Vet School professor warns of agro-terrorism potential

A renowned professor warned an audience of the United States' susceptibility to agro-terrorism at a lecture yesterday.

George Saperstein, the Amelia Peabody Professor at Tufts' veterinary school and the Chair of the Environmental and Population Health Department, said that agro-terrorism is just as threatening as its more widely-known counterpart, bio-terrorism, but it is often cheaper to execute.

"For less than $1 one can legally bring in foot and mouth disease," Saperstein said.

Saperstein said he "wouldn't be surprised if it was small farms near urban areas that were the source of the next attack"

He said that preventing agro-terrorism depends on increasing knowledge about the subject and creating "a more informed public that are not placated by the press," Saperstein said.

Although it would be relatively easy to execute an agro-terrorism attack, Saperstein said that the risk is small. "Even in warfare this is considered a heinous crime," he said.

The professor noted that the affects of agro-terrorism can be wide-ranging, and include psychological effects on the public, tourism losses and the death of animals. The ultimate goal of agro-terrorists is generally not to hurt people directly, but through damages to livestock.

Interest in agro-terrorism has ballooned since Sept. 11, 2001.

"People rarely talked about food security before 9/11, now it's become a hot topic," Saperstein said. He said there had been a "drastic increase in investigations since 9/11 and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease."

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Saperstein has changed the way he talks about the subject, which he was reluctant to discuss in classes before. "Agro-terrorism was a hush-hush topic talked about in corners of classrooms," he said. The increased media visibility of agro-terrorism has made Saperstein more willing to discuss the topic.

Dean of the Veterinary School Philip Kosch described Saperstein as a "superstar, the point person in his field."

His speech was the first in the vet school's lecture series. The series, titled "Veterinary Medicine, Science and Society," will present six lectures by faculty from the school. This first lecture attracted little attention; only one student was present.

The lecture series will be alternating between the Medford and Boston campuses, and continues in Boston on Nov. 13.

Kosch described the lecture series as "the very best way to show everyone what we [at the Veterinary School] do."

"President Bacow encouraged all the schools to reach out and this is what we are doing," he said.