Throughout this course there has been a constant emphasis that the public needs to be far more conscious of food, foodsafety, food distribution, and threats to our food supply – whether because of natural or human causes, unintended orintended (e.g., agroterrorism).

Your final paper must focus on the potential vulnerability of a specific sector of the U.S. agricultural system, from among the following vulnerable areas:

• Research and Development Facilities
• Farms, Orchards, and Ranches
• Packaging and Production Facilities
• Warehousing and Distribution Systems
• Point-of-Sale Grocery Stores and Restaurants

Select one of these food-related sectors and then use the CARVER plus Shock Method Prioritization Tool to address known (e.g., past), current (e.g., present), and potential (e.g., future) vulnerabilities of the selected food-related sector.

Be sure to address each of the six attributes of the selected vulnerable food-related sector:

1. Critically — measure public health and economic impacts of an attack
2. Accessibility — ability to physically access and egress from target
3. Recoverability — ability of system to recover from an attack
4. Vulnerability — ease of accomplishing attack
5. Effect — amount of direct loss from an attack as measured by loss in production
6. Recognizability — ease of identifying target

Then, remember to address the seventh attribute – Shock, or the total impact on health, the economy, and psychological well-being.

Other recognized prioritization methods in support of this required plan will be allowed.

Your paper must also meet the following requirements:

• Be a minimum of five double-spaced pages in length (excluding the title/cover page and reference page). If you include an abstract, the abstract does not count towards the five pages.
• Incorporate concepts from our course.
• Include a properly formatted APA style title page.
• Include in-text citations
• Include an introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement.
• Conclude with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph.
• Include an APA-formatted reference section.

Your research paper must be cited per APA guidelines. You are required to use scholarly resources to support your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.