Food Defense Lessons: North Carolina's Agricultural Resilience

1. NC Food Defense Lessons Learned From Interagency Exercises J. Steven Cline, DDS, MPH Chief, Epidemiology NC Division of Public Health

2. FOOD DEFENSE • United States and North Carolina have an agricultural economic base • Food and agriculture are critical infrastructures • Threats exist that could cause tremendous toll in human & animal suffering/death, as well as economically cripple the state and the nation • National priority to harden our food chain

3. Agriculture in North Carolina • 2nd in Turkey production • 2nd in Swine production • 3rd in Poultry production • 18% of the workforce • Large variety of crops (not just tobacco) Agribusiness = $62 Billion Annually

4. Canada Canada Mexico Mexico South America Puerto Rico Swine Goats North Carolina Live Animal Shipments Sheep and Lambs Live animals are shipped to a total of 27 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and South America! The accidental introduction of a disease such FMD would have a devastating national impact! Poultry Beef Cattle Dairy Cattle

5. NORTH CAROLINA FOOD SECURITY PROJECT Protecting North Carolina’s food supply and our economy!

6. NC Food Safety and Security Task Force • Public-private partnership • Increased collaboration and communication • Began November 2001 • Formalized by Executive Order 52 signed Sept 2003 • Provide oversight to NC Food Defense Project • Co-Chaired by Public Health & Ag

7. Interagency Project Team Composition: • NCDA&CS • NC Public Health • NC SBI • NC DOJ • NCCC&PS • Other NC Agencies • NC Insurance Commission • Industry Organizations • Federal Agencies • Other States

8. Project Components • Seamless approach to surveillance/signal detection • Threat Assessment • Vulnerability Assessment Process • GIS Database • Integrated Threat Reduction Plan to Mitigate, Respond & Recover • Industry & Government Training • Conduct Exercises

9. NC Food Defense Exercises • Silent Prairie -June 2003 • Top Off 2 - May 2003 (Remote Monitoring) • Dark Pantry - June 2003 • Crimson Sky, Crimson Winter, & Crimson Guard - Sept. 2003-February 2004 • Silent Farmland - Aug. and Oct. 2003 • Triple Play - Oct.-Dec. 2003

10. Dark Pantry A North Carolina Food Security Exercise

11. Dark Pantry Exercise Objectives: To exercise NC capabilities to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from an attack on the state’s food supply. To determine support requirements and assistance necessary from state and federal agencies To identify shortcomings and inefficiencies in capabilities To assess communication and coordination between Public Health, Ag, emergency response organizations, and law enforcement with industry stakeholders  

12. Dark Pantry Exercise Outcomes: • Identify and Examine Key Policy issues for an effective, interagency response to a bio-terrorism event in NC • Examine current response, containment and recovery plans for dealing with a bio-terrorism event in NC • Examine inter-agency coordination, resource, and force multiplication capabilities required for such an event • Examine the public-private cooperation, coordination and resource requirements for such an event.

13. Seattle-Tacoma Cheyenne Greeley Park City Indianapolis North Platt Fort Morgan Fairfield Jasper San Francisco Amarillo Los Angeles Tempe Sanger Fort Worth Plano Dallas Dark Pantry DEC 0 30 16 18 10 5 3 4 8 6 2 1 9 7 Botulinum Anthrax 2384 268 # Sick: 1072 178 1545 200 0 50 0 0 599 103 # ICU: 391 66 502 88 0 17 0 0 # Dead: 1012 45 209 28 497 36 0 0 0 8

14. Multi Hazard Threat Database • Password Protected • Secure Socket Layer Connection

15. Greenville, Pitt County

18. Communications Partnerships Planning Assessment Mitigation Resources Training Legal Lessons LearnedFood Defense Perspectives

19. Communications • Single most important element of success • Emergency vs. Non-Emergency • Communications systems • Maintain Contact Lists • ICS key • Situational vs. Intelligence Sharing Example: ISAAC

20. Partnerships • Redefine working together • Respect Industry’s position • You can’t do it all and you can’t do anything by yourself • Trust Example: SART - CARTs

21. Assessment • Sector Specific • Assess Threats and Vulnerabilities • Involve Law Enforcement Example: Exotic Newcastle Disease

22. Planning • Written Interagency Protocols • Must be Sector Specific • Don’t be surprised • Recovery is the key Example: “White Powder Protocol”

23. Mitigation • Bring “prevention thinking” to the table • Things Industry may not think of or has not had to deal with (e.g. mob control, rationing food, media/risk communication) Example: Infectious Disease Mitigation Plan

24. Resources • Lab capacity • Workforce Development • Listen to Industry needs • Mechanism for securing funds during an emergency • Ongoing funding/sustainability Example: Ag labs back-up to LRN

25. Training • Keep it simple • Think modular • Act small but think big • Practice-Practice-Practice Example: UNC Learning Management System “One Medicine Conferences”

26. Legal • Law Enforcement involvement • Security Clearances • Liability “red herring” Example: Forensic Epidemiology

27. Parting Shots • Should preparedness funding account for agriculture risk? • Shouldn’t we have a national Consumer Complaint System? • Why aren’t we adding state agriculture labs to the LRN? • How do we harden the US Postal Service?

28. NC Food Defense Lessons Learned From Interagency Exercises Thank You J. Steven Cline, DDS, MPH steve.cline@ncmail.net