Kansas State will continue encouraging executive-level involvement in addressing agricultural concerns as well as collaboration between researchers from different universities and organizations.