Whether you’re interested in working directly with food sources, creating and marketing plant and animal products or in the fields of law and policy, biosecurity will be an important concept. It impacts every aspect of our chains of production and consumption. Moreover, it takes into consideration food systems not as aspects of national interest, but of international moment. In the article below, we’ll explore this term, defining it and unpacking its finer implications.
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Holism and Broadly Applied Policy
To borrow a concept from the field of anthropology, local is global and global is local. That’s apt when it comes to considering how we grow and harvest consumables, whether plants or animals, and how we strategically protect those consumables from pests or diseases. Bio security is a holistic system that incorporates both policy and the tools required to analyze threats to food resources.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it takes into account existing food policies and regulatory infrastructure of a given local or national system, setting it in a much broader global context. In connection with this international panel, specialists work to both assess problems posed by human events—such as the formation of new governments, conflicts, social attitudes towards food products, and epidemic attrition of populations—and concepts of plant and animal health under the management of current systems.
In Specific Terms
Biosafety and security address much more than policy, however. Our food sources, while in many cases local, have become international. Plant and animal products cross national boundaries, time zones, and ecological regions. Pests, invasive species, and diseases against which many plants or animals have no natural immunity, may be introduced at any time. The only measure we truly have against these threats to the health and security of our local food systems and natural resources is effective policy management.
While there are both international and national policy-building groups that consider these vectors, invasive species, and the health and security of our food systems, within the United States each state’s department of agriculture considers how to employ policy and management tools. A panel may be devoted to tailoring international policy guidelines to the needs of a single state’s food systems.
They may issue a series of guidelines for handling livestock, purchasing feed, or dealing with vendors and visitors. These are intended to prevent disease or contain its spread in the event that it occurs. In terms of plant produce, these guidelines may reference the use of genetically modified seeds and products, the management of pest species and diseases, and the proper procedures for harvest and transport of food. What is clear is that this type of security isn’t confined to a single level of any government, and encompasses both national policy and local procedures.
Food and all products created from plants or animals are a vital consideration. Keeping crops and livestock healthy and safe is everyone’s vested interest, because pests, diseases, and other threats do not recognize human territory borders. Food security is a lynchpin consideration. If it is threatened or compromised, other systems are impacted. In extreme cases, damage to food systems can lead to government collapse, human or animal disease epidemics, and financial instability. Each of these troubling occurrences will then spread their impacts to the international stage. When one considers the implications of such instability, the realm of biosecurity takes on extraordinary importance.