INCIDENTAL AGROTERRORISM: Greed, the global market and pet food contamination
Last week, your friendly neighborhood GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow wrote briefly that a great deal of anti-terror training is rubbish. As an example, it pointed to a case at a small college in Pennsylvania where a professor was said to be "helping American Indian tribes nationwide fight 'agroterrorism' – the intentional attempt to compromise the country’s food supply." (See here.)
And in the past, the standard line has been written that agroterrorism is easy and that al Qaeda is just getting ready to spring it upon us. (See here.)
However, the contamination of food, as in regular cases of food poisoning, most often happens through the collision of man's bad practices and nature.
Much, much, much less common is poisoning of masses of food in the distribution chain by tampering. (Offhand, in fact, I can't think of any cases of deliberate tampering of the size about to be discussed.)
One example which has now apparently taken everyone by surprise -- DD is not seeing the usual suspects from the bioterror-is-easy crowd checking in on it -- is what looks like the greed-driven contamination of the pet food supply by unknown parties in China.
What was initially reported as an accidental contamination of wheat gluten protein filler at Menu Foods has relentlessly expanded to include wheat, corn and rice gluten as well as other companies. Products using these materials have been sold in other countries and, in the United States, not only fed to many, many pets with very bad consequences, but now also to hogs, animals slated for human consumption. (The latter at a specialty pig farm in California.)
The FDA has stated that it is looking into purposeful contamination from China, plausible now because of the finding of melamine in a spectrum of plant glutens used as protein extenders. The compound is said to contribute to nitrogen counts in protein assays. Melamine contains three amine (NH2) moieties, the same moiety included in all amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins. General chemical determinations of protein content in gross mixtures have always relied upon assays which specifically measure the amino acid nitrogen bound in proteins.
"FDA officials said they were investigating whether the melamine might have been added intentionally as a way to charge more for an inferior product," wrote the Los Angeles Times today. "The fact that three protein sources from China contained melamine adds credibility to that theory ... " it was reported.
Addition of a powder like melamine to any gross mixture would be one way to make a worthless product seem to be other than it actually is. That one would use a toxic component to do this is probably a result of malicious greed compounded by stupidity.
Because the contamination of pet foods has extended across so many brands and its consequences are so dire, the incident has thoroughly shaken the confidence of pet owners, even those who buy their food from companies not as yet involved in the recall.
What is certain now is that the pet food industry, somewhere along the line, lost control of its supply chain. It also became ignorant to the true nature of it (or looked the other way) and the risks its business decisions may have posed. After all, plant glutens are not a specialty product and can easily be extracted and purified in the United States.
The obvious reason why this is no longer the case is because of the global marketplace and the drive to get product cheaper than one could get it by employing American labor. Enter China, which for all practical purposes employs a slave labor workforce in industries which answer to no regulation.
In any case, the addition of melamine to products destined for pet food is an utterly despicable act. One can think of it as atrocious as the idea of adding ethylene glycol, antifreeze, to soda as an artificial sweetener.
If it had been done in the United States, the company furnishing the feed would already be looking at shuttering while under criminal investigation. Since it's in China, there is no reason to believe the involved parties will be turned out anytime soon, unless the Chinese government intervenes.
"The FDA said it 'fully expects' to get such cooperation," reported the Times. But in the very next sentence, it is stated: "The Chinese government has said that the contaminated wheat gluten was not meant for pet foods and therefore was not its regulatory responsibility."
Pet food contamination on this scale can be seen as an act of incidental agroterror.
While agroterrorism would not have been the intent, it has been the result. If the contaminated glutens had been in foods for human consumption, the news would be a firebomb. Because of the scale of it, it could -- in some circles -- be seen as a possible act of war.
It is serious business, business that crucifies the pet food industry on its lack of basic due diligence. While it did not put the poison into its product and has acted swiftly to remove material from the shelves, it cannot sidestep the cold steel truth that it egregiously broke the trust, however accidentally, its customers placed in it.
DD has long argued that it is not easy for terrorists to instigate bioterror or agroterrorism. On the other hand, it is far easier for pursuit of profit to inspire inside jobs in which unscrupulous industrial partners use their resources and the public's lack of knowledge about the nature of consumables to turn on the people who are their customers.
Where do the protein extenders in the foods on your kitchen shelves come from?
Full disclosure: DD owns four cats, none of which have been fed any of the implicated brands which, at this point, would seem to simply be a matter of good fortune.
Of related interest: Terrorists have long wanted to poison Americans with botox even though they haven't the capability. American doctors in the anti-aging industry, on the other hand, have put their patients on ventilators with botox in their pursuit of ill gotten gain. See here and here.
Related: Chines feed exporter advertises unusual compound, known to cause renal disease in cats.
Chinese Agri-Scum.
