The Art of Politics

Taster's Choice

Outgoing HHS chief wonders why terrorists haven't gone after US food supply, wink wink...

Outgoing Heath and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has been losing sleep over the nation's food supply and it's susceptibility to terrorism.

Apparently, despite increases in food inspections, only a minute amount of food entering the US is inspected. But this is unsurprising - you cannot test it all, and even testing some is not adequate if you want a 100% prevention rate.

Food inspectors test for more than terrorist devices - they test for bugs, disease, etc. One would expect that short of inventing exploding grapes, the kind of operation to achieve large scale results via food contamination is likely beyond Al Qaeda's ability to coordinate. But a small scale operation is far more actionable. To prevent, say, a dozen grapes with cyanide entereing the US, we'd have to inspect 100% of all imports, which is simply not possible considering the volume of foodstuffs imports for a nation of 300 million people, at least at the cost point American consumers have come to expect to pay.

Now mind you, you can create nationwide panic with just a few contaminated items - poisoned Tylenol, anyone? But Al Qaeda never has seemed to grasp that aspect of terrorizing a populace - and thankfully they don't seem inclined to try.

Posted by MEC2 at December 4, 2004 10:32 PM