US Agriculture Is Vulnerable to Bioterrorism

The leadership of our nation is currently grappling with a multitude of issues related to potential future terrorist activities for which there are no easy answers. Society is increasingly dependent on advances in science and technology to facilitate the examination and development of solutions to the critical problems we face today. For more than a century, the nation has turned to the National Academies— National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council—for independent, objective scientific advice. A new report of the National Academies Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Countering Agricultural Bioterorrism, addresses the nation’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks against agriculture and provides recommendations for strengthening our ability to prepare and respond to such attacks.