Resilience is a key component of both national security and prosperity especially in vital sectors such as banking, public health infrastructure, and agriculture. There is a need to strengthen the resilience of the agriculture and food business, which is crucial to both the country’s economy and global food security. The industry is vulnerable to a variety of hazards, such as supply chain disruptions, agroterrorism and threats, and natural disasters. Comparably, the banking industry faces growing cybersecurity threats that jeopardize consumer confidence and financial stability due to its growing reliance on digital infrastructure. Such a concept emphasizes the urgency to mitigate vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the public health system, highlighting the necessity of taking proactive steps to improve readiness and response capacities. The Homeland Security Department in collaboration with other government agencies can learn from these experiences and implement all-encompassing approaches that incorporate collaboration, creativity, and teamwork to mitigate future crises.
Essay 1
A threat to national agricultural infrastructure is a concern to Homeland Security that requires deliberate actions and plans to enhance resilience to the American economy and critical infrastructure. As the Secretary of Agriculture, it would be appropriate to consider specific plans and initiatives to ensure resiliency across the nation. Protecting the National Critical Infrastructure is a complex and dynamic task of the Department of Homeland Security. Critical infrastructure is categorized as systems and assets that are vital to the United States (Hemme, 2015). Destruction of such assets or systems would negatively impact the security, national economic security, or a combination of several issues. Agriculture is one of the critical sectors as it safeguards national security and public health. As such, agriculture and food systems are important for economic prosperity and ensuring continuous food security. Since the agricultural sector is mainly privately owned, it is important to conduct a joint approach that leverages collaboration, creativity, and strategic investment to enhance resilience.
The first step would be establishing a national registry for food producers and processors. The National Security Council in conjunction with the agricultural resilience team should establish a cross-agency to align the policies, and regulatory framework to enhance resilience in the agricultural sector. Both domestic and foreign food processors will be required to register with the authority. The approach will be beneficial as the private owners have responsibility in the event of malpractice. Also, the registry will effectively identify, and eliminate contaminated products before reaching the market. Food processors will have to give basic information about their products, including food being processed, the addresses of their facilities, their contact details, the restaurants and retail stores to which their products are delivered, the farms or ranches where products are raised or grown, the kind of feed or chemicals used on produce or livestock, and kind of transportation used to move the goods. The information is useful for government agencies to monitor the production, processing, and marketing of agricultural products.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security will enhance the security of biological agents and toxins to prevent the risk of agro-terrorism by ensuring restrictions on the procurement of the products. Agroterrorism is a rapidly emerging threat to global food security and economic stability. Using biological agents to induce public threats is a traditional method of terrorism. Despite the recognition and mitigation of the threat, there is a need for research and emergency preparedness to focus on the direct infection of human targets (Forrest, 2022). The department in conjunction with the FDA and USAID among other bodies will provide standard operating procedures depending on the available threats to mitigate biological agents or toxins that are hazardous. The department should monitor and ban specific agents that pose a threat to agricultural production or food processing that are likely to affect human life.
Moreover, it is important what control what comes in and out of the country to ensure that only products conforming to regulations are procured. Homeland Security will assign DHS, Customs, and Border Patrol to examine ports of entry across the country to ensure that safety regulations are followed. Similarly, the department will protect the flow of goods into and out of the United States through agricultural border inspections to enhance compliance with established protocols. DHS Customs and Border Patrol will implement comprehensive training to ensure that the agents perform appropriate inspections of products through all means of transportation. The strategy will ensure that thorough and professional inspections are taking place. The approach will also block any import of non-complying agricultural products or illegal processing of agricultural products.
References
Forrest, A. (2020). The growing threat of agroterrorism and strategies for agricultural defense. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2029&context=honors
Hemme, K. (2015). Critical infrastructure protection: Maintenance is national security. Journal of Strategic Security, 8(3), 25-39. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol8/iss5/3/
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