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Strengthening Community Agrosecurity Planning

Andrea Higdon

Summary

Agricultural critical infrastructure is especially vulnerable to emergencies and disasters. Engaging whole community partners is essential to safeguard local agricultural financial, production, marketing, legal, and human risks associated with a disaster. The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) Strengthening Community Agrosecurity Planning (S-CAP) 2-day workshop enables jurisdictions to build capacity to handle agricultural issues during an emergency or disaster; improve networking among stakeholders who can plan for and respond to emergencies; and develop community planning teams to establish or enhance agrosecurity components within existing local emergency operations plans. This presentation will provide an overview of the program and describe how multi-disciplinary teams representing local agricultural producers, commodity organizations, agribusinesses, government, first responders, emergency management, veterinarians, public health, and others work together to address local agricultural vulnerabilities. Participants will also learn how the S-CAP workshop can be brought to their community at no charge. The S-CAP workshop is a successful model developed with USDA funds that has been conducted in over 22 states since its inception in 2009. The workshop underwent rigorous review by the US Department of Homeland Security FEMA National Training and Education Division (NTED) and has been approved for inclusion in the FEMA NTED State/Federal Sponsored Course Catalog.

Details

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