Since the days of 9/11 the federal government has warned of U.S. agriculture becoming a potential target for terrorism, and intelligence officials have also warned about influence from foreign adversaries through land ownership and other methods.

Federal agencies unveiled a plan Tuesday that would make sweeping changes in how the USDA and other federal agencies protect U.S. agriculture from harm and influence.

The National Farm Security Action Plan was rolled out by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, along with the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and Attorney General’s office. It address “urgent threats” from foreign adversaries and aims to strengthen the resilience of food and ag systems in the U.S.

“We feed the world. We lead the world. And we’ll never let foreign adversaries control our land, our labs, or our livelihoods," Rollins said Tuesday as the plan was announced. 

Today, agriculture, food, and related trades employ more than 1 in 10 American workers and contribute over $1.5 trillion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

While highly populated domestic targets are often the most talked-about, intelligence gathered by American forces in Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11attacks uncovered documents involving U.S. agriculture along with al-Qaeda training manuals specifically targeting agriculture.

The food and agriculture sector entails vast open space and distances, interconnected “just in time” networks, transboundary movement of products, and dependence on new technology that creates a tempting, target-rich environment for malicious actors, the USDA said.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office published a report on foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land, which provided recommendations for enhancing efforts to collect, track and share key information to identify national security risks.

U.S. adversaries have also attacked agriculture supply chains, conducted malicious cyberoperations against food processors, imported illicit food products, and stolen intellectual property, the government said.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice charged foreign nationals, including a Chinese Communist Party member, with smuggling a noxious fungus into the U.S. that is responsible for billions in global crop losses. The scheme involved a U.S. research lab. 

“America’s enemies are playing the long game — infiltrating our research, buying up our farmland, stealing our technology, and launching cyberattacks on our food systems,” Rollins said. “These actions expose strategic vulnerabilities in America’s food and agriculture supply chain.”

Highlights of the security plan include the following: 

  • USDA reform the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) process, which includes creating an online filing system for enhanced AFIDA reports, including geospatial information and purpose of the land purchase, to facilitate timely sharing of filings.
  • USDA will launch a new online portal for farmers, ranchers, and others to report possible false or failed reporting and compliance with respect to AFIDA. The portal will also receive and review claims of adversarial foreign influence on federal, state, and local policymakers with respect to purchases of U.S. farmland and business dealings in other facets of U.S. agricultural supply chains.
  • USDA will collaborate with federal partners to create a list of critical agricultural inputs and materials — including fertilizers, chemicals, minerals, vitamins, components of military defense systems such as nitrocellulose and natural rubber, and other materials — required for successful agricultural production and critical infrastructure security.
  • USDA will conduct regular assessments to identify risks and security vulnerabilities
  • to the food and agriculture critical infrastructure sector, including vulnerabilities associated with storage and transportation of agricultural products.
  • USDA will review and modernize import restrictions to prevent the spread of dangerous biochemicals and biological agents from entering the country.
  • Research funded by USDA will focus on protecting plant and animal health through the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovations to mitigate or eradicate priority plant and animal diseases such as citrus greening, rusts, blights, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, African Swine Fever, and Foot and Mouth Disease methods to control or eradicate invasive pests such as New World Screwworm and Spotted Lanternfly.
  • USDA will work with private companies and the Food and Ag Information Sharing and Analysis Center to ensure companies, regardless of size, have access to available resources to protect their operations from cybersecurity and ransomware attacks.

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