Feature: MSU Plays Key Role in Homeland Security
MSU is playing a key role in homeland security, such as helping protect the integrity of our food supply.
With news of the threat of terrorism abroad and in our own country, the specter of terrorism looms as near to us today as it did in the days following Sept. 11, 2001. This year has seen a bolstering of defense protocol in our transportation systems, at events such as political conventions and the Olympics in Athens, and in immigration and naturalization policies.
One potential target of terrorism that continues to be overlooked is in our own kitchens, workplaces, schools, supermarkets and restaurants: our food supply. This point is not lost on Michigan State University researchers and educators, including Edward Mather, deputy director of the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at MSU, who is heading a food defense education effort nationally.
“Our nation’s food supply is vulnerable to attack,” Mather explains. “It is an area that continues to be overlooked and yet, if an intentional contamination event did occur, it would affect us all. The human health and economic implications cannot be underestimated.”
Mather and other MSU colleagues met in July with U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to formalize the creation of a National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD). Various departments at MSU will join partner universities throughout the U.S. in developing the NCFPD, funded at $15 million over a three-year period.
“MSU is in a very unique position and we bring a lot to the table,” Mather said. “Not only do we have strong programs in food safety, but we have nationally renowned expertise in fields such as supply chain management, diagnostics, packaging and criminal justice.”
“A key to MSU’s participation is the training of professionals to be able to deal with intentional contamination events, a need that is currently unfulfilled as the U.S. is faced with a lack of food protection and defense expertise and has few academic programs that address this shortage,” says Trent Wakenight, educational program coordinator at the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at MSU.
One facet of shoring up the defense capabilities of our nation’s food supply is recognizing that a safer food supply rests upon a safer food supply chain system. “No longer can we think of food protection as a problem at just one store, restaurant, production facility or processing plant,” says Wakenight. “When there is a problem at the farm level, for example, this affects everyone up that chain to, ultimately, the fork level or consumer level.”
For the state of Michigan, this approach presents a dire need. Not only do Michigan residents consume foods produced in our state, but as the number two producer of agricultural products in the U.S., Michigan foods make their way to dinner plates everywhere. “A problem in our state could trickle down to multiple states and an exponentially larger number of consumers,” says Wakenight.
While the NCFPD project maintains a national focus, the NFSTC has been closely involved in shaping a safer food supply in the state of Michigan. In April, Mather and MSU colleagues participated in a table-top exercise in Maryland aimed at simulating an actual contamination event in the restaurant industry. In May, the same approach was replicated here in Michigan with participants from the grocery industry.
Outcomes from that session included the realization that there are communication gaps throughout our food supply chain, but that there are producers, processors, retailers and law enforcement personnel dedicated to tackling the problem.
This same conclusion has been reached through a series of ongoing Food and Agricultural Protection summits conducted quarterly in Michigan since June 2003. Convened jointly by the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture, the Michigan Dept. of Community Health and the NFSTC, summit participants have gathered with a singular mission: to ensure that Michigan’s food supply is prepared for a contamination event, that it can prevent such an event, or respond should an event take place, and to become equipped to recover from an intentional event.
Kirsten Khire is Director of Communication for the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at MSU
Trent Wakenight , M.A. ’04, is the NFSTC’s Outreach Communicator.
MSU SUPPLY CHAIN FACULTY FOCUS ON FOOD SECURITY
By David J. Closs
The food chain involves all the processes and activities to deliver food from the farm to the fork. To secure this chain, the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) sought a team of researchers with both technical knowledge about food safety and business knowledge about organizationing and managing the process to move food from the farm to the consumer.
They found that kind of expertise at MSU. A team of MSU researchers had already been investigating ways for firms to enhance the security of their supply chains. This includes the food consumer in the home as well as in restaurants and institutions, as well as transportation companies, government institutions, and port operators. Even though Americans consume mainly domestically-grown food, an increasing percentage is imported to allow for “out-of-season” fresh produce. This MSU team included faculty from marketing and supply chain management in the Broad College of Business, the School of Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Diagnostics, Engineering, the Food Safety and Toxicology Laboratory, and the School of Packaging.
In November 2003, they hosted a workshop and generated a special report titled Enhancing Security Throughout the Supply Chain published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. It’s clear that MSU faculty were uniquely poised to investigate supply chain security in general and food security in particular.
The Criminal Justice and Supply Chain Management team have begun their efforts to examine such supply chain activities as material procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, inventory management, and customer service, which amount to 30-50 percent of the retail cost of food products. The objective of these activities is to provide food for U.S. consumers when and where they want it at the lowest possible cost. While there has always been concern regarding food security and safety, previous efforts have focused on accidental contamination. Since September 11, the focus expanded to include intentional contamination, either via bio-chemical agents or by tinkering with the vehicles and containers hauling the food.
Historically, the food supply chain has not focused major resources on improving security because of the low probability of such events and the trust between supply chain partners. Since September 11, however, it has become clear that a terrorist incident could have not only severe health implications for thousands of people, but also severe financial repercussions for the firm and the overall economy. For example, last year’s relatively small incident involving the import of an animal with “Mad Cow” disease from Canada reduced farm prices, or even eliminated the ability for Canadian beef farmers to sell product in the U.S., reduced employment at processing plants and distributors, and reduced availability and/or increased price of beef to U.S. consumers. An intentional event could well produce an even more significant impact.
Food firms have already increased their interest in food supply chain security initiatives, ensuring vigilance when the product is on the road or ocean 24/7 even with limited personnel. These initiatives include physical security of buildings and processes, increased inspections of equipment and processes, certification of domestic and international partners and carriers, application of technology to track and trace product movement and responsibility. Increased inspections help ensure that processes have not been compromised and that transportation equipment has not been compromised with contraband. Formal and informal certification and auditing processes help verify the integrity of other supply chain partners. Finally, new technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) help to track the movement and location of vehicles and shipping containers.
We also need to minimize the cost of these initiatives so they do not mean higher food prices for the consumer. We need to determine which processes and technologies provide the best return on the security investment. We need to consider trade-offs. We can rely on both interviews with managers involved in enhancing food supply chain security and in statistical analysis. MSU’s research team will try to identify the best use of resources to provide us with a safe, secure, constant, and economic food chain.
David Closs is MSU’s John H. McConnell Chaired Professor of Business Administration.