Emergency Programs - Tips for Securing Your Farm or Business

• Be on the lookout for suspicious people around farms, farm-supply stores, agribusiness centers, or crop-dusting equipment and rural airport facilities. Be aware of odd or suspicious behavior and report it immediately to local law enforcement with as many details of the people involved as possible.
• Establish and implement a biosecurity plan for your farm that includes restricted access to livestock, pesticides, fertilizer and other chemicals and equipment that could be used as weapons.
• Conduct a threat assessment of your farm to determine areas of weakness and implement proper safety measures to address those concerns. 
  • Terrorism Threat Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool 
• Secure all restricted-use pesticides, chemicals and fertilizers that could be used to make weapons. Restrict public access to these materials.
• Educate employees about biosecurity plans and actions they need to take.
• Let workers know about the risks of bringing back food products from other countries and prohibit them from entering the farm or facility. Some foreign animal diseases can live in meats for six months or longer.
• Make it a point to know all visitors to your farm and whether they have been out of the country recently. Restrict livestock access for at least five days for visitors or workers who have traveled outside the United States.
• Stay informed. Updated information is available at https://www.ncagr.gov (NCDA&CS) and https://www.nc.gov/ (Governor's site). The state site covers a range of topics including agriculture, public health, transportation and more. If the state receives information of viable threats, the information will be disseminated immediately.

NCDA&CS Emergency Programs Division, Kelly Nilsson, Director
Mailing Address: 1035 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699
Physical Address: 2 West Edenton Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Phone: (919) 707-3300