Food defense at the stage of agricultural production – are we ready?

Abstract

Due to the dynamic external situation caused, among other things, by ongoing wars, such as in Ukraine, agricultural entities are subject to many influences, including negative ones, which translate into an increase in the risk of their operation. The existing and tense political situation forces us to look at the specific risk of agroterrorism. The rationale for dealing with this topic is the still modest national literature and the fact that a threat of this nature exists and is very real. The purpose of the study was to answer the question: whether and to what extent the existing law and the action of the relevant authorities are conducive to the preparation of primary production actors for food defense? As a research method, mainly literature studies and a search for acts of applied law and private food law were used. The conclusions show that EU and national food laws do not oblige implementing food defense measures in the agricultural sector. The important role of the Critical Entity Resilience Directive (CER Directive) was emphasized, as well as the need to implement educational programs to create guidelines for agricultural producers, based on the best available models and systems for effective food defense in the agricultural area. Information deficiencies on agroterrorism and its risks, on the part of the relevant food security and agricultural authorities, were also confirmed.