The North American Meat Institute has partnered with the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center on the launch of a Food and Agriculture ISAC  to enhance cybersecurity for the meat and poultry industry.

"We are grateful for the leadership of several of our members who helped found the Food and Agriculture ISAC to better prepare the industry to fight against the increasing threat of cyber attacks on our nation's critical food infrastructure," said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. "As a partner, the Meat Institute will support the Food and Ag ISAC and will promote its value among our membership. It is important to collaborate across all of agriculture because we all make significant contributions to each stage of production in the food value chain."

An ISAC is a non-profit established by critical infrastructure owners and operators to foster information sharing and best practices about physical and cyber threats and mitigation. These member-lead organizations collaborate with each other, partners such as the Meat Institute, other sector ISACs, the Department of Homeland Security, academics and other stakeholders.

The Food and Ag-ISAC provides threat intelligence, analysis and effective security practices that help food and agriculture companies detect attacks, respond to incidents and share indicators so they can better protect themselves and manage risks to their companies and the sector.

Food and Agriculture industry companies may apply to join the Food and Ag-ISAC and those who are already members of the IT-ISAC can join the newly launched center for no additional cost. Founding Board members of the Food and Ag-ISAC are Bunge Limited, Inc., Cargill, Conagra Brands, Corteva Agriscience, Inc. PepsiCo and Tyson Foods.

For more background on ISAC's, go here.

In 2021, the Meat Institute's Executive Board voted for cybersecurity to be a noncompetitive subject and established a Cybersecurity Committee.