Proposal: Observing Agri-terrorism

In New Mexico, agriculture is the 3rd largest business, topped only by oil and tourism. New Mexico also imports vast amounts of cattle and other livestock from our neighbor, Mexico. Livestock is then shipped all over the United States. If a terrorist exposed livestock to deadly and contagious diseases, such as foot and mouth disease, anthrax, and others, the U.S. economy would greatly suffer. An entire market would collapse and thousands of livestock would be quarantined and killed. Millions, if not billions of dollars would be spent and other nations that are hostile to the U.S. would probably be encouraged to make more hostile acts towards the U.S.

In our project, we will look at how fast the diseases could spread, and possible boundaries or barriers to stop them. We would like to learn how an outbreak could spread and how to better prepare to deal with such a catastrophe, whether intentional or otherwise.

Team Members:

  Richard Rush
  Kyle Jacobs
  Kayla Thompson

Sponsoring Teacher: Alan Daugherty

Mail the entire Team