October 2, 2003

State agencies collaborate
for food, agriculture security

Sarah Lawrence
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--Food and agriculture safety was discussed at the first Iowa Food Security Conference, inspiring further collaboration among the three state agencies that sponsored it.

The conference in mid-September was sponsored by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals and Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. It was hosted by the Farm Bureau Federation.

It is the first collaboration of its kind in Iowa. More than 70 government food safety offcials, livestock regulatory officials, food and agriculture industry representatives and interested consumers gathered at the Farm Bureau building in West Des Moines to discuss how to keep Iowa's food and water supplies safe.

"Ever since 9-11, we're looking at all forms of security. One of these areas has to be our food supply," Machelle Schaffer, communications director for the Department of Agriculture, said. "Is our water supply safe? Is our food supply safe? We think it's very safe because we have inspectors who inspect it, and it's safe, but what would happen if there was an intentional contamination of our food or a terrorist or criminal activity?"

The collaboration among agencies is necessary to ensure the government is working together and can effectively deal with such problems if they occur, Schaffer said.

Among the topics discussed at the conference were the risks of agroterrorism in Iowa, biological warfare targeted at agriculture, state and local level responses, food security from the food processing industry and the challenges of agricultural security.

One of the speakers at the conference was Rocco Casagrande, the Department of Homeland Security adviser and Emergency Management administrator.

Casagrande worked as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and is an expert on agroterrorism. He explained why agroterrorism is such a threat to Iowa.

Other speakers included Jerry Jaax of Kansas State University and Jorge A. Hernandez of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Both spoke about biological warfare targeted at agriculture. Also, Radford Davis of Iowa State University spoke on the risk of agroterrorism in Iowa.

"It really helped open the doors of communication between people who grow the food, process the food and market the food," Schaffer said. "Everyone that's involved in that process was represented at the conference."

Judy Harrison, food and consumer safety bureau chief for the Department of Inspections and Appeals, attended the conference and thought it went well.

"I thought it was and excellent conference," Harrison said. "I thought that the attendees were given lots of information about what processing plants can do to protect themselves from agroterrorism, bioterrorism or deliberate contamination threats."

The three agencies plan to work together in the future, although nothing specific is being planned at the moment.

"The topic of food security and water security is on ongoing task that we're working on with these other agencies," said Lucinda Parker, public information officer for the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. "We didn't just have a conference, talk about it, and that's it. This is going to precipitate further collaboration and planning and looking at where we are in this area and the places we need to go."

Harrison said the conference was only the beginning of getting out the information. Further collaboration is necessary for Iowa to be prepared in case of a contamination of the food or water supply.

"This is a big project and a big topic. It's something we have to continue to work on," Harrison said. "I don't think just one conference or two conferences are going to solve the problem, but I think that we have to all work together."

Although this is the first collaboration of agencies in Iowa on the topic, progress has been made in food and water safety regulations in individual agencies since 9-11, Parker said.

"We certainly know more than we did two years ago," Parker said. "We're much more prepared should something happen."