Biological Terrorism

Rand
Center for terrorism riskmanagement policy

The Office of Science and Technology Policy Blue Ribbon Panel on the Threat of biological Terrorism Directed Against Livestock

By: Terrence K. Kelly, Peter Chalk, James Bonomo, John V. Parachini, Brian A. Jackson, Gary Cecchine

Motivated by the growing threat of terrorism to the nation's homeland in the post-9/11 environment, the Office of Science and Technology, in conjunction with the RAND Science and Technology Policy Institute, organized and convened a Blue Ribbon Panel in early December 2003 to investigate, discuss, and prioritize a future research and development agenda for combating potential acts of biological agro-terrorism directed against U.S. livestock industry and related produce. This report summarizes the proceedings of the two-day conference and provides an overview of the findings and recommendations of the forum's four breakout groups: (i) Cross-Jurisdictional Surveillance and Information Technology (IT); (ii) Infection Disease Epidemiology; (iii) Vaccination and Protection Technologies; and (iv) Detection, Diagnostics, and Forensics Capabilities. In addition to these summaries, which include some discussion on wider threat contingencies related to agro-terrorism, the report contains the original papers submitted for the meeting. Overall, the issues presented in the report highlight the vulnerability of the nation's livestock sector, agriculture's importance to the U.S. economy at large, the specifics of a prioritized future research and development portfolio, and the place of the industry in the developing structure of U.S homeland security.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF193/

mini project #5

Davie Landfill
FLD980602288

Conditions at listing (October 1981): The Davie Landfill in Davie, Broward County, Florida, has been owned and operated by the county since 1971. The facility includes a 30-acre asphalt-lined sanitary landfill, an 80-acre trash fill, and a 10-acre waste water lagoon. Above-background levels of AMMONIA, LEAD, CHROMIUM, IRON, and ARSENIC have been detected in monitoring wells near the lagoon. Leachate from the lagoon contaminates the Biscayne Aquifer, which is the sole source of water for about 10,000 residents in the area. Ground water 1,300 feet downgradient of the lagoon is contaminated to a depth of 35 feet. This site was originally listed under the name "Broward County Solid Waste Disposal Facility." Status (July 1983): The county imposed strict controls to improve operations at the landfill. The county, its consultants, the State, and the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a number of studies to document the extent of contamination. The consultants installed 23 monitoring wells in the contaminated plume of ground water and areas influenced by the plume. The system allows sampling through the depth of the aquifer and provides an early warning of plume encroachment on drinking wells. Analyses show that no pollutants are present at levels that would violate water quality standards or pose any threat to human health, and that contamination of a drinking water supply is not imminent. Sampling will continue and be closely reviewed by the county, State, and EPA.
http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/site-desc-long.tcl?epa_id=FLD980602288

http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2007/10/chavismo-anal-moment-of-week-lack-of.html

The world climate dropped milk production (so we are now importing that much milk that we depend so much on world conditions? And if it is dry in the Netherlands does that mean that it is dry in New Zealand? How come we can import all the evaporated milk we can since it is the only type available in stores? Does that milk come from cow eating evaporated grass?)
It is a media campaign (What? With RCTV closed? With Globovision free only in Caracas and Valencia? Even Ultimas Noticias is in that campaign?)
The campaign is financed by "powerful interests and we have evidence of that" (Where is the evidence? Is it the same one as the multiple assassination attempts against Chavez? Who are they? How come, if you know who they are, that you have not already arrested these people playing with the hunger and misery of the people?)
It is all due because the consumption of milk by the poorer sectors have increased dramatically, a fact acknowledge by the world full of admiration (Are this "E-sector" people able to afford milk from the buhoneros at 3 to 5 times the regulated price? Is milk now only reserved to the poor sectors? Are the rich banned from "cafe con leche"?)The intense stupidity, and bad faith, and hypocrisy, and outright lies, of these declarations is not only infuriating but mind numbing. The real reasons for the lack of milk are as follows:

The considerable land redistribution has affected the production of meat an milk all across Venezuela. Production of meat is down 30% from 1998. So, as people have more money to buy, there IS LESS product available thanks to the disastrous agricultural policies of chavismo.

The efforts to produce more milk and meat have failed because the state is such a poor instructor, such a poor manager, so poor in fact that the peasants end up eating the cattle given to them, when they can keep it alive long enough.

The private sector refuses to invest in dairy and meat production because the price of milk is regulated, they do not want to sell below the price it costs them to produce and because, simply, they do not know when chavismo is going to take away their investment without adequate compensation.

Besides they can sell all their milk to cheese makers who are willing to pay the fair price and thus we have still enough cheese to eat even if the milk production has gone down. Will the government ban the production of cheese to provide milk to children? Will we get ration cards?But milk is everywhere to be found, if you are willing to pay the price. T

That is, if you go to the side walks of Caracas, you can not only find the brands that you do not find in stores, at a 2 to 4 times mark up in price, but you can even find informal merchants, buhoneros, spliting cans of powder milk in small zip lock bags to sell lesser amounts for those who just want their "cafe con leche" and are unwilling to pay full price for a full can. That is all you need to know to figure out by yourself the total failure of Chavez economic policies. If the government had an ounce of common sense it would let the price of milk float free and limit the purchase of subsidized milk to the lower sectors of the population. In fact I would not mind paying a tax on my "cafe con leche" at cafes to subsidize the poor. Just let me get my coffee!!!!!!!!

mini Project #4

List of Groceries
Doritos
Milk
Sodas
Chips
Corn flakes