After hacking into Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S, causing gas pump lines as if it were 1973 all over again, the foreign cyber hackers demanded — and received — a sizable ransom to cure the security leak and restore Colonial’s system. Then, thanks the U.S. Justice Department’s sleuthing, the cyber hacker’s digital wallets were “downsized” when 63.7 Bitcoins worth about $2.3 million in crypto currency were seized.

Next, the cyber hackers went after our animal agriculture’s largest meat company, JBS, temporarily idling plants on two continents. While JBS got back to business within a few days thanks to hard work and maybe some ransom payments, such attacks are precursors of a changing world. The JBS hack caused total U.S. beef production to be down 14.5% that week, compared to the week before. This spreading scourge of cyber-terrorism will soon reach a scale matching the Pearl Harbor or the World Trade Center attacks and demands a coordinated response from all who intersect with our industry. It’s time to come together!

What can we within the animal agriculture industry do now? First, common sense tells us not to open a suspect email, or attachment or you face the prospect of opening your files, or your entire network and company to cyber hacking, potentially causing a major and costly disruption.

Just like the mouse that knows if it can get its head through a hole, it can squeeze the rest of its body thru, if the cyber hackers can find that tiniest of holes or lax security to get in, they can wreak havoc and make some money — in fact a lot of it — with ransomware. Your cyber security is paramount.

It almost seems like there is an historic confluence of impinging factors threatening our animal agriculture industry, what with these cyberattacks combined with the rise of plant and cell-based “non-meat” proteins, the continuing concentration of companies threatening the survivability of the smaller regional/local meat and poultry producers and the growing threat of climate change. Have all these combined to cause us to reach an animal agriculture tipping point?

It’s been estimated that annually 80 billion food animals are slaughtered world-wide. More than half of that is probably chicken, but it seems that the cattle/beef continuum takes the brunt of criticism from the climate change, animal rights and alternative protein advocates. Is that unfair criticism? Probably, but it’s not going away soon, so we must deal with it. Now add in cyber-attacks and a coordinated government/industry response is demanded.

President Ronald Reagan once said that the most terrifying nine words in the English language were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” I am not a fan of government “help” in businesses. However, cyber terrorism is a clear and present threat not just to our national security but also our industry’s survivability and thus warrants government involvement and help.

When cybersecurity is coupled with the other impingements I mentioned above attacking our meat and poultry industry, we must figure out ways to change. Here are a few of my suggestions:

If there is a confluence of threats to our industry (and in my view, there is), then there must be a confluence of total industry participant responses. The way to fight and overcome these threats is with a coordinated effort from a whole-of-government approach including the FBI and USDA, industry trade organizations, labor groups and “farm to table” animal agriculture companies. Each has a vested interest in the survivability of the whole demanding cooperation among the few.
Our response must be a two-pronged effort. The decisions and actions of today cannot mortgage our future and threaten our existence. Immediately we must bolster our cyber security, but that cannot jeopardize our relationship with customers/consumers by limiting meat and poultry affordable availability and desirability thus opening the door to alternatives. The two prongs are present demands for future survivability.
We must join the battle to help cure climate change while disenfranchising those who castigate animal agriculture as the principal cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Oh yes, we must do this — but with facts not hyperbole.

I am not hearing the death rattle of animal agriculture, in fact far from it, but I do hear a clarion call for change. What do you think?

Have we reached an animal agriculture tipping point?

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