Foot and mouth disease (FMD) presents the greatest economic threat to U.S. animal agriculture and is viewed as the most important transboundary animal disease in the world. An outbreak of FMD in the U.S. would have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy extending far beyond animal agriculture. The structure of modern animal agriculture in the U.S., including extremely large herds and extensive intraand inter‐state movement of animals and animal products will make it nearly impossible to control an FMD outbreak in livestock dense areas without the rapid use of tens of millions of doses of FMD vaccine. The amount of antigen in the North American FMD Vaccine Bank is far below what would be needed to provide vaccine for a single livestock dense state. It would take many months to produce/obtain the volume of vaccine needed. Without sufficient vaccine to aid in the response, FMD could rapidly spread across the U.S., resulting in the destruction and disposal of potentially millions of animals, and become an endemic disease in livestock with spread potentially facilitated by deer, feral swine or other freeliving animals. It would then require a much more extensive control program and could take many years to eradicate. Agriculture is critical infrastructure in the U.S. and cash receipts for livestock and poultry often exceed $100 billion per year. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a plan to ensure that adequate supplies of FMD vaccine with multiple strains of FMD virus are rapidly available in the event of an accidental or intentional introduction of FMD virus into the U.S. This white paper is part of an effort by the private sector stakeholder community to work with the Secretaries of Agriculture and Homeland Security as directed in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9 to develop a National Veterinary Stockpile (NVS) with sufficient quantities of FMD vaccine to protect U.S. agriculture, food systems, and the economy.