April 8, 2004
By John W. Kelly

Unlike nuclear terrorism, bioterrorism won't begin with a bang. It will begin quietly -- a child feeling the effects of food poisoning, a cow down with disease, an orchard withering from virus.

E. coli bacteria, foot-and-mouth disease, plum pox virus -- they are not weapons of mass destruction; they are weapons of mass disruption. Experts say terrorists could cause widespread panic and economic havoc by attacking the nation's food network. Fortunately, South Carolina has a strong system in place to protect the safety of our food. State leaders need to protect this system from budget cuts.

Clemson Public Service Activities play a vital role in monitoring the safety of the state's food system and in educating the public about agro-terrorism and food safety. National homeland security officials have focused a great deal of attention on terrorist attacks against buildings or airplanes; but agriculture has received less attention.

A federal advisory panel assessing domestic response to terrorism said, "In terms of accurate threat assessments and consequence management procedures, the agriculture sector continues to exist as an exception to the wide-ranging emphasis that has been given to infrastructure protection in this country."

Clemson PSA has paid attention to agriculture. Our Regulatory Services unit helped conduct a comprehensive audit of the state's agricultural network that strengthens the homeland security plan administered by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division. A monitoring system for the agriculture industry is essential to a strong plan because it enables a quick assessment and response to a potential incident. In agriculture, the people who will see things first are farmers, livestock producers, and Clemson Extension agents who serve the state's agricultural sector. Ensuring that they know what to look for and how to report what they see can save valuable response time and resources.

Clemson Regulatory Services has played an extraordinary role in homeland security for the U.S. and other countries. A Regulatory Services team worked to enact a South Carolina law that requires fertilizers to be registered, reducing the chance that these chemicals could be used to make explosives such as those used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The South Carolina law is now a model for other states, as well as for New Zealand and Australia. As a result of this work, a member of Clemson's Regulatory Services team was asked to chair the state's Agroterrorism Prevention and Food Safety Committee for SLED.

Not all food-safety incidents are terrorist-related. The discovery of mad-cow disease in this country and recent reports of tainted foods in restaurants also generate considerable anxiety about the safety of our food.

The executive budget proposal recommends that Clemson Public Service Activities, which traditionally has played a principal role in educating the public about food safety, turn this responsibility over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is unlikely that USDA officials would welcome that change. The USDA manages a national network for food safety that is the model for the world. But they rely on local partners to carry out rapid response plans. In South Carolina, that local partner is Clemson PSA. For example, when the case of mad-cow disease was discovered in this country, it was a Clemson PSA unit that worked with South Carolina cattlemen to take appropriate actions.

Clemson's Livestock-Poultry Health Program is led by the state veterinarian and is the state's first responder in animal health issues such as the mad-cow alert. This team monitors the safety of livestock and poultry food products from the farm to the processing operation, as well as all animal-related disease incidents, including those for pets and wildlife. The Livestock-Poultry Health Program is the source for relevant, research-based information about animal-related diseases for the public, business and government leaders in our state. Because of this, South Carolinians need only call one number (803-788-2260) for animal-disease response information.

Sometimes the animal that causes a food-safety problem is a person. Recently, tainted green-onions were the source of food-borne illnesses in Pennsylvania. This outbreak was caused by poor sanitation practices among field workers in Mexico. One of the scientists at Clemson's Coastal Research & Education Center in Charleston addresses this problem. He recently spent a year at USDA for specialized training in safe post-harvest handling of produce. Now, he advises South Carolina produce growers about safe food-handling practices to protect the safety of our food supply and the reputation of our farmers.

Other food disease problems can be caused by restaurant employees. A Clemson Extension food safety specialist has developed a nationally recognized program to teach safe food-handling practices to restaurant workers. Trademarked as ServSafeÆ, this program has trained more than 6,000 food-service employees since 1997. The training material developed by Clemson is now used across the U.S. and was recently broadcast in Spanish for Hispanic food-service workers in this country.

As you can see, food safety is a continuum -- from the farm to the table -- that ensures an abundant, reasonably priced and safe food supply for us all. State budget cuts that could decrease food safety are risky. We cannot afford to diminish a system that is working to protect our citizens.

John W. Kelly is vice president for public service and agriculture at Clemson University. He is also president of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists and on the board of the South Carolina Biotechnology Alliance. His e-mail is jkelly@clemson.edu.

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