MULTI-STATE PARTNERSHIP/SAADRA INAUGURAL MEETING

News Date December 01, 2009

Agriculture and emergency management representatives from twenty-two states convened at the Raleigh Convention Center earlier this month for the inaugural meeting between the Multi-State Partnership for Security in Agriculture (MSP) and the Southern Agriculture and Animal Disaster Response Alliance (SAADRA).   The event, held November 2 – 4, provided the organizations with a forum to share information and strategies on agriculture emergency preparedness and response.

“When you look at some of the threats and challenges facing the states in the [Multi-State] Partnership, things like floods, droughts, and foreign animal diseases, you start to realize every bit of this can and does happen in the South,” said Dr. Jimmy Tickel, a veterinarian with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and North Carolina’s representative to SAADRA.  “So we saw a great opportunity to bring the two groups together to talk about what’s been done to solve these problems and how we can work together to solve them in the future.”

The organizations met jointly for two full days to discuss, among other topics, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) response planning.  FMD has been identified by both organizations as a considerable threat to the nation’s agricultural economy.  The organizations held separate breakout sessions on Day Three.   MSP talked about future collaboration with SAADRA on a number of initiatives, including biosecurity standards, improving communications and IT capabilities, and resource sharing.  SAADRA discussed the roles and responsibilities of ESF-11 in an emergency and later participated in a table-top exercise involving a Category 4 hurricane.

The Multi-State Partnership is composed of 13 Midwestern states, including North Dakota, Oklahoma and Ohio.  SAADRA has ten member states, including Texas, North Carolina and Florida.  Kentucky is represented in both organizations.  The two groups hope to continue meeting jointly and support other areas of the country in the development of agricultural security partnerships.  (Contact: Joseph Gilroy, joseph.gilroy@ncagr.gov)