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Agriculture-Related Homeland
Security
and Food Defense
SES provides services
to federal, state and local governments, industries and trade groups
interested in agriculture-related homeland security and food defense. Services SES can provide
include:
- Developing
training curriculum regarding agriculture and food defense emergency
planning and response.
- Developing
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for agriculture and food defense
emergency planning, including Avian Influenza.
- Developing
agriculture emergency response and food defense plans.
- Developing
tabletop and discussion-based exercises pertaining to agriculture and
food defense, including animal disease and Avian Influenza.
- Reviewing
existing agriculture emergency response and food defense plans for
improvement planning.
SES developed the
first Facilitated Plan Development Activity (FPDA) that has been
universally accepted by state and local agencies and private entities. The FPDA is a planning session–tabletop
exercise hybrid that combines the best practices of both in a format that
goes beyond the awareness level of a tabletop exercise. SES has conducted
FPDAs in 13 states and developed more than 20 emergency operations plans or
standard operating procedures as a result.
More information about SES’s agricultural
emergency and food defense services is available here.
SES will be hosting a
booth at the Second Annual International Symposium on Agroterrorism (ISA). Click here to learn more.
G&T Training
The Department of Homeland Security, Preparedness
Directorate’s Office of Grants and Training (G&T), formally known as
SLGCP, encourages States, territories and urban areas to use Homeland
Security Grant Program (HSGP) funds to enhance the capabilities of State
and local emergency preparedness. If
an entity is interested in using G&T funding for emergency preparedness
training, SES can develop a training program to
meet G&T requirements.
If you would like
to contact SES about homeland security issues pertaining
to agriculture and food defense, please call Frank Bryant at
1-800-897-1163, ext. 12.
Current Homeland
Security Projects
State of Nebraska,
Department of Agriculture
The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) contracted SES, Inc. (SES) to develop a
training curriculum for local emergency management and first responders
regarding agricultural emergency planning and response. The contract also involved SES conducting 60
county level agricultural emergency training and planning sessions. By the end of February 2005, SES presented these
one-day trainings to emergency management and first responder personnel
representing nearly all of the 93 counties in Nebraska. The trainings addressed the following: 1)
scope and impact of an agricultural emergency on the state’s resources and
economy; 2) state plans for a coordinated response; 3) vulnerability
assessment; 4) roles and responsibilities; 5) biosecurity and foreign
animal disease; 6) exercises to test understanding and build awareness of
local responsibilities; 7) review of the management needs and design of a
Local Emergency Operations Plan (LEOP); and, 8) development of operational
guidance, such as standard operating procedures (SOP).
This project was so well received that NDA expanded the scope
of the SES contract to include the development
of SOPs for first responders, and the development, scheduling and delivery
of a similar emergency planning and response session tailored to the needs
of producers. These sessions also
will address Nebraska Premise Identification and the development of
catastrophic mortality disposal plans.
Currently, SES is conducting
agriculture vulnerability assessments for NDA throughout the state. SES also is working
with individual counties to develop the county-level agriculture annex
utilizing the FPDA process.
Multi-State
Partnership
A multi-state partnership (Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin)
contracted SES to review all of their state
emergency plans relative to food, crops and livestock. Based on this review, SES identified
commonalities, strengths, gaps and potential areas of intrastate
conflict. In addition, SES prepared emergency
plan templates for these types of incidents and ensured the templates were
consistent with the National Response Plan.
Besides the work with the state plans, the partnership also asked SES to review,
evaluate and report on the following preparedness and operational aspects
of each state’s response to an agricultural or food processing emergency:
training, table-top exercises, functional exercises and veterinary response
systems or programs.
SES recently completed the development of
agriculture and food defense emergency response plans for all 11 states in
the Partnership.
National
Association of State Departments of Agriculture
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture
(NASDA) contracted SES to expand upon the
Partnership project. NASDA asked SES to implement a
similar scope of work for the remaining states outside the
Partnership. SES reviewed state
emergency plans relative to food, crops and livestock. Based on this review, SES is identifying
commonalities, strengths, gaps and potential areas of intrastate conflict
and developing emergency plan templates accordingly. When the templates are completed and
finalized, SES will assist selected states in the
development of their emergency response plans, and develop and facilitate
exercises to validate the NASDA emergency plan templates.
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