Food Safety Matters

Mark Wittrock is the Director of the Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Division within the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this role, he oversees the coordination and integration of the Department’s food, agriculture, and veterinary defense efforts across DHS, the federal interagency, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, academia, and the international community. His DHS focus is largely on mitigating the potential impacts from high-consequence and/or catastrophic events on the food and agriculture sectors and building stronger resilience to both the unintentional and intentional introduction of poisons, pests, or pathogens that could have quickly cascading impacts across the sectors.  Mr. Wittrock has held a range of counterterrorism, nonproliferation, and counter-proliferation posts, both in the U.S. and abroad—including Deputy Assistant Director for International Cooperation, Senior Policy Advisor to the Deputy Admini