Food Supply Threatened by Too Few Inspectors

After Sept. 11, the nation took a closer look at domestic security measures. Although the U.S. food supply was recognized as vulnerable, a new Congressional report reveals that gaps still exist in protecting against agroterrorism.

In a General Accounting Office report, "Much is Being Done to Protect Agriculture from a Terrorists Attack, but Important Challenges Remain," investigators say the major shift of inspections previously done by USDA to the Department of Homeland Security has resulted in far fewer inspections on imported food.

When the Department of Agriculture was still responsible for imported food inspections in fiscal 2002, there were 40.9 million inspections. In fiscal 2004, after the Homeland Security Department took over the task, there were 37.5 million inspections, even though food imports rose, the report explains.

GAO recommended that DHS and USDA determine the reasons for declining agricultural inspections.

The report points out that the United States still faces complex challenges that limit the nation's ability to respond effectively to an attack against livestock. One of the biggest threats to U.S. agriculture is the intentional introduction into the livestock supply of foot-and-mouth disease, the report said, pointing to the 2001 outbreak in the United Kingdom that caused about $5 billion in losses.

"For example, USDA would not be able to deploy animal vaccines within 24 hours of an outbreak as called for in a presidential directive, in part because the only vaccines currently stores in the United States are for strains of foot and mouth disease, and these vaccines need to be sent to the United Kingdom to be activated," the report says.

GAO recommended that USDA examine the costs and benefits of developing stockpiles of ready-to-use vaccines.