BiolabsControversy of Kansas biosecurity lab continues
KSU attracted the $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility for making vaccines and anti-virals to combat the world’s most dangerous animal diseases, beating out the competition during a multi-year screening process; in addition, KSU is planning a 26 April open house for a brand-new “innovation campus” west of Kansas City that will provide graduate level and professional science master’s degree programs (targeted versions of traditional academic programs) as well as industry training in animal health, food safety, and bio-security for more than 120 companies located in the “Kansas City animal health corridor”; critics say that building such a lab in Kansas — one of the largest livestock producing states, and a state which lies at the nation’s transportation crossroads and in the middle of Tornado Alley — is not such a good idea
The new NBAF will be built in "Tornado Alley" // Source: kansas.com
The Chinese word for danger is composed of two characters; one represents danger and another represents opportunity. Kansas State University has taken that approach to the possible threat of a foreign animal disease outbreak similar to foot-and-mouth disease by aggressively expanding into bio-security and food safety research and education, which has included lobbying successfully to house a sleek new rendition of the nation’s highest security animal disease laboratory.
KSU attracted the $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) for making vaccines and anti-virals to combat the world’s most dangerous animal diseases, beating out the competition during a multi-year screening process. Completion is expected in 2018 and federal funding appears to be on track. Design plans are being finalized and roads and utilities are being prepared at the 45-acre site in Manhattan adjacent to the university campus.
“The NBAF will replace an antiquated facility in New York and serve as the nation’s premier research center for combating agriculture’s vulnerability to naturally occurring diseases or agro-terrorism,” summarizes Tom Thornton, president of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, the economic development entity that helped recruit it.
The new lab will complement the university’s current Biosecurity Research Institute, which qualifies for the second highest security rating.
In addition, KSU is planning a 26 April open house for a brand-new “innovation campus” west of Kansas City that will provide graduate level and professional science master’s degree programs (targeted versions of traditional academic programs) as well as industry training in animal health, food safety, and bio-security for more than 120 companies located in the “Kansas City animal health corridor.”
Roberta Robinson, an administrative assistant for the new campus, said she knows the biosecurity developments in Kansas have raised concerns among detractors. Still, like many, she is excited about the projects and sees them as a boon for a state that is too often overlooked when it comes to national level programs. “I think Kansas can use some of that,” she said. “Not everything needs to be on the coasts.”
Some linguistic experts dispute the popular notion that the Chinese word for crisis refers to opportunity as well as danger. Instead, the second character represents “a perilous situation when one should be especially wary” … “not a juncture where one goes looking for advantages and benefits. Any would-be guru who advocates opportunism in the face of crisis should be run out of town on a rail, for (such) advice will only compound the danger of the crisis,” writes a professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Victor Mair.
That view of things is more in tune with groups that oppose putting a top-level disease lab in the middle of Kansas. To some, it is a chink in the livestock industry’s armor rather than a feather in anyone’s cap.
Brandy Carter, executive director of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, a relatively recent organization to form in the state compared to the 114-year-old Kansas Livestock Association, said her group’s fears have not been adequately addressed and the risks outweigh the benefits.
In 2007, a foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England was traced to an animal research facility in that country.
For Carter’s members, it is a simple matter of “not in my backyard.” Kansas is one of the largest livestock producing states and lies at the nation’s transportation crossroads.
According to a coalition opposing the project, the cumulative risk of a leak is “a coin toss” within the first thirty years of the lab’s completion and a 70 percent probability by the end of its lifespan.
“Here’s the bottom line. A facility only lasts 50 years. What happens then? What can they do? I don’t think they can do enough to protect us,” Carter said.
It is a tough stance to take, with so many of the state’s political leaders and organizations rallying around the developments and taking pride in K-State’s rising stature. But Carter said her group and a few others are speaking out about their concerns to protect producers.
“We’re truly investigating the issues rather than giving in to political correctness,” she said.
