When we think of terrorist targets, skyscrapers and monuments probably come to mind before the national food supply. But researchers at Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) warn that the food supply is vulnerable and have urged the government and industry stakeholders to develop a plan to protect against biological, chemical, physical or radioactive contamination of the food supply.
To help address the threat, researchers are developing a model of food supply chains that can be used in the formulation of a protection plan. Associate Professor Alan Erera leads the six-year, $1 million research project that began in 2010.