The threat of Agroterrorism must be dealt with before it’s too late. To first understand the threat, one must look at the industry and the agents. Within those areas, a person can find characteristics that can give an understanding of this issue. This essay is going to have a narrow view by only looking at five different points in this area to show the issues in the industry, and show how those issues increase the risk of an agroterrorism attack. The issue of agroterrorism is a real and present danger to people and to the country. The first area looked at is going to be the openness that the US has in farming (Franz 2004, p. 131). With the farming being so open, few security measures have been put into place to control the basics, like who
131). This has happened because of modern methods of farming of wanting animals or crops that is genetically similar and easier to care for. It has become easier to produce food because of the large scale that is now used for farming. (Roberge 2015). With this low diversity, the resistance to a disease is reduced or gone, and it is harder to find a gene that can stop the disease (Roberge 2015). The industry having low genetic differences in a species makes the impact from an attack worse, increasing the damage it does to everyone. A person could launch an attack at fewer points since the disease could easily spread because the resistance is
132). With the production of food at such a large scale, the issue of uniformity is called into question. The industry revolves around making food so it is easier to produce. The uniformly and scale of farming can enable a person with the intent to do harm to affect a large percent of food in a small attack (Pehanich 2006). With this attack and having uniformly in food making at one place it can put a person out of business since all they produce is affect from the attack. With farms owned by a corporation, like Tyson, food can easily follow this since the company makes money by having a simple and uniform practice. This problem is only going to increase as the years go
Many policies on farm and agriculture has impacted the way food is grown in America. For example hedge funds, described in page 11 of Foodopoly have essentially driven the prices of land in America and worldwide. This has resulted in farmers having to either cut down costs and make due with lesser land, or be forced out of business. Along with pollution to environment, this policy along with many others results in the situation described in page 12, with lesser farmers working to supply the nation (from 6.8 million to under 1 million). Most often, farmers sell their products are low prices to pay off land that is priced higher...
As every species in the world developed, it's sub-species and it's further strains and breeds under those have evolved for a very specific reason - the preservation of the species, and ultimately, life itself. Each species is like a tree, with hundreds of branches, each leading to thousands of other branches. Each branch of the tree is slightly different from the one beside it, due to living in a different environment it has had to adapt and the resulting differences are due to the combination - the formula - of genes, which has survived the best in whatever environment it has encountered. Because of this branching of the species, whenever a particular disease, a natural phenomenon, or a new predator has arrived on the scene, the species has always been diverse enough to continue, as there will be one branch of the tree which has the immunity, adapted over time, in order to defend itself or escape from the catastrophe. This method, special branching, has ensured the survival of various species for thousands of years, and is in fact the reason for the existance of different species.
More and more farm-to-table restaurants, farmer’s markets, and food co-ops are cropping up to meet the demand among consumers for healthy, local foods, as more chefs and consumers recognize the poorer taste and nutritional integrity of ingredients shipped in from far away. Fruits and vegetables that have to be shipped long distances are often picked before they have a chance to fully ripen and absorb nutrients from their surroundings. Because local food doesn’t have to travel long distances, it is grown in order to taste better and be healthier rather than to be resilient to long travel. The farm-to-table movement also helps local economies by supporting small farmers, which is a dying
In this film, “Food Inc” they are showing us how the food industry grew into these mega processing plants, and slaughterhouses. First, let us look at the market force; the definition of a market force is the law of supply and demand. This means basically the price determination within the market; moreover, the price is determined by the level of demand and the quantity that is available. In the Tar Heel Slaughter house in Smithfield, is the largest slaughter house in the world. On the “kill floor”, they kill at least 32,000 a day. This makes meat packing one of the most dangerous jobs. The food system and the few companies that control the meat production industry have turned the food
Over the years food has changed from more natural occurring products to quick and easily accessible ones. I for one blame the companies who accept and encourage this. From the previous essay, it also provides a series of questions for which we should be analyzing our food: “How fresh is it? How far was it transported? How pure or clean is it?” (Berry). Simply, we need to be more aware about our food. Food used to be only grown. There was no way
Details the formation and growth of the homeland security field in the U.S. National warning systems, as well as government and citizen groups are summarized. Also, des...
Developing primarily in the 1980's, the United States has seen over one hundred acts of destruction causing close to $42.8 million in damages as a result of eco terrorists' protesting (Nilson). Using these harmful and disruptive acts to bring publicity to an issue is not highly unusual, but when it is administered on this level, something needs to be done to stop it. For the majority of these groups, their goal is to prevent the progress of any businesses that they deem harmful. Increasing rapidly in the last 20 years, this threat has become a serious problem in terms of types of acts committed, their potential for deadly violence, and the number of individuals involved in committing these acts or aiding in their commission through providing financial support. With the danger and severity level of these crimes increasing, something needs to be done to protect the United States and it's devot...
Food companies have the capability to take complete advantage of what is going into the market and what is coming out of it. While the farmers take the role of being puppets, the companies take the role of Geppetto. Companies sign off contracts with new farmers who put themselves in up to $300,000 of debt just to start up a couple chicken houses, then forces the farmers into making upgrades which keeps them in debt. Thus, allowing them to be able to take total advantage of their farmers. The companies control how much the farmers get paid, which is only up to $20,000 a year, but if they decide to release classified information or simply not follow regulations, the farmers can have their income cut short or simply be terminated. The farmers do not have a say in running their business because the companies are well aware that the farmers are similar to being their slaves. Aside from the employees, the consumers are being taken advantage as well. The fast food companies are taken over the streets of the poor. Places like Brooklyn, New York, have astonishing food deserts where the closest supermarket is in the next town over. Leaving these people, who normally work multiple jobs just t...
Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).
Therefore, the attention has been drawn from quantity of food to quality and safety. A gap between food demand and safe food supply becomes an urgent issue to be solved, which also affects global food market and food security.
Another risk involved in this industry is its huge number of competitors. It is a well-known fact that the food industry is one of the most saturated markets that has ever existed, mainly because it has a huge market population and it is a need for the society. The industry tends to get very competitive because of its sheer number of population of consumers, as well as its producers. Evidently it is a very lucrative industry to step in to, that is why a lot of people tend to penetrate the market in an attempt to make a huge profit from
Food is taken for granted by many people in places like the Western World, especially in countries like the United States. There is no fear that the next meal will be an empty plate, nor is there reason to fear that the supply of food will disappear. The reason that there is no need to ration out supplies is that the food industry mass produces food to feed their ever growing population in factory farms. However, the public is kept generally unaware of what occurs inside these farms, which calls into question the integrity of the food production. While there is an acceptance of these farms due to the convenience they provide to the consumer, there are many negative consequences related to these slaughterhouses. The mass production of food from factory farming does not justify the negative affects and threat to the environment, to the health and security of animals, nor the violation of workers’ rights.