In the past week, there have been more accidents. There have been warnings from the FBI, motives have been identified, and one company offered an unlikely explanation for why their facility was destroyed.
While the FBI has not yet mentioned plane crashes, fires, and explosions, it did alert about cyberattacks that could disrupt the harvest season.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has informed Food and Agriculture sector partners about ransomware attackers. They may be …. Ransomware agents are more likely target agricultural cooperatives during critical harvest and planting season. This could disrupt operations, cause financial losses, and negatively impact the food supply chain. Two ransomware attacks were detected against five grain cooperatives during the fall 2021 harvest and two in the early 2022 plant season. These attacks could have a significant impact on the availability of fertilizer and seeds.
Grain is used for animal feed and human consumption. Therefore, any disruption in grain production can have a huge impact on the food chain. The farm could suffer as the animals cannot be processed.
In March 2022, a Lockbit 2.0 ransomware attack on a multi-state grain company led to a breach of Lockbit 2.0. This company provides crucial services during spring planting season. Two incidents occurred in February 2022 when an unauthorized actor gained access to a company’s systems. This could have been used as a way to launch ransomware campaigns.
Six grain cooperatives were targeted by ransomware from 15 September 2021 to 6 October 2021. Some ransomware versions were used to stop production entirely, while others caused administrative functions and data loss.
These past few weeks have been amazing.
On April 26, a large fire consumed a large portion of an English sausage factory. It took over 70 firefighters to extinguish the flames.
On April 30, a fire broke out at Perdue farms in Virginia, and sent huge plumes of smoke into space.
A second chicken farm was constructed after two large, unoccupied chicken homes were set on fire at a Jones County chicken farm.
On May 2, a fire and an ammonia leak caused severe damage at a Fresno food processor plant.
The state Fire Marshal issued a report on the destruction of the headquarters at Azure standard farms, Dufur, Ore.
Fire marshals initially believed that arson was the cause of this fire. However, they now believe that spontaneous burning of corn caused it. You can view the press release by Azure Standard’s CEO last week.
The marshal stated that the fire started in a bag containing rolled corn, which was being kept temporarily at Azure headquarters. This happened after the company received excess corn. The tote, or corn powder, could have come in close proximity to an outlet nearby. This would have caused the wiring to short and ignited it.
This statement does not seem to be very reliable. While moisture in grains may lead to spontaneous combustion it is generally required for high temperatures. Although this statement seems a bit stretched, it is still quite conclusive.
According the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), fire departments in the United States respond once every 23 seconds to a fire alarm. In October 2021, the NFPA released a report that indicated shifting trends in American fires in the past two years, which corresponded with the pandemic.
The latest Fire Loss in America report has been released by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The report shows an 8 percent increase in U.S. forest fires between 2020 and 2019. However, these fluctuations are not unusual due to the pandemic.
This report gives an overview of U.S. forest fires and their impact on property and lives. The report shows that residential structure fires rose by five percent between 2019-2020. It shows that non-residential fires declined by eight percent between 2019 and 2020.
It is notable that there has been a rise in residential fires and a decline in commercial fires, as people have stayed home during the pandemic. This indicates that there are certain forces at work. They are doing more to put out fires than if the people were at home.
Other factors could also be at play, but there is no definitive answer. It was difficult for producers to switch from wholesale to retail production. This made it impossible to supply certain industries with increased demand. Despite this, labor markets continue to struggle to find enough workers.
However, the same public health officials who closed down the economy did not consider workers at these facilities “essential,” so they weren’t affected by any shutdown orders. The plants were not left to rot for more than two years. The staff levels were kept at a reasonable level to handle any maintenance issues that might have occurred. This is why they can’t explain the decrease in fires in 2019-20 as well as the expected increase in 2022.
There are other issues. Let’s remember May 2021 and the Colonial Pipeline Cyber Incident. For one week, the entire pipeline was shut down. This caused severe disruption to the supply of gasoline and plane fuel in many Southeast states. Colonial paid $5 Million to Russian hackers to restore the pipeline.
A month later, JBS, the largest meat processing business in the world was also attacked by hackers. It was attacked on June 20, 2021.
The world’s largest meat processor has resumed production following a cyberattack that occurred on Saturday. Experts warn that there are still vulnerabilities.
REvil hasn’t made mention of the hack in its dark web site. Ransomware syndicates won’t often post about attacks if victims are still in negotiations or have paid ransom.
It seems that many factors have begun to adversely impact our domestic food supply.
