Terror experts focus on food.

Terrorists aiming to spread fear, disrupt the economy and undermine confidence in the U.S. government could do all three with a focused strike on agriculture, experts said last week during a conference on the unthinkable: a surprise attack on food. If 180 attendees hadn't arrived in Sacramento already edgy about possibilities of another terror attack on U.S. soil, they left with an unsettling vision of all the ways it could happen again: introducing viruses to animals, adding poisoned additives to snack foods or crippling a transportation system to empty urban localities of their typical seven-day supply of food.

With the approaching fourth anniversary of the terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, the phenomenon dubbed "agroterrorism" has attracted growing concern for its potential as a political weapon by both domestic and international terrorists.

Agriculture--including California's $27 billion industry, which supplies 60 percent of the nation's fruits and vegetables and 20 percent of its milk--is considered especially vulnerable to attack as it increasingly becomes concentrated in fewer hands. Panelists noted that five companies now process 80 percent of the nation's meat supply, offering potential for widespread disruption from a single event.