Animal & Agriculture Emergency Response Education and Training Framework
The United States food and agriculture systems are vulnerable. Disease, pests, or poisonous agents that occur naturally, are unintentionally introduced, or are intentionally delivered by an act of terrorism are all possible attacks to our food supply. Because these systems are extensive, open, interconnected, diverse, and complex in their structure, they are potential targets for terrorist attacks. An attack against these systems could have catastrophic health and economic effects. Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and more broadly across the Federal Interagency, greater emphasis is needed to enhance common understanding and agreement on requirements and capabilities expected in the area of agriculture and food defense.
Animal agriculture stakeholders ranging from federal government officials to primary producers in the food industry all need emergency management competencies that align to serve the national preparedness system. High quality training is needed to prepare for, prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from an emergency in the animal agriculture sector, and individuals need an intuitive way to navigate training resources.
In collaboration with Department of Homeland Security Office of Health Affairs (OHA) Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Defense Branch (FAVD Branch), FPDI created a comprehensive training framework for animal agriculture emergency responders. The purpose of this interactive online framework is to recommend training opportunities for every emergency responder in an Incident Command System so they may be prepared to complete the tasks needed for efficient response during an animal agriculture emergency. The training framework will serve the vision of the national preparedness system by guiding the development of a skilled cadre of emergency responders, and it will offer a framework for an individual to plot out career development opportunities in emergency response through high quality, standardized training.
Animal Emergency FRAME Goals
FPDI will lead a highly collaborative effort between federal agencies, state agencies, educational consortia, and subject matter experts to achieve the goals below:
● Create requirements for a training framework in animal agriculture emergency response.
● Catalog existing training resources for animal agriculture emergency response competency.
● Align existing resources to better serve the national preparedness system.
● Build an online interactive framework platform for training pathways and resources.
● Identify opportunities for creating new curriculum and courses to fill gaps
