Agrosecurity

Protecting Georgia's Agriculture and Food

County Extension agents played a major role in assessing and evaluating Georgia's vulnerability to agro-terrorism. The Ben Hill County Extension agent completed an agrosecurity survey to determine how prepared local agriculture and agricultural businesses and industries were in protecting against the threat of agro-terrorism. The assessment rated the status and preparedness of local agriculture to acts of terrorism. In early 2005, the agent completed the 100 and 200 levels of agrosecurity training for county Extension agents in Georgia. Ben Hill, Irwin and Wilcox county agents planned an agrosecurity training for local first responders to make them aware of the importance of agriculture, potential threats to the agricultural sector, and action plans to protect Georgia’s agriculture and food. Self evaluations before the training showed that 65 percent of the participants rated their awareness of agrosecurity as low or very low. Post-training evaluations showed responses of 79 percent at a high or very high awareness. As a result of the training, 88 percent of the participants stated they will become more familiar with agriculture and food security emergency management and response systems in their local community.

Source: Scott Carlson, Ben Hill County (2006)

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