From AgBioTech to AgBioTerror: Genetically Modified Food and International Security in the 21st Century.

The potential negative impacts of biological weapons have been described in great detail and often with a great deal of sensationalism. My intention here is not to add to such sensationalized discussions, nor is it to suggest that such threats are so improbable or intractable that they should be ignored. Rather, what is needed is dispassionate consideration of the potential risks and vulnerabilities from threats such as biological weapons. As unconventional security threats like bioweapons increasingly blur the lines between what is and is not a security issue, such discussions need to occur in public forums and include representative from the many relevant constituencies and disciplines, from molecular biologists to social scientists and first responders to health care providers. Emerging debates about threats from biological weapons will influence the spending of large sums of money and help shape organizational and research priorities. We can find valuable lessons with regard to concerns over the emergence of new threats from biological weapons through an examination of the global controversy over the introduction and use of foods produced using agricultural biotechnology. Genetically modified crops now account for a significant percentage of global agriculture. The rapid development of crop cultivars produced using agricultural biotechnology has raised concerns about possible impacts on people, animals and ecosystems as novel traits from crops migrate into other organisms. The first section of this paper provides a brief overview of the global debates over genetically modified foods. To that end, I describe how the debates over genetically modified foods have develop through a heavy use of alarming imagery and grand discursive claims. Much of the existing debate about the use of agricultural biotechnology has been framed with regard to the potential positive, intended impacts of the technologies versus the potential negative, unintended impacts of these same technologies. Significantly less attention has been focused on the potential negative, intended impacts these technologies could facilitate for actors seeking to cause harm. As the development and dispersal of virulent biological weapons is a difficult process, the paper?s second section provides an overview of concern about biological weapons with a specific focus on concern about use of the food systems as a delivery mechanism for biological weapons. The paper concludes with thoughts about the implications of the topics raised for more systematic examinations of new threats and vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]