Agroterrorism

Schneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
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Lax meat-import rules open Canada to bioterrorism
Former Canadian food inspector says the rules governing meat imports into Canada leave Canadians vulnerable to bioterrorism and outbreaks of dangerous bacteria such as listeria
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Regulators cannot cope with food counterfeiting, contamination
New worry: Between the extremes of accidentally contaminated food and terrorism via intentional contamination, lies the counterfeiter, seeking not to harm but to hide the act for profit
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U.S. lawmakers want tighter food inspection system
The list of recalled peanut products in the .S. surpassed 1,000 in an ongoing national salmonella outbreak; the 2007 recall of melamine-tainted pet food eventually grew to 1,179 products; Congress says current system of food inspection is not working
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Biosafety Lab-Level 4 dedicated in Galveston, Texas
The $174 million, 186,267-square-foot lab will employ 300 people; the lab is one of two approved in 2003 by NIH (the second is being built in Boston); critics question placing a BSL-4 lab on a barrier island vulnerable to hurricanes
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Briefly noted
Massive overhaul of U.S. immigration services planned… USDA awards CRI $50 Million counter-terrorism and security support services contract… Unisys wins DHS contract… European intrusion detection market - what are the future trends?
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Briefly noted
U.S. plans pilot program to bar unsafe imports… Restrictions on liquids coming to an end
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CBP adds food specialists to inspect imports
Worries about imported food, and about animal disease and the invasion of lakes and rivers by foreign species, increase; Border Protection adds food specialists for better point-of-entry inspection
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Restaurants are a weak link in the food safety chain
The Congressional Research Service issues a major study of agroterrorism; one problem is that public eating places are exceedingly vulnerable to bioterror attack
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U Kentucky researchers demonstrate milk transportation safety system
Wildcats researchers develop a milk tracking system which will dramatically improve the safety of bulk milk transport
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Blumenthal: Impact statement regarding Plum Island seriously flawed
Connecticut’s attorney general: “[DHS’s] draft environmental impact statement is profoundly flawed — factually deficient, and legally insufficient — mis-assessing the monstrous risks of siting a proposed national bio- and agro-defense facility on Plum Island”
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New York officials want Plum Island to remain a Level-3 BioLab
DHS is considering upgrading the Plum Island BioLab from Level-3 to Level-4 so it could conduct research into the deadliest diseases; the department argues that Plum Island’s relative isolation would make an accidental pathogen release less costly relatively to such release from a mainland-based lab; New York officials strongly disagree
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Lawrenceville, PA bioterror lab opening on hold indefinitely
A state-of-the-art, $5.6 million BioLevel 3 lab was supposed to open in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, in 2002;
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New detection method for food toxins found
Japanese researchers develop new technique to detect toxins in food; the method involves artificially produced human enzymes that act as sensors for toxins in food samples
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Decision on national biolab nears
Five states are vying to host to new, $450 million national biolab which will replace the aging Plum island facility; some lawmakers are questioning the selection process: an internal DHS review ranked the Mississippi site in Flora 14th out of 17 sites originally considered, yet it made it to the final five
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