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APPENDIX A
Agroterrorism Policy Background
Federal Policy
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings, the
United States increased its focus on security; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was
established, and several presidential directives regarding national security, emergency response
procedures, agroterrorism, and bioterrorism were written. Brief summaries of the Homeland
Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) relevant to this guide are provided below.
HSPD 5 (11) directs DHS to:
1. Develop and administer a National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes
a core set of concepts, principles, terminology, and technologies covering all aspects of
emergency response, and provides a consistent approach for all levels of government to work
effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from all types of
domestic incidents.
2. Develop and administer a National Response Plan, now called the National Response Frame-
work (NRF), which integrates all federal domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and
recovery plans into a single plan encompassing all disciplines and all hazards. The NRP, using
the NIMS, will provide the structure and mechanisms for national level policy and operational
direction for federal support to state and local incident managers, and for exercising direct
federal authorities and responsibilities, as appropriate.
Recognizing the roles of state and local authorities in domestic incident management, DHS
will coordinate with state and local governments to ensure adequate planning, equipment, train-
ing, and exercise activities. The Secretary will also assist state and local governments in developing
all-hazards plans and capabilities, including those of greatest importance to the security of the
United States, and ensure that the state, local, and Federal plans are compatible.
According to the directive, the NIMS and the NRP will be developed, reviewed, and approved
by 2003, and federal departments must adopt NIMS as a requirement for participation in federal
programs, grants, and contracts. The directive authorizes the Secretary of DHS to develop guide-
lines for determining whether a state or local entity has adopted the NIMS.
HSPD 8 (1) is a companion to HSPD 5 and directs the DHS to:
1. Establish a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal to help ensure the preparedness
of the Nation to prevent, respond to, and recover from threatened and actual domestic terrorist
attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies.
The directive states that federal preparedness assistance will be predicated on adoption of
statewide comprehensive all-hazards preparedness strategies by September 30, 2005. The strate-
gies should be consistent with the national preparedness goal; assess the most effective ways to
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Agroterrorism Policy Background 35
enhance preparedness; and address areas facing higher risk, especially to terrorism, as well as
local government concerns and Citizen Corps efforts.
Federal preparedness assistance will support state and local efforts, including planning, training,
exercises, interoperability, and equipment acquisition for major events. However, such assistance
is not primarily intended to support the existing capacity for addressing normal, local first
responder operations, but to build the capacity for addressing major events, particularly those
related to terrorism, and includes such prevention activities as terrorism-related information
gathering, detection, deterrence, and collaboration.
HSPD 9 (12) establishes a national policy to defend the agriculture and food system against
terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. The Secretary of Homeland Security,
in coordination with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, the Attorney
General, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, are directed to:
1. Ensure that the combined Federal, State, and local response capabilities are adequate to
respond quickly and effectively to a terrorist attack, major disease outbreak, or other disaster
affecting the national agriculture or food infrastructure. These activities will be integrated
with other national homeland security preparedness activities developed under HSPD-8 on
National Preparedness.
2. Develop a coordinated agriculture and food-specific standardized response plan that will be
integrated into the National Response Plan. This plan will ensure a coordinated response to
an agriculture or food incident; delineate the appropriate roles of Federal, State, local, and
private sector partners; and address the subject of risk communication with the public.
State and Local Policies
In response to the presidential directives mandating that state and local agencies be NIMS-
compliant in order to receive federal preparedness grants, states began to work on ensuring their
own emergency response plans were NIMS compliant, and to assist their counties and cities in
meeting the requirements, as well.
At the state level, emergency management agencies maintain state emergency response plans.
These plans are usually arranged by emergency type or response function, and they often include
a chapter or an annex dedicated to animal or agricultural emergencies. Oftentimes, a state's
Department of Agriculture (or equivalent agency) maintains its own agricultural emergency
response plan. This plan may be a public document or internal to the organization. It should
comply with the principles of the NIMS and include incident command structures that assign
response duties in accordance with the National Response Plan. Most state plans assume a
response independent of federal government assistance to prepare to meet their citizens' needs
in the event that the federal government is overwhelmed and unable to provide assistance for a
period of time.
Many states assisted their counties in meeting the NIMS compliance requirements by offer-
ing NIMS and ICS training, and developing templates of compliant response plans for counties
to modify and adopt. In addition, some states are offering specific foreign animal disease
response training, and helping counties to develop FAD response plans.
Policies and plans vary from state to state, and the level of implementation at the county level
varies even more. Even with assistance from the state, local agencies have to make choices on
how to use their emergency preparedness resources, considering that agricultural emergency
preparedness competes with natural disaster, human disease outbreak, and traditional terrorism
preparedness.
