3. Federal Response to and Recovery from Food and Agriculture Impacts of Chemical Incidents

In the food and agriculture sectors, the most harmful chemical incidents are likely to result in food contamination, while chemical incidents affecting livestock and crops directly are likely to cause limited damage. Regulatory agencies have worked closely with industry to promote a food defense posture that minimizes food supply threats and the risk of accidental or intentional food adulteration. As a result, strong collaborative partnerships between federal, SLTT, academic, and industry entities can be leveraged for targeted response and recovery activities during food incidents. In fact, the lead federal agency (LFA) for the response/recovery to food and agriculture incidents varies depending on the nature of the incident and its impacts, with other agencies serving in supporting roles (see Figure 81).

the lead federal agency (LFA) for the response/recovery to food and agriculture incidents varies depending on the nature of the incident and its impacts, with other agencies serving in supporting roles .

Figure 81: LFAs for various chemical incidents involving food and agriculture

The LFAs for food contamination events do not direct the response and recovery to the broader chemical incidents themselves. For example, if a chemical incident contaminated a food packaging plant, the food contamination LFA would lead the response to the food incident, while the response to the chemical incident itself would be led by a different entity, following the four tiers of chemical incident response described previously.

The coordination structure for food and agricultural incident responses varies depending on the complexity of the incident. The LFA may escalate food incidents to level two or level one responses as described in the Food and Agriculture Incident Annex (FAIA) to the FIOPs (Figure 82), just as an EPA/USCG FOSC may escalate a chemical incident response.

Food and Agriculture Incident Levels- The coordination structure for food and agricultural incident responses varies depending on the complexity of the incident. The LFA may escalate food incidents to level two or level one responses as described in the Food and Agriculture Incident Annex (FAIA) to the FIOPs (Figure 82), just as an EPA/USCG FOSC may escalate a chemical incident response.
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Figure 82: Food and Agriculture Incident Levels

Should the President issue a disaster declaration under the Stafford Act for a food or agriculture incident, coordination will occur through the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) or the Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) for the affected jurisdictions. The NRF and the NDRF, as well as the FIOPs, will serve as guidance for the provision of appropriate federal assistance. The varying coordination structures for non-Stafford Act food incidents are described in the FAIA.