Impact
The FQPA was the most comprehensive reform of food safety and pesticide laws in decades and posed an implementation challenge for the EPA. Immediately following the passing of the FQPA, the EPA moved to create the Food Safety Advisory Committee. The committee was founded with the intention of fostering an open and public implementation process. Within 10 years, the EPA had successfully reassessed 99% of the nations pesticide tolerances (recommending the revocation of 3,200, recommending the modification of 1,200 and approving 5,237). In addition to the reassessing of pesticide tolerances, the EPA accommodated the use of special classes of pesticides, addressed the public policy issue of clinical studies to verify pesticide effects, and expedited the availability of safe pesticides.
While the EPA did limit, and in some cases ban, the use of pesticides following the passing of the FQPA, not every stakeholder was pleased with their level of action. Referring to the discrepancies between what constitutes reliable data when determining whether or not to increase the margin of safety tenfold, Richard Weiss (a pesticide expert with the Environmental Working Group) said, "The EPA has failed to comply with the clear intent and requirements of the law". While environmentalists complained so did farmers; as their ability to harvest quality crops was threatened farmers said the EPA was unfairly enforcing a "zero risk" instead of a "reasonable certainty of no harm" policy. The EPA responded saying that while they were more stringent after the passing of the FQPA, they were not operating under a no risk/no harm rule.
Read more about this topic: Food Quality Protection Act
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