In Brief... World News Review: Foot-and-Mouth Seen as Serious Threat to U.S. Agriculture
The United States, which has not had a case of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929, has instituted extensive precautionary measures against infection from overseas, but is preparing as if an outbreak in the United States were a certainty.
The United States, which has not had a case of foot-and-mouth disease since 1929, has instituted extensive precautionary measures against infection from overseas, but is preparing as if an outbreak in the United States were a certainty.
Besides Britain, cases of the disease have been confirmed in the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, South Korea and Taiwan. International air travelers arrive back in the United States to find that they're required to have their feet sprayed with a disinfectant by airport inspectors.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official Bruce Braughman said, "We are certainly treating it like it's a probable likelihood." FEMA was one of several U.S. federal agencies that met on April 18 to outline plans on how to deal with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth. Other agencies included the Agriculture Department, the U.S. Army, the Coast Guard, the Interior Department, the Food and Drug Administration-even the CIA.
Meanwhile, intelligence operators at the Department of Agriculture are working on a vaccine for foot-and-mouth. Looking beyond natural causes, the intelligence community is concerned that the disease may have been started as an act of bio- or "agro-terrorism." Foot-and-mouth disease is easily released with no threat to the terrorist, and it spreads by itself.
Agro-terrorism isn't new, according to Peter Chalk, a Rand policy analyst who has studied the subject. "Germany...had an operation...in 1917 here in the United States [by which they] infected draft animals that were going to be sent to Europe. The Soviet Union had about 10,000 scientists and technicians working on anti-agriculture agents" (UPI, "Livestock Plagues Could Be Bio-Terror Attack," April 5, 2001).
The fact that U.S. livestock is largely concentrated in a few regions makes U.S. agriculture an attractive target for the agro-terrorist. As Britain knows all too well, the economic consequences could be disastrous.
Sources: USA Today, UPI, Reuters.
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: May 2001
Course Content
Ken Martin
Kenneth Martin was a pastor for the United Church of God, who served as an elder in the Church of God for 55 years before his death in 2021 at the age of 81.
Ken graduated from Ambassador College (Big Sandy, Texas) in 1966 as student body president and valedictorian. He was ordained an elder in June 1966 by Herbert Armstrong, and served God’s people for the remainder of his years. In that time, he touched the lives of thousands of people and served in the following congregations: Dallas (Texas), Fort Wayne and South Bend (Indiana), Toledo and Findlay (Ohio), Birmingham and Jasper (Alabama), Atlanta, Carrolton, Macon and Columbus (Georgia). He also served the United Church of God as regional pastor for the Southeast region and served as chairman for the Prophecy Advisory Committee.
His joy was to serve those whom God is calling at this time to be the first fruits of God’s great plan of salvation via Jesus Christ… preaching repentance and the good news of the coming Kingdom of God!
Darris McNeely
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
