ABSTRACT
Agroeconomic bioterrorism is bioterrorism conducted against economic and agricultural commodities such as animals/livestock, food crops and other derivative products and systems (e.g., cotton, wool, leather, milk, wood, food distribution systems, etc.). Since the attacks are not conducted against people directly, the desired effects are economic damage which requires a widespread geographical consideration. We care about 100 people; we don’t care about 100 animals, 100 trees, 100 food plants, etc. Agroeconomic targets are systems involving complexity and are widespread in scope. Local (focal) or point attacks can cause significant economic damage, primarily through psychological or societal reactions to the perception of risk and danger. Distributed (or multi-focal) attacks on the agroeconomic base of food crops or animal livestock require both similar and significantly different considerations than do bioterrorism or biowarfare directed at people. The response to agroeconomic bioterrorism is by necessity multi-disciplinary involving
• Spatial-temporal analysis of relationships (systems theory, operations research, and spatial econometrics).
