Bracing for Bioterror

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However, as I discussed in earlier columns, expensive programs can be cost effectively implemented if driven by a related, commercial need (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/9/05, ""Platforms" for Disaster Planning"). They can be rapidly implemented as well, if guided by wise laws, regulations, and incentives.

Tracking and Sensor Systems

One obvious effective solution would be a tracking system meshed into our existing distribution networks. Such a system would identify toxic or infectious dangers in their early stages, communicate their various locations, then support a rapid reaction before the threat spreads, thus intercepting pandemics or poisonings before they spiral out of control.

We already have at hand much of the logistics infrastructure and technology that such a system would require. Radio Frequency Identification tags have reached a degree of sophistication where, if we wanted to, we could bar-code all food—whether tomatoes grown on an Amish farm outside town or broccoli from Mexico.

Similarly, sensor technology that lets us tag gold nanoparticles with DNA or miniaturized spectrometers has attained enough sensitivity that we can accurately identify a wide range of dangerous bacteria and toxic chemicals by smell or even color. If we communicated the collected data via the Internet, expert systems could then quickly identify unusual disease trends.

Aside from protection against bioterrorism, such a system would offer enough value to justify its cost through improved logistics. Local restaurants and grocery stores could provide assurance they were offering safe food—even food free of accidental E. coli contaminations.

Your supermarket could advertise: "Each morning we rescan every product in our aisles to assure you our produce is free of 27 diseases. And we can tell you the exact farm where it was grown. Enjoy!"

Similarly, a sensor system could also determine whether the 10% of gray-market drugs passing as genuine are safe, and perhaps avoid the tens of thousands of deaths resulting each year from incorrectly dispensed pharmaceuticals. My bet is that we would regard the interim value of such a system—beyond just bioterrorism protection—as well worth the cost. Indeed, we would wonder how we ever did without it.

Such a system may appear to belong more in the realm of fantasy than sober planning. Yet one-time fantasies, from landing on the moon to curing disease, are becoming reality with ever greater acceleration. Even collision with a giant asteroid is worth contemplating. In 2029 one is scheduled to miss the earth by a mere 25,000 miles. The next time we may not be so lucky.

Blonder is a partner at venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures and is based in Princeton, N.J. He writes about technology investing in an occasional column at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/.