Critical Infrastructures: Food and Agriculture (FA) Sector

Food and Agriculture (FA) Sector

Welcome to another week. It’s no secret that it is vital that we must protect our food and agricultural critical infrastructure which is an essential environmental component critical to our livelihood. It is an important responsibility shared by all levels of the US government including federal, state, local, as well as tribal and private sector partners. Should there be any potential interruption of operations within this sector, the results would be consequentially devastating effecting the US both economically and agriculturally.  For example, the agricultural sector alone includes crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry and “absorbs 22% of the total economic impact caused by natural hazards” such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, wild fires, drought, etc. (FAO)

Natural Hazards

With that being said, protecting our Food and Agricultural (FA) Sector is an essential part of the Homeland Security’s mission of making America safe, secured, and more resilient from not only terrorist attacks but by natural and manmade hazards. Interestingly, post-disaster needs assessments reviewed, the crop subsector is the most affected by natural hazards. Total damage and losses to the crop subsector amount to approximately 13 billion dollars and almost 60% of the damages and losses were caused by floods followed by storms with 23%. See chart below.

Source: FAO based on data from post-disaster needs assessments, 2003–2013

Flooded crops can be developmentally delayed resulting in farmers needing to use additional weed control which increases costs. Additionally, floodwaters can bring in new weed seeds that increase control costs and reduce yields in future years. Take into consideration that erosion washes the fertile top soil away and increases input costs and reduces yields in future years. Soil deposition is another significant problem. More than a few inches of deposition, even of fertile silt, can smother an existing crop. Sand and gravel can also be deposited on cropland by floodwaters, necessitating the removal or spreading out and mixing in of these deposits, which likely are not as fertile as the existing soil and thus imply higher input costs and lower yields.

Forestry

Click for Additional Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stI1NrLXqgg

Forest fire damage Argyle Canyon 2012

Considering the forestry subsector, it can also be negatively affected by natural hazards. Between 2003 and 2013, there were 26 disaster-related events which resulted in 737 million dollars in damage and losses to natural forestry. This represented 2.4% of all damage and losses within the agriculture sector. Hurricanes, typhoons and similar storms have the greatest impact on the forestry subsector.

Drought

Click for Additional Resource: https://youtu.be/Xo1Jyzba7rA


Dried maize corn plants grow in a drought affected field

Drought has an especially detrimental impact. Approximately 90% of production losses. For example, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa where the sector on average contributes to a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP). The total crop and livestock production losses after major droughts were equivalent to more than 30 billion dollars between 1991 and 2013 in the region.

Storms/Floods

Click for Additional Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMsQbjkCr8k

Courtesy of lambertplanet.blogspot.com

In another instance, many Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact of floods and storms. Crop production losses caused by the 2010 floods in Pakistan critically affected cotton ginning, rice processing, and sugar milling, while cotton and rice imports surged. In this case, some 50% of the 10 billion dollars in total damages and losses fell on the agriculture sector.



Recognizing the critical importance of resilience in agriculture for food security, the US and other countries have adopted policies to mainstream disaster risk reductions across key segments within the agriculture sector. For example, some countries such as the United Republic of Tanzania have developed a national agriculture development plan which integrates risk reduction as part of their strategy to achieve sector growth while building strength. These plans reflect good practices that need to be replicated and expounded more broadly in countries where damages and losses to agriculture caused by natural disasters are high. In doing so, these practices can and will achieve agricultural security (Mitchell, 2008). See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeoIsjYBQH0


References:

DHS. (2017, July 6). Food and Agriculture Sector. Retrieved from Department of Homeland Security: https://www.dhs.gov/food-and-agriculture-sector

FAO. (2015). The Impact of Natural Hazards and Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security and Nutrition. Rome: Viale delle Terme di Caracalla.

