Agriwarfare: The New Battlefield is Your Breakfast

I use a bottled water service. Once a month, a big water truck arrives, grabs my empty 5 gallon jugs and swaps them out with new bottles. It’s really good water, all reverse-osmosis-y and everything. I’ve used the service for many, many years. Long enough that I now have more water bottles in my house than I could drink in a drought. They are backup. Their presence is a comfort.

No, I don’t live in a disaster-prone area, but I’m also not stupid. Well, not THAT stupid. I realize that a disaster can rear its ugly head anytime and I would rather have supplies and not need them than need supplies and not have them. So, I keep extra water. Just in case.

After Hamas carried out its attack on Israel recently, I called the water people and increased my delivery. Go ahead, call me paranoid. An alarmist. Stupid. The human version of “Chicken Little.” Call me nuts.
But you know what else you can call me? HYDRATED.

Water is essential. You can survive:
3 minutes without oxygen
3 hours in extreme weather conditions
3 WEEKS without food

But water? You get 3 days. That’s it.
Are there exceptions to the Rule of Three’s? Absolutely. A lot of variables come into play with predicting survival rates, but as a general rule, dehydration will get you quick. And you can only drink your pee ONCE.

So, why hoard water when I can turn on the tap like a normal person?
Because my mind goes to places, kids…places that startle even the DH.

Case in point: we were watching a murder mystery the other night—wife kills husband, yada yada… Only, it was a terrible plan. So, naturally, I pointed out all the flaws. That was mistake #1. And then I said, “You know, if I ever took you out, that’s NOT how I’d do it. It’s way too sloppy.”
I then proceeded to explain my better plan.
Mistake #2.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

Finally, the DH looked over at me and said, “Babe…should I be worried?”

And then he looked at me weird the rest of the night.

Kids, if your brain starts writing villain origin stories, maybe don’t say the quiet part out loud. Trust me. Keep this stuff to yourself.

But in regards to harming Americans as a whole? Listen, if I were an enemy of the United States and wanted take out a large swatch of Americans, I wouldn’t need firearms. Or bombs. Or a set of steak knives.

Nope.

I would either strap everyone down and force them to binge-watch The View….or I would taint the water supply.

See, we now live in a new world where entire civilizations can be brought down without a single shot fired.
A virus in a lab? Check.
A hack that grounds planes, cuts off banking services and wipes out power grids? Double check.
Or…Agri-warfare.

So, what is Agriwarfare? I’m so glad you asked. The name sort of sounds like causing someone to surrender by irritating them, but actually, it’s using agricultural resources as a weapon.

Destruction of crops and/or livestock
Sabotaging food systems by the introduction of harmful contaminants
Genetically engineered biological threats, like diseases created specifically to destroy crops in a rival country.
And…it’s foreign control of US farmland.

Yeah, China—we see you over there, lurking by the silo.

This whole farmland/water supply issue has worried me for a long time. The water bottles lining my basement should have been your first clue. Thankfully, it has also worried the Trump administration, who announced today the brand new “National Farm Security Action Plan.” ( It sounds like a Liam Neesom movie but with tractors.) The plan boots from USDA contracts and research agreements 700 foreign nationals from “countries of concern,” like China.

Think I’m being too dramatic? That it’s just “fear mongering?”
Two words: Covid Pandemic.

Still think it’s a stretch?
Two words: Yunqing Jian.

Jian is a 33 year old Communist Party loyalist and lab researcher. She came to the US on a J1 visa, got a gig at the University of Michigan, and, alongside her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, tried to sneak four baggies of pathogen-infested mystery fiber through Detroit Metro Airport.

What kind of pathogen, you ask?

Just a little something called Fusarium graminearum—a nasty fungus that attacks wheat, barley, corn, and rice. It already exists in the U.S., but the concern is that Jian may have been bringing in a modified strain: more pathogenic, more resistant to treatment, and much more "Made in Beijing."

Also, in Liu’s possession was a round piece of filter paper containing 10 separate coded samples of the pathogen, including one that would allow a researcher to propagate live Fusarium graminearum.

When discovered by agents at the Detroit airport, Liu claimed someone must have put the pathogen in his luggage before admitting he tried to cancel them in wadded up tissues.
Dude…

According to the feds, the couple discussed how they could smuggle this pathogen into the country. While searching one of Liu’s cell phones, investigators found a PDF article entitled: “2018 Plant Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.”

You know. Just some light bedtime reading.
What’s more, the article referenced the very pathogen Liu was sneaking in. You can read more about it HERE and HERE.

So what’s the point?
It’s this: viruses, pathogens, cyberattacks on food and energy chains all add up to one sobering truth:

Whoever controls the food and energy controls the people.

Which is why the Federal Government is paying attention. Finally.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said today,
“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities…”

“Too much American land is owned by nationals of adversarial countries, and more than 265,000 acres in the United States are owned by Chinese nationals, much of which is located near critical US military bases.”

See, if you want to conquer a country, you no longer need boots on the ground. You don’t need tanks. You don’t even need to blow anything up.

You simply trade in your old arsenal for new weapons: modified seeds, resistant strains of pathogens, tainted water supplies, a few lab rats…and maybe a government or two that’s asleep at the wheel.

In the meantime, I’ll just be down here in the basement, sipping reverse osmosis water and brainstorming murder plots the DH hopes I’ll never use.