Agro-terrorism

Agroterrorism, also known as agriterrorism and agricultural terrorism, is a malicious attempt to disrupt or destroy the agricultural industry and/or food supply system of a population through "the malicious use of plant or animal pathogens to cause devastating disease in the agricultural sectors".^[1] It is closely related to the concepts of biological warfare, chemical warfare and entomological warfare, except carried out by non-state parties.

A hostile attack, towards an agricultural environment, including infrastructures and processes, in order to significantly damage national or international political interests.

Nomenclature

The terms agroterrorism, along with agroterror and agrosecurity, were coined by veterinarian pathologist Corrie Brown and writer Esmond Choueke in September 1999 as a means to spread the importance of this topic. The first public use of agroterrorism was in a report by Dr. Brown which was then reprinted in a front-page article of The New York Times on September 22, 1999, by reporter Judith Miller. Dr. Brown's article in 2,000 for Emerging Diseases of Animals (American Society for Microbiology) made these words a permanent fixture, and they soon ended up as part of everyday use. The Oxford Dictionary now recognizes the word agroterrorism and its derivatives.^[2] An initial debate by Dr. Brown and Mr. Choueke involved the spellings agriterror vs. agroterror. The spelling with the "o" won, as it was closest to bioterrorism and thus would be easier to remember.

Theory

• 1989 California medfly attack
• Anti-agriculture weapons
• Biosecurity
• Bioterrorism
• Eco-terrorism
• Food security
• Scorched earth
• Incendiary balloons

References