Survey Results

This survey is about the food and agricultural defense activities your agency has engaged in since January 2015 (or is
planning to engage in). Survey results will be used to update the U.S. Congress about the current state of food and
agriculture defense activities. Please read each item and respond to the best of your ability about your agency's food or
agriculture defense activities. The survey will take about 20 minutes to complete.
1. Are you knowledgeable about your agency's food or agriculture defense
activities?
Yes
No
Don't know
2. Please select your state from the drop-down menu.
MARYLAND

3. What is the major focus of your agency?
Agriculture
Environmental
Protection
Natural
Resources
Public Health
Other (specify)
Please read each item carefully and then indicate whether your agency “has done" this activity any time after January 2015,"
is "currently doing" this activity, or is "planning to do" this activity by clicking in the column under the response. If your
agency is not intending to do the activity or if the activity is not applicable to your agency, please select "Not applicable."
Please choose the best response as only one response per activity is accepted.
Preparedness – having the ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from an incident.
…has done this
…is not
after January …is currently …is planning to
Not sure or
My agency…
intending to do
2015 (but is not
doing this
do this
Don’t know
this
currently doing)
Identify or assess

Not applicable
to my agency

Identify or assess
potential security
threats, risks, or
vulnerabilities
Mitigate
vulnerabilities
Communicate
with stakeholders
about food
defense
Provide food
defense training to
stakeholders
Develop or
conduct exercises
to test
decontamination
or disposal plans
Evaluate
modeling tools to
improve
consequence
assessment or
decision support
Prepare risk
communication
tools
Attempt to
increase public
awareness
through outreach
Detection – the identification of an agent or its by-products; provides information needed to help make an informed decision on
appropriate actions to prevent further spread of the agent and limit illnesses.
…has done this

My agency…

…has done this
…is not
after January …is currently …is planning to
intending to do
2015 (but is not
doing this
do this
this
currently doing)

Not sure or
Don’t know

Not applicable
to my agency

Improve the speed
of identifying
contamination in
food products
Conduct
surveillance to
prevent the
spread of disease
Response – focused on immediate and sustained actions to ensure the safety and availability of food and the containment of the
threat to human and animal health and agriculture throughout the duration of an incident.
…has done this
…is not
after January …is currently …is planning to
Not sure or
Not applicable
My agency…
intending to do
2015 (but is not
doing this
do this
Don’t know
to my agency
this
currently doing)
Network with
partners to
develop new and
better methods to
detect, investigate,
respond to, or
control multi-state
outbreaks of
foodborne
diseases
Develop
performance
metrics to
measure activities
related to
outbreak
response,
including
laboratory

surveillance,
epidemiological
interviews and
investigations, and
environment
health
Use performance
metrics to
demonstrate
successes and
identify gaps in
the detection
investigation, and
control of enteric
disease outbreaks
Evaluate
responses to
outbreaks of
disease attributed to
human or animal
food outbreak
response - to
identify areas for
improvement and
successes.
Evaluate animal
and plant disease
and pest outbreak
responses to
identify areas for
improvement and
successes.
Strengthen
animal and plant
disease and pest
response

networks to
facilitate response
activities
Prevent
additional human
illnesses during a
plant or animal
disease outbreak
(i.e., trace
forward, trace
back, recalls,
cease operations)
Conduct pilot
tests to foster
innovative
approaches to
improve tracking
and internal
systems for
product
trace-backward
and
trace-forward,
recalls and
cessation of
operations.
Organize & train
plant, animal, and
food emergency
response teams
Design, develop,
and evaluate
training &
exercises carried
out under
agriculture and
food defense

emergency
response plans
Conduct risk
communication
exercises with
government
officials for
responding to
food and
agriculture
incidents.
Conduct risk
communication
exercises with
stakeholders
Recovery – Secure agriculture and food production after an agriculture or food emergency
…has done this
…is not
after January …is currently …is planning to
My agency…
intending to do
2015 (but is not
doing this
do this
this
currently doing)
Work with the
private sector to
develop business
recovery plans to
rapidly resume
agriculture, food
production, or
international
trade following a
plant or animal
disease outbreak
Conduct exercises
of response plans
with the goal of
long-term
recovery results
Rapidly remove

Not sure or
Don’t know

Not applicable
to my agency

Rapidly remove
and effectively
dispose of
contaminated
agriculture &
food products and
infected plants
and animals
Develop or update
protocols,
guidance, or
model plans for
the management
of waste from a
food or
agriculture
emergency,
including source
reduction, waste
minimization,
waste segregation,
waste estimation,
recycling,
transportation, or
treatment and
disposal options.
Provide technical
assistance on
proper waste
management
options to local,
tribal or
territorial
government, the
private sector, or
other
stakeholders.
Encourage the

Encourage the
private sector to
establish waste
management
plans
Decontaminate
and restore areas
affected by an
agriculture and
food emergency
Please indicate which of the following entities your agency has worked with on any of the above listed activities. Select
all that apply.
Federal partners
Other government (state,
local, tribal, territorial
/agencies or entities)
Industry
Academia
Other (specify)
Thank you very much.
Questions?
Please contact us at [email protected]