The FBI and Joint Terrorism Task force are hosting a conference in Kansas City, Missouri, with an unusual theme: "Agroterrorism." Not "aggro" as in, "Osama totally aggro'd out on that infidel," but agro, like crops.
Oh, there's some tiny-font mumbo jumbo on the website about "devoting increased time and attention to specific topics related to the prevention, detection and mitigation of an intentional attack against the food supply," but I know what this is really about: Genetically modified foods rising up to eat their masters.
Hybrid cornstalks will fly through the sky in the form of spears, like something Carl Sandberg might write on a bad acid trip. Zucchinis will become zukillers, squash will squash us, and frankenshrooms will shroud entire cities in clouds of toxic spores.
Speakers include Republican senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and sits on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director John Pistole; USDA secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns; and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The truth and the arugula are out there. Link, and here's the conference agenda.
Noah Shachtman wrote a related piece a while back for Wired News: Keeping Cows Safe From Terrorism.
Reader comment: Sean Bonner says, "This doesn't surprise me at all, you know tomatoes are water based!"
Chris S. Davis says,
I was wondering if you'd seen last month that the FDA had given the go-ahead for a Baltimore, MD company named Intralytix, Inc., approval to have six different strains of live viruses sprayed on foods, such as deli meats, hot dogs (anything cooked in processing, but not cooked after purchase) to combat Listeria monocytogenes, a rare bacteria affecting only 2500 people a year. Those 2500 people consists of pregnant women, small children and elderly people with supressed immune systems.
The viruses are supposed to invade the bacterial cell, replicate until the cell bursts killing the bacteria. In the process, it'll create endotoxins, which could cause numerous possible allergic reactions, like asthma, autoimmune deficiencies, etc. The "testing" trials were based off one type of animal testing and four types of human testing. But those tests were not relevant to this type of application that was given approval.
Of course, the consumer will be "notified" by the requirement of packaging having the term "bacteriophage preparation" on it. Now how many consumers would even think twice on that term, let alone know what it means.
No one, not even the FDA, can guarantee the safety of this process and certainly there's no way of telling the long term and short term effects, this could have on our bodies. We all know viruses and bacteria can mutate. So what if, the virus mutates into something "less friendly" or starts attacking the friendly bacteria in our bodies that aid in our digestion?
In learning about Intralytix, the CEO, said they already have a deal with a multi-national company and would NOT disclose the name of said company. Not to mention that Joe Verrazano, seeded money to SteelCloud, a company who just received a 3.4 billlion dollar contract with the DOD.
Intralytix also has two other applications waiting approval of the FDA to spray for E.Coli and Salmonella. Oh boy, can you imagine the cocktail we'll be eating? And if people start getting sick, the lovely pharmaceutical companies will gladly sell some miracle drug to treat it.
But, hey, who needs terrorists in Iraq, when we have bureaucratic government organizations like the FDA, to do the work for them?
