FOOD FOR THOUGHT OR TERROR: THE LEGAL ISSUES SURROUNDING AGROTERRORISM

摘要

The United States' agriculture system is vulnerable to terrorist attack.1 Agroterrorism reaches across various disciplines, challenges federal, state, and local agencies, and involves diverse programs and industries focused on agribusiness, food production, research, risk management, surveillance, consumer education, and sharing of intelligence.2 The prospect of agroterrorism implicates the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.3 Preventing agroterrorism may also impel the government toenforce and modify the Clayton Antitrust Act.4 This comment focuses on the legal issues connected to the deliberate sabotage of processed food with the intent to cause human disease. Specifically, this comment will provide a brief overview of agricultural biological warfare then analyze various governmental responses to agroterrorism. This comment will end with an examination of the Department of Health and Human Scrvices' recent unprecedented request to pull a paper, which analyzes a potential bioterror attack on the food supply, from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.