Huff2014-07-072014-07-072014-03https://hdl.handle.net/11299/163766University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. March 2014. Major: Environmental Health. Advisor: Craig W. Hedberg, Jeffrey Blaine Bender. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 152 pages, appendices A-C.This research focused on evaluating the perceptions of food defense risk management by state officials, evaluating the validity of a criticality assessment created by the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), and developing a new geographic information system (GIS) based criticality assessment method. Specific objectives included: (1) investigating and reporting the history of food and agriculture criticality assessments; (2) conducting a survey to identify state officials' risk perceptions related to food and agriculture criticality; (3) analyzing the data collected by the most widely used criticality assessment method (i.e., Food and Agriculture Systems Criticality Assessment Tool); and, (4) developing a new method to objectively measure food system criticality.en-USCriticalityFood defenseFood systemsRiskRisk analysisTerrorismThesis or Dissertation