Floods, fires, hurricanes, lengthy power outages and the threat of a human pandemic have disrupted our lives in the Atlantic Provinces in recent years. Was the dairy industry ready to deal with any of these ‘events’? Ready or not, they happened! What was learned from the experiences? And has the dairy industry responded to the “lessons learned”?
The Atlantic dairy industries have learned a lot from their experiences in the past few years. And, they have taken the lessons learned and are collectively moving forward as they develop an emergency management plan. The Atlantic Dairy Farmers Emergency Management Plan (ADFEMP) Committee is made up of 7 producers and 4 board staff from the region with the project coordinated by AgraPoint. Funding for this project comes in part from the ACAAF Councils of the Atlantic Provinces.
The ADFEMP is built on the four core emergency management principles of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Prevention involves actions taken to preclude an event from happening such as having backup generators in the event of a power failure. Preparedness activities include developing emergency management plans, exercising the plan and making sure everyone understands their role and responsibilities under the plan. A planned response to the event will limit the damage. Recovery is the work to return the individual, the industry, or the agricultural community back to the pre-event state or to a ‘new normal’. Simply defined, an EMP details the procedures or actions that must be done, how, when and by whom before, during and after a potentially harmful event with the objective of reducing the severity of the event.
The ADFEMP covers emergencies caused by infrastructure, transportation disruptions, processing disruptions, negative human interventions and animal disease. Each section contains information to help Board staff resolve the issue within the normal processes and policies of the Board. All options available have been thought through and ‘mapped out’ to allow for a rapid response with the goal of resolving the issue before it becomes an emergency. To producers it means all producers will be treated fairly in the decision-making process; this will result in a minimum loss of revenue. To those involved in the decision-making, it means agreed-upon, written guidelines to follow.
It is recognized that is impossible to identify every possible emergency that could affect the dairy industry. However, the plans for dealing with the most likely emergencies will provide information and experience that can be transferred to situations that are not identified in the current plan.
The next step in the process is to exercise the emergency management plan (EMP) to verify the accuracy of the plan, train key responders by giving them an opportunity to practice roles and gain experience, and to enhance the cooperation and communications among those involved. Weaknesses and deficiencies in the plan itself are noted as well as any need for further training. Based on the Table Top exercise feedback, the EMP may be revised and improved. Exercising the EMP is an investment by the Board to ensure it is validated, and those involved in any emergency will be confident in their ability to respond and make the right decisions.
Following the Table Top exercises, the EMP will be printed and distributed to dairy producers in the region. Key associated industries will also be given information on the EMP so they will also be prepared to support the industry in the event of a threat.
Successful EMPs are not documents that sit on a shelf… they are systems and processes put in place to deal with an event. More importantly they help develop the culture for cooperation among industry, industry stakeholders and government.
Think of the EMP as an investment in your operation, some insurance perhaps. You may never need it, but if you do, it pays for itself many times over.
