May / June, 2004
Second Time Around
#1 International Broadcaster in China
Interviews Dr. Kirk Dolan
On May 3, 2004, Voice of America Mandarin interviewed Dr. Kirk Dolan, Assistant Professor with joint appointment in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, for a second time. The topic was the risk of terrorism attacks on the U.S. food supply. The interview lasted 25 minutes, and was conducted in Mandarin by conference call from Washington, D.C. to E. Lansing at 7:30AM to allow live call-in from listeners from China. Listeners called from Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Fujian Provinces.
VOA interviewer Winnie Cheng began by asking Dr. Dolan about the history of food terrorism here, which can be dated back to World War I. The Germans, and later the Soviet Union during the Cold War, attempted to infect the U.S. food supply. Dr. Dolan also answered the following questions: How can experts detect potential threats to the food supply? How much would terrorist attacks on the food supply affect Americans? What can academic researchers contribute to agro-security? Dr. Dolan pointed out the on-going research on biosensors, food safety training, food microbiology, and radio-frequency tagging that goes on at MSU, as well as at other U.S. institutions. Dr. Dolan answered callers’ questions about the role that the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security plays in agro-security, and how universities do research to assist efforts to combat terrorism. MSU was also highlighted as one of the partners in a new agricultural security center through a Dept. of Homeland Security grant to U. of Minnesota.
The Voice of America (VOA) is an international multimedia broadcasting
service funded by the U.S. government. VOA Mandarin is the number one
international broadcaster in China with three times as many listeners
as the second place BBC. The average listening audience of VOA Mandarin
is about five million, based on 2002 survey data. VOA Chinese also sends
out 17+ million emails every week through the internet.
Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering
Michigan State University
A.W. Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1323
(517) 355-4720
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June 10, 2004
