You have commented 360 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic       
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
China-Japan-Koreas
Chinese 'agroterrorism' could threaten US 'survival as a nation,' expert warns
2025-06-27
[FoxNews] Kristofor Healey says America must prepare for potential agricultural attacks from foreign adversaries

In light of the arrests of two Chinese nationals who are accused of smuggling a crop-killing fungus across the border, one expert warns that agroterrorism from foreign adversaries could cause a "severe disruption" to the United States.

"Agroterrorism is any attempt to bring items into the United States intentionally that would impact our food supply," Kristofor Healey told Fox News Digital. "So this would be biological organisms like we saw in this case in Michigan. A specific lab-grown organism that is intended to attack items that are key to our agricultural survival as a nation."

Healey worked for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 15 years, first in an immigration enforcement role and then in counter-corruption operations. Now, he is a private investigator and expert witness.

"Obviously, we're an agricultural-based economy in many ways, so anything that's attacking our wheat, our barley, the basic standard of what goes into so many of our food products that's being introduced intentionally, that's being introduced by a foreign threat to cause disruption," Healey said. "It's the same as any sort of other type of terrorism that's attacking a civilian population. It's just attacking it from that agricultural standpoint."

Chinese nationals Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, were arrested earlier this month by the FBI for allegedly smuggling Fusarium graminearum into the U.S. and studying it in labs over a two-year period. Jian was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan whose research was funded in part by the People's Republic of China.

Fusarium graminearum is a toxic fungus that causes a crop-killing "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice that "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year," according to the Department of Justice.

It is also toxic to humans and can cause vomiting, liver damage and "reproductive defects in humans and livestock."
Posted by:Skidmark

#2  "Agroterrorism is any attempt to bring items into the United States intentionally that would impact our food supply,"

It's also their food supply.
Posted by: Grom the Affective   2025-06-27 10:32  

#1  CCP Climate Lawfare Against U.S. Energy Exposed Before Senate Judiciary Committee
Posted by: Skidmark   2025-06-27 09:27  

00:00