Covid 19 and the Looming Threat of Agroterrorism

The most frightening and potentially catastrophic scenario for an assault on a nation and humanity would be an Agroterrorism attack released on livestock or crops.The gain of function experiments worldwide has further increased the need to revamp our biosecurity and bioprepardness.Significant gaps however exist in our capabilities to prevent, plan, respond and pull through from any such acts of terrorism.In a slacking agricultural sector farms are a weak link in the "farm-to-table continuum" which is an alarming prospect as sneaking in an unknown pathogen, is hardly a noticeable security breach.Any such act will end up causing economic crisis, social unrest, and loss of confidence in government.The COVID 19 pandemic is an agonizing example of the damage that pathogens can cause worldwide and has exposed the inherent weaknesses and inequity in pandemic preparedness and response by exposing the fault lines.The lessons learned should act as an alarm bell to take preemptive steps to review our Agroterrorism preparedness.This review attempts to define the threat of Agroterrorism from a security and scientific viewpoint, provide a historical survey of events with case studies and discuss the problem to aid scientists, policymakers, and agriculturalists to plan against those who would cause harm.It aims to create proper awareness and recommends the implementation of multi-prong strategies to enhance security of our agricultural resources.