Agro-Terrorism Roundtable

The security of the country's food supply and planning for agro-terrorism threats were under discussion recently by U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill a Democrat from Missouri and Pat Roberts a Kansas Republican.

They along with William Bryan, Department of Homeland Security acting under secretary for science and technology, participated in a roundtable discussion about the importance of planning to keep the food supply safe.

"We need to be prepared. We need to have the systems in place and the research done that if a pathogen or a toxin is introduced, that we know what to do and how to do it and obviously try to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

The AP reports that McCaskill and Roberts stressed that the nation's food supply is still the safest in the world and they were not reacting to any imminent threat. But Roberts, who leads the Senate Agriculture Committee, says the nation and media's focus often shifts to other problems and it's important to "ramp up" agriculture protection efforts again.

"With Claire's efforts here to put together this roundtable it demonstrates that we do need to have a joint hearing in congress to let people know about what we've been working on for a long time."

The senators say the emphasis on protecting the nation's food supply has waned since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and it's time to make the issue a priority again.