15.6 Incentive and Market Forces

The food and agriculture industry has made significant investment in security where there has been a demonstrated need to reduce product loss due to theft or to ensure the safety of crops, food or livestock.  Universal tamper resistant and tamper evident packaging was introduced after the famous Tylenol incident, and current domestic and international market trends are having an increasing impact on product identification and traceback.

But market forces alone are not likely to provide sufficient incentive for the investment in new security equipment and systems.  Consequently, NASDA recommends that government partners cooperatively work to explore options for supporting and encouraging further investment.  Additional issues that need to be considered include:

  • Insurance
  • Third-party verification of security protocols
  • Evaluation of indirect benefits, such as improved operating efficiency and facility management
  • Continuity of operations plans to assist in recovery
  • Training for industry in incident management
  • Low cost financing for new security investments
  • Tax credits or other incentives for investment