Today U.S. Senator Steve Daines questioned general Richard Myer, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff for President George W. Bush about possible threats to Montana farmers, and the infrastructure of our food supply.
The senator explained how many midwestern states economies rely heavily on the agriculture industry. For Montana it’s the biggest economic power, bringing in 4.2 billion dollars a year.
Daines asked how the United States would fend off man-made attacks on our agriculture industry; here is the general’s response.
“Just the intelligence piece of it. Knowing what’s out there, knowing what could come this way, having people focused on that. That has the knowledge of these pathogens about agriculture so we can identify the threat before it gets here. We’d like to stop these threats before they come inside our boundaries,” says General Richard Myers.
Daines continued on to say even small events of pathogens makings its way into our agriculture industry could have huge impacts on not only the state’s economy but the united states as well, Thankfully for us, the general says we have many experts making sure this doesn’t happen.