Agricultural Security: Impacts on Military Readiness and National Security

D. Milonas
Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC),
United States

Keywords: agricultural security, food insecurity, climate change, plant diseases, livestock diseases, agroterrorism, synthetic biology, cyberattacks, cybersecurity, smart farming

Summary:

The Food and Agriculture (FA) sector is designated as one of the 16 critical infrastructures that contribute to our economic stability and security. Vulnerabilities in the FA sector pose a threat to food security, national security, and military readiness. Food insecurity and hunger are a cost of war and often leads to the viscous cycle of further protest and violent conflict. This talk will focus on the findings of a state-of-the-art report by HDIAC, which examines the impacts of climate change, threats of bioterrorism, and cyber-attacks pose on food security and explore the technologies, techniques, and policies to mitigate those vulnerabilities.