Agro-terrorism and the Grain Handling Systems in Canada and the United States

The grain handling sector in Canada and the United States is vital to agriculture and trade. In a typical year on the Canadian prairies, about 140,000 producers deliver some 20 to 30 mmt of grain for export to primary elevators. In the United States, about 2.1 million producers deliver about 300 mmt of grain to primary elevators. Canadian grain is moved to export position using more than 400,000 hopper cars and marine containers, where about 1,200 ships per year are loaded. In the United States, about 1.08 million rail carloads of grain are originated per year, and about 23 mmt of grain are shipped on barges per year. These U.S. figures are in addition to trucks, which, more so than in Canada, are also used to deliver grain to primary processors and to terminal and export markets. The volume of grain trade gives rise to concern about risks of terrorism in the sector.(1) From a security perspective, the grain, pulse and oilseed supply chain is noteworthy because much of it is characterized by relatively long-term, insecure, bulky storage (particularly on farms) along with numerous modal and inter-modal product transfers. These factors suggest there are many places where chemical or biological contaminants could be introduced into this supply chain. From the perspective of the United States, security throughout the Canadian system as well as the U.S. system is a concern, since cross-border traffic in these products is significant, with an average of about six million tonnes of grain products alone imported into the U.S. each year (USDA-FAS, 2003). Numerous interventions to enhance food safety and mitigate the risk of terrorism have been adopted or are in the process of being developed. Some of these are private initiatives and voluntary, as a component of firm-level security processes. Others are being adopted in response to legislated initiatives. The stakes are large, and there are likely to be substantial differences in costs and effectiveness of different approaches.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The long-term agronomic performance of organic stockless rotations

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Two long-term experiments were established with the aim of evaluating the agronomic and economic performance of organic stockless rotations. In total, four different rotations were evaluated at two sites in the south (Elm Farm Research Centre) and east (ADAS Terrington) of England. All of the rotations included either a one or two-year red clover green manure crop to provide nitrogen for subsequent crops and it was found that this was sufficient to support three or four years of arable cropping. Over a period of eleven years at EFRC and five years at ADAS Terrington, there was no evidence of a decline in crop yield, although there were significant year-to-year variations. Crop yields were generally equivalent to or greater than average organic yields. Levels of soil available P and K was maintained at both sites at non-limiting levels. Pest and diseases were not problematic, but perennial weeds posed the most significant problem

A survey of elementary school banking in New England

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Subsidization of the Biofuel Industry: Security vs. Clean Air?

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/11/06.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impact Assessment of African Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer: Synthesis of Findings and Lessons Learned

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads July 2008 - June 2009: 13,

Evaluation of ERBE scanner pointing accuracy based upon a coastline detection algorithm

Measurements from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) scanning radiometers must be accurately located at the top of the Earth's atmosphere for proper interpretation of derived longwave and shortwave components of the Earth radiation field. The accuracy of the location calculations is affected by the orbit characteristics and attitude control systems of the three spacecraft, ERBS, NOAA-9, and NOAA-10. A technique was developed which makes use of the longwave scanner measurements to detect the thermal gradients at the boundaries of ocean and land masses. By analyzing many such coastline boundaries, estimates of the overall accuracy of the scanner measurement location calculations have been derived for the three satellites. The resulting measurement location errors are found to be smaller than the resolution of the radiometers, and this accuracy is well within the required location knowledge for useful science analysis of the ERBE scanner data