Taking a stroll through World Dairy Expo, it is amazing to see all the new technologies available to dairy producers — from advanced milking systems to genomics technology and more.

For Scott Mahloch, special agent with the FBI, the technology is amazing, too, but it’s also something he wants to keep out of the hands of people with bad intentions.

“We want to make sure those emerging technologies don’t end up in the hands of terrorists or other people we don’t want to have those trade secrets,” he said during one of three presentations at World Dairy Expo.

Mahloch, the FBI Milwaukee Field Office WMD (weapons of mass destruction) coordinator, talked about security threats to agriculture and what the FBI’s role is in responding to a threat.

The farm-to-fork continuum is a big topic of discussion in the halls of FBI headquarters. Here’s how he describes it:

“When I talk farm-to-fork, think of it as a cow in the field mooing, living its best life. And now that cow showing up on your dinner plate, think about all the steps in the process and all the associated vulnerabilities,” he says. “I want to be aware of that and have a baseline knowledge of what those vulnerabilities are.”

It’s one reason, he says, the FBI works closely with USDA and the Food and Drug Administration, to better understand issues related to ag and food. The agency only gets involved in an incident when there is evidence of intentional contamination or adulteration of food or water.

To that end, Mahloch says the ag and food system are “soft targets” and open to sabotage if someone wanted to do something. Many of his conversations with producers at World Dairy Expo involved talking about basic security on the farm. And while he doesn’t profess to be a security expert, he says that awareness can go a long way.

“I think the attitude really is that terrorism and bad things happen in New York, with the events of 9/11, or other places,” he says. “It’s certainly never going to affect me in central Wisconsin. Really, what we’re trying to do is kind of change that attitude. We’re not asking for something that’s robust or some crazy security system, but securing what you have could make a difference.”

Threat and response

Mahloch says intelligence gathered by the FBI shows that terrorists and other criminals have, in the past, talked about vulnerabilities in the ag and food system.

An attack on any component of the food system would generate publicity to further terrorist objectives.

“I think a lot of times with the food supply, we take it for granted, Mahloch says. “We walk into a grocery store, the shelves are completely stocked, we never really have an issue, right? Take that away, take away the confidence in the food supply of our food system and look what happens.”

How the agency responds to an incident is a multistep process called threat credibility evaluation.

“We look at the technical feasibility, the operational practicality and that adversarial intent,” Mahloch says.

He brought up a ricin attack as an example. Ricin, which is extracted from castor beans, is highly toxic and readily available. Anyone can get it at a nature store or online. So, from a technical standpoint, it is easy to get.

To be able to use it, though, you must extract ricin from castor beans. Mahloch says there are recipes online that show how to do this, so from an operational practicality standpoint, it is easy for anyone to learn this step.

The last step is figuring out what the intent is. “This is the area of the process that’s going to swing us from one area to another area in terms of response. Is there a threat attached to the incident?” he says.

How vulnerable is ag?

While Mahloch couldn’t point to specific threats to agriculture, or incidents where there was intentional contamination of the food system, there are things the agency is tracking.

One of those is the current outbreak of African swine fever, which has been detected in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. An outbreak of African swine fever could devastate the nation’s hog industry, he says, and the FBI is tracking where the disease is spreading and how it could be intentionally introduced in the U.S.

Another is theft of agricultural intellectual property, or IP. This involves theft of trade secrets such as farming equipment design or genetically modified seed development from competing companies or governments, a disgruntled employee, or even from organized crime.

There have been a few examples of agricultural IP theft. A notable one involved Mo Hailong, a Chinese national, who in 2016 was sentenced to 36 months in prison for conspiracy to steal trade secrets.

Hailong, director of international business for Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., with a corn seed subsidiary company called Kings Nower Seed, admitted to participating in a conspiracy to steal trade secrets from DuPont Pioneer, now Corteva, and Monsanto, now Bayer Crop Sciences.

This involved the theft of inbred corn seeds from fields in Iowa and elsewhere for the purpose of transporting the seeds to DBN in China, according to the Department of Justice.

Why hasn’t agriculture been targeted more? Mahloch says it depends on who wants to commit the crime. In the case of a terrorist, an attack on a building in nearby Chicago or Milwaukee will generate a lot more headlines than spreading a poison in a milk plant.

Still, ag leaders and producers should be aware of what’s out there.

“I tell people, be aware of the vulnerabilities that are out there,” Mahloch says. “Be aware of your employees that are out there. There’s a lot of seasonal workers that come in. Properly vet, learn what those risks are and how to best mitigate those risks. We have got to do better in food and ag and look at those vulnerabilities. We take everything for granted, and a lot of times we’re reacting after the fact.”