Topeka ? New food-safety measures approved in response to last year’s terror attacks were signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Bill Graves.

As of May 2, it will be at least a misdemeanor in Kansas to knowingly contaminate any raw agricultural commodity, processed food or animal feed or expose those items to an infectious disease.

Any such action would be a felony if it were committed with an intent to damage the items, cause economic or social unrest or injure or kill people.

Last year, legislators responded to Europe’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease with a new law making it a crime to expose Kansas livestock and poultry to infectious disease.

Legislators and state officials said agriculture represented the biggest potential terrorist target in Kansas.

“After September, we started questioning a lot of things we took for granted before,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Derek Schmidt, R-Independence. “It had just never been a major concern that someone might poison or infect our food supply.”

The new law also will allow the governor to declare a state of emergency if a food-safety disaster has occurred or appears imminent. Such a declaration would allow him to order the quarantine of plants, animal feed and processed food.

“This legislation provides an extra, added measure of security both for the citizens in terms of their food supply and our agricultural industry,” said Graves’ spokesman, Don Brown.