Pesticide-Testing Program Killed by USDA

Industry and Universities Doing Research Protest Shutdown

Sep 28, 2008

Pesticide testing on fruits, vegetables and field crops by the USDA to set safe levels of chemicals in agriculture has been shutdown leaving consumers at risk.

The abrupt shutdown in September 2008 of the 18-year-old United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Chemical Use Program that tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables, and field crops, has left researchers at universities and in industry protesting the closure. The program was launched in 1990 to answer congressional concerns over the use of the chemical daminozide, or Alar, on apples. According to research done by the Chicago Tribune and reported on September 28, 2008, a private company, dmrkynetic, now sells similar information that was free from the FDA for from $500,00 to $700,000 a year, out of the reach of many individuals and researchers.

Pesticide Risk Assessments

Pesticides tests were previously conducted on about 120 different kinds of fruits, vegetables, and field crops, such as almonds, olives, spinach, wheat, corn and apples. The EPA used data from the canceled program, along with other input, to help set acceptable limits of pesticides in food.

However, some pesticides tested were later considered carcinogens and their use disallowed. Pesticides have been blamed by some researchers for illnesses such as autism, lymphoma, and Parkinson’s Disease. There is disagreement and a continuing debate about whether small amounts of pesticides ingested by humans are harmful.

The FDA reports with pesticide use data had been dramatically scaled back over the last few years. First annual surveys were cut to biennial reviews and it stopped collecting agrichemical data on any crops during the 2008 growing season.

Protests Against Shutdown by Scientists

Protests against the closure of the Agricultural Chemical Use Program and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) have come from the scientific community and a coalition of U.S. public interest groups including Pesticide Action Network, Center for Food Safety, Natural Resources Defense (NRDC), and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In a May 20, 2008, as the USDA was cutting back on testing of pesticides, a letter was sent to Agricultural Secretary Ed Schafer by the Union of Concerned Scientists representing 45 other organizations in the coalition, the group wrote, “Elimination of this program will severely hamper the efforts of the USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), land grant scientists and state officials to perform risk assessments and make informed policy decisions on pesticide use…providing reliable data…to sound policy decisions on pesticide use. They are also the only publicly available resources available to counter misinformation about pesticide usage and trends in American agriculture.”

Critics of the shutdown maintain that it will now be harder for consumers to know what pesticides are being used on their food.

The copyright of the article Pesticide-Testing Program Killed by USDA in Environmental Activism is owned by Martha R. Gore. Permission to republish Pesticide-Testing Program Killed by USDA in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Sep 28, 2008 10:21 PM

Guest :

This research is important. We can't prove it, of course, but it's thought my late grandmother died from a rare form of liver cancer that was caused by pesticides on food. The pestecides were put on my farming grandfather's crops (farmer) but it's believed they carried over to the vegetable garden my grandmother oversaw by her home. She donated her body to the medical doctors for study, since her cancer was so rare. We believe it was caused by pestecides.