By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A consortium spearheaded by the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine has convened to offer a free course to people interested in food security and preparedness.

Last week, a taped panel discussion was aired on the Live Response program to advertise the course, known as “Management 332: Agriculture and Food Vulnerability Assessment Training.”
The Live Response series is a satellite television broadcast produced by the National Terrorism Prevention Institute out of St. Petersburg College in Florida.

The course is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) certified training course developed by UT. The course was made possible by a grant from the DHS.

The Live Response panel last week included Sharon Thompson, director of UT’s Food Security and Preparedness Program, Ray Burden, UT extension director for Hamilton County, Boris Lederer, a course instructor, and Jeff Witte of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.

The discussion started with a video quoting outgoing Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson in 2004: “I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not, you know, attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do.”
The Sept. 11 attacks and his comments prompted people to think more about food security and the possibility that the system could be sabotaged.

“The federal government knew that this was a significant issue for many years,” said Sharon Thompson. “What we need to do is start taking that seriously, and try to enact things to hopefully prevent a problem from occurring.

“The concern really is that our system in this country is relatively open. We can have folks walk onto a dairy farm and not be questioned by anybody. They can walk around that farm for an hour or so before they are actually stopped.”

She said she’s not trying to scare anyone, but wants to give people tools to deal with food security issues, just as people have had tools for years to address food safety issues.

“Management 332” is being advertised as different from other courses born out of concern about terrorism in that it focuses on prevention and deterrence rather than on responding after the fact.
Nevertheless, some of the talk was about responding as well as deterring.

“Many times, first responders are not familiar with agriculture and it requires private industry and local individuals to be involved in that process” of responding to an agriculture-related crisis, Burden said.
In other words, the course is really for anyone with a professional interest in food security. The target audience for the course, as well as the Live Response series, is officials at all levels of government, such as law enforcement, public health officials, emergency management personnel, extension and crop specialists, others associated with agriculture and the food industry and military personnel.

UT has delivered the course to more than 1,000 people in 41 states.

It takes 2.5 days to complete and contains nine modules.
The course can be delivered in the local community, and although it’s free of charge, a location must be made available.
For more information about the class, visit www.vet.utk.edu/cafsp or call Ann White, program administrator, at 865-974-0345.

For more on the Live Response series, go to http:// terrorism.spcollege.edu