Farms Need To Be Protected
Seems like local farmers have a lot on their minds these days. Weather that doesn't cooperate and allow the rest of the corn crop to…
Seems like local farmers have a lot on their minds these days. Weather that doesn’t cooperate and allow the rest of the corn crop to get harvested, low grain prices when the crops get to market, huge increases in property taxes, deciding what should they plant next year because of prices this year and more. They are important decisions that need to be made soon.
With all these concerns, they really don’t need one more. But, there is one that does need some attention, which is taking steps to protect their farms from possible attacks by terrorist groups or vandals out to cause damage or pollute the food supply.
For example, in California recently, vandals broke into a large poultry house and killed 920 chickens with a golf club. Security must have been poor on that farm because it would have taken some time to destroy that many chickens and there would have been much commotion. Local police quickly caught the vandals, who were four teenagers. What sick pleasure they got from their act is a mystery.
On today’s modern dairy farms, where cows are housed in free stall barns, terrorists, animal right activists and/or vandals could take advantage of those open barns to cause damage.
More serious than acts of injury to livestock, as sick as they would be, would be attempts to contaminate the food supply. These groups could climb up a grain bin on a farm and dump something deadly into the grain. When the grain goes to market, it gets spread everywhere in the form of feed or food products. It would be almost impossible to trace the contamination back to its source.
Most milk on today’s dairy farms goes directly into bulk tanks where it is stored until the bulk tank truck comes to pick it up. Unless milk houses with the bulk tanks are kept locked, it would be easy for someone to get in and dump some dangerous material into the tank.
If it is not detected, and that could be difficult, this tank of milk could contaminate an entire truckload of milk. In turn, this could cause problems at the milk plant when that tank load goes into a large storage tank of milk. From there, it goes into all kinds of dairy products
Details such as locking milk houses, barn doors or any place where a food product is stored would provide some protection for the food supply. Good bright lights around the farm can help along with security cameras, which would be another expense, but would help find those causing the problems.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified four groups that might attack farms and other food facilities. They include:
Foreign groups such as Al Qaeda or ISIS who want to destroy us. They are seen as serious.
Militant animal rights or environmental activists who will use extreme measures for a cause.
Domestic terrorists wanting to strike out at the federal government.
Economic opportunists wanting to manipulate the market for personal gain.
Terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda are considered the most serious threat to the food supply. They don’t seem to know the value of a human life and will go to most any extreme.
Farmers do need to take steps to protect the products that will be going on to market. Yes, it is one more thing to think about on top of everything they already have on their minds.
Parker is an independent agricultural writer.