Last week, your friendly neighborhood GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow wrote briefly that a great deal of anti-terror training is rubbish. As an example, it pointed to a case at a small college in Pennsylvania where a professor was said to be "helping American Indian tribes nationwide fight 'agroterrorism' – the intentional attempt to compromise the country’s food supply." (See here.)
And in the past, the standard line has been written that agroterrorism is easy and that al Qaeda is just getting ready to spring it upon us. (See here.)
However, the contamination of food, as in regular cases of food poisoning, most often happens through the collision of man's bad practices and nature.
Much, much, much less common is poisoning of masses of food in the distribution chain by tampering. (Offhand, in fact, I can't think of any cases of deliberate tampering of the size about to be discussed.)
One example which has now apparently taken everyone by surprise -- DD is not seeing the usual suspects from the bioterror-is-easy crowd checking in on it -- is what looks like the greed-driven contamination of the pet food supply by unknown parties in China.
What was initially reported as an accidental contamination of wheat gluten protein filler at Menu Foods has relentlessly expanded to include wheat, corn and rice gluten as well as other companies. Products using these materials have been sold in other countries and, in the United States, not only fed to many, many pets with very bad consequences, but now also to hogs, animals slated for human consumption. (The latter at a specialty pig farm in California.)
The FDA has stated that it is looking into purposeful contamination from China, plausible now because of the finding of melamine in a spectrum of plant glutens used as protein extenders. The compound is said to contribute to nitrogen counts in protein assays. Melamine contains three amine (NH2) moieties, the same moiety included in all amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins. General chemical determinations of protein content in gross mixtures have always relied upon assays which specifically measure the amino acid nitrogen bound in proteins.
"FDA officials said they were investigating whether the melamine might have been added intentionally as a way to charge more for an inferior product," wrote the Los Angeles Times today. "The fact that three protein sources from China contained melamine adds credibility to that theory ... " it was reported.
Addition of a powder like melamine to any gross mixture would be one way to make a worthless product seem to be other than it actually is. That one would use a toxic component to do this is probably a result of malicious greed compounded by stupidity.
Because the contamination of pet foods has extended across so many brands and its consequences are so dire, the incident has thoroughly shaken the confidence of pet owners, even those who buy their food from companies not as yet involved in the recall.
What is certain now is that the pet food industry, somewhere along the line, lost control of its supply chain. It also became ignorant to the true nature of it (or looked the other way) and the risks its business decisions may have posed. After all, plant glutens are not a specialty product and can easily be extracted and purified in the United States.
The obvious reason why this is no longer the case is because of the global marketplace and the drive to get product cheaper than one could get it by employing American labor. Enter China, which for all practical purposes employs a slave labor workforce in industries which answer to no regulation.
In any case, the addition of melamine to products destined for pet food is an utterly despicable act. One can think of it as atrocious as the idea of adding ethylene glycol, antifreeze, to soda as an artificial sweetener.
If it had been done in the United States, the company furnishing the feed would already be looking at shuttering while under criminal investigation. Since it's in China, there is no reason to believe the involved parties will be turned out anytime soon, unless the Chinese government intervenes.
"The FDA said it 'fully expects' to get such cooperation," reported the Times. But in the very next sentence, it is stated: "The Chinese government has said that the contaminated wheat gluten was not meant for pet foods and therefore was not its regulatory responsibility."
Pet food contamination on this scale can be seen as an act of incidental agroterror.
While agroterrorism would not have been the intent, it has been the result. If the contaminated glutens had been in foods for human consumption, the news would be a firebomb. Because of the scale of it, it could -- in some circles -- be seen as a possible act of war.
It is serious business, business that crucifies the pet food industry on its lack of basic due diligence. While it did not put the poison into its product and has acted swiftly to remove material from the shelves, it cannot sidestep the cold steel truth that it egregiously broke the trust, however accidentally, its customers placed in it.
DD has long argued that it is not easy for terrorists to instigate bioterror or agroterrorism. On the other hand, it is far easier for pursuit of profit to inspire inside jobs in which unscrupulous industrial partners use their resources and the public's lack of knowledge about the nature of consumables to turn on the people who are their customers.
Where do the protein extenders in the foods on your kitchen shelves come from?
Full disclosure: DD owns four cats, none of which have been fed any of the implicated brands which, at this point, would seem to simply be a matter of good fortune.
Of related interest: Terrorists have long wanted to poison Americans with botox even though they haven't the capability. American doctors in the anti-aging industry, on the other hand, have put their patients on ventilators with botox in their pursuit of ill gotten gain. See here and here.
Related: Chines feed exporter advertises unusual compound, known to cause renal disease in cats.
Chinese Agri-Scum.
posted by George Smith at 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
Stumbled onto your site. We seem to have some common interests. I noticed you put together a simulated attack against Iran - I did the same thing, but it was in 2003 and I used Harpoon 3.
More recently, I used H3 to try two different Israeli attack scenarios. I discussed on my blog.
Our views with respect to Iran seem to differ somewhat. You'll see that if you read the Iran-related articles on my blog.
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