Farm Bureau, other groups, sue U.S. over handling of FQPA

By Ray Sotero
Managing Editor
Charging the federal government is failing to issue food safety regulations, farm groups nationwide last week filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its handling of the Food Quality Protection Act.

"This lawsuit addresses a number of fundamental procedural issues that EPA should have resolved by now, but has not,'' Scott Rawlins, senior environmental policy specialist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said about the legal effort to put FQPA into effect. "EPA is almost two years beyond the statutory deadline for issuing rules that would govern the use of pesticides under emergency conditions, such as sudden pest infestations that may threaten entire crops. EPA needs to issue these rules so that safe and effective pesticides will be available to protect crops when emergencies arise."

Louie Brown, director of ag chemicals, food safety and international trade for the California Farm Bureau Federation, which supports the lawsuit, said the action also seeks to force EPA to identify the data needed in applications for tolerances and registrations and that these decisions about crop-protection products should be made on the basis of actual data and compound-specific information, rather than assumptions and best guesses.

"One of Farm Bureau's important objectives in this lawsuit is for EPA to issue comprehensive data requirements for issuing both registrations and tolerances,'' Brown said, adding that the lawsuit also asks EPA to obtain additional data and information when needed to make informed, fact-based decisions about specific tolerances. "FQPA requires EPA×to reassess all existing tolerances no later than the year 2006 to make sure they are consistent with the new FQPA safety standards. Because data requirements evolve over time to reflect advances in scientific methods, the studies and information relied upon when the existing tolerances were originally issued may need to be updated when these tolerances are reassessed under the FQPA schedule."

In short, Rawlins and Brown said, instead of following established rules and procedures, the EPA is basing important decisions about food safety and crop protection products on assumptions and incomplete science.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks to require the EPA to more closely follow statutory requirements for crop-protection tools under the 1996 law and other food safety laws.

The complaint asks the EPA to:

• Issue complete, updated regulations specifying the information the agency needs to evaluate crop protection products.
• Obtain updated scientific data on crop-protection products before they are reassessed, instead of relying on unrealistic models and assumptions based on outdated information.
• Adopt formal policies and procedures, including notice-and-comment rulemaking, before implementing FQPA requirements. Of particular concern are such issues as acute dietary exposure and the extra safety factor allowed for infants and children.

Finally, the suit seeks to keep EPA's tolerance reassessment schedule up to date. FQPA requires EPA to reassess existing tolerances by the year 2006 deadline. To accomplish this goal, the law requires EPA to establish a phased reassessment schedule by which one third of the existing tolerances will be reassessed by Aug. 3 of this year, the second third by Aug. 3, 2002 and the remaining third by Aug. 3, 2006. EPA was required to publish this schedule no later than Aug. 3, 1997.

The amendments were added to a lawsuit that asked the EPA to issue the overdue rules governing the use of pesticides under specific emergency conditions, such as sudden pest infestations that threaten entire crops.

The amended complaint supports the basic purpose of FQPAto employ sound science and accurate data to determine safe levels of pesticide use. The lawsuit, however, charges that the EPA has ignored laws requiring the agency to obtain data on actual pesticide-use levels and disclose procedures it will use to set new standards.

"The unscientific manner in which the EPA is implementing our nation's food safety law means all pain and no gain for struggling farm families and American consumers," AFBF President Dean Kleckner said. "FQPA is a complex but delicate law. EPA needs to make clear that it is operating under established rules, not whim."

Kleckner said the lawsuit attempts to stop EPA's hasty rush to judgment in assessing many vital crop protection products that allow American farmers to produce a safe, abundant and affordable food supply.

"The EPA is taking shortcuts to implement FQPA," he said. "The greatest food safety risk Americans face today may be that the EPA has chosen to implement FQPA through assumptions and best guesses. Farmers are at risk. Consumers are vulnerable. All Americans deserve better."

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.