Mitchell, P. D. (2008, Aug. 11). Flooding on the Farm. Retrieved from Storm Water Solutions: https://www.estormwater.com/flooding-farmhttps://www.dhs.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors

Critical Infrastructures: Transportation Systems Sector

 

Welcome and let’s take a brief look at the transportation side as it relates to the chemical sector. TheTransportation Systems Sector consists of seven key subsectors, or what they call “modes.” They include:

• Aviation – involves, air traffic control systems, and about 19,700 airports, heliports, and landing strips. Additionally, the aviation mode includes commercial and recreational aircraft and a wide-variety of support services, such as aircraft repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight schools.
• Highway and Motor Carrier – encompasses more than 4 million miles of roadway, more than 600,000 bridges, and more than 350 tunnels. Vehicles include trucks, including those carrying hazardous materials; other commercial vehicles, and school buses; vehicle and driver licensing systems; traffic management systems; and cyber systems used for operational management.
• Maritime Transportation System – consists of about 95,000 miles of coastline, 361 ports, more than 25,000 miles of waterways, and intermodal landside connections that allow the various modes of transportation to move people and goods to, from, and on the water.
• Mass Transit and Passenger Rail – includes terminals, operational systems, and supporting infrastructure for passenger services by transit buses, trolleybuses, monorail, heavy rail—also known as subways or metros—light rail, passenger rail, and vanpool/rideshare.
• Pipeline Systems – consist of more than 2.5 million miles of pipelines spanning the country and carrying nearly all of the nation's natural gas and about 65 percent of hazardous liquids, as well as various chemicals.
• Freight Rail – consists of seven major carriers, hundreds of smaller railroads, over 138,000 miles of active railroad, over 1.33 million freight cars, and approximately 20,000 locomotives. An estimated 12,000 trains operate daily. The Department of Defense has designated 30,000 miles of track and structure as critical to mobilization and resupply of U.S. forces.
• Postal and Shipping – involves moving bout 720 million letters and packages each day and includes large integrated carriers, regional and local courier services, mail services, mail management firms, and chartered and delivery services

One of the concerning factors affecting the transportation sector and the environment particularly involving maritime, motor-carrier highway, and rail services is its transportation of oil products and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Over the years, policymakers and stakeholder groups have proposed a number of policies aimed at reducing these emissions via mitigation policies. But in order to fully evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, they have to consider the direct responses associated with policy actions as well as the indirect responses.

In cases where there are multiple policies being employed, indirect effects can create policy interactions that are either complementary or opposing to where policymakers need to understand how these interactions operate in order to leverage policy collaborations and manage policy conflicts.

With that being said, other greenhouse gases and GHG emissions are a result of human activity. The following chart shows the energy consumption and emissions by the major fuel types:

 

 

Given its current state is there anything you would change, implement, or allow current policies and regulations to remain the same? What contributions to changes (if any) do you think would improve the quality of our environment?

Feel free to comment below. Your response is greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Chem-Sect

This blogsite was developed to help individuals like yourself gain a better understanding of the chemical sector, its relation to the environment, and more importantly how it can affect us. 
                                                                                                                                                                                   

According to the Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS), the chemical sector is comprised of several hundred thousand chemical facilities throughout the US. It is a complex global supply chain which converts a wide range of raw materials such as oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals into an array of products that are essential to our everyday life.

Just to name a few, this conversion process affects the environment, agriculture, food, and transportation. Because we can go into a variety of directions in this area alone, let’s discuss food as an example. Did you know that chemicals play a key role in our dietary consumption? If you answered yes, then you are correct. Chemical compounds such as sulfites, nitrites, nitrates, benzoic acids are examples of preservatives which prevents harmful bacteria growth, it improves tastes, and enhances flavors (eufic). These preservatives are what helps the food to be edible and appetizing. Not to mention, it increases the product’s shelf life.

With that being said, I would like to get your feedback on this topic regarding your thoughts on the chemicals/preservatives that are part of our everyday dietary consumption. Feel free to be a part of this discussion and to post your thoughts below. All of your comments are greatly appreciated.