Jerry Brown: “I was not sure that I wanted to become engaged in this debate. But I do have some concerns about the Food Quality…”

“I was not sure that I wanted to become engaged in this debate. But I do have some concerns about the Food Quality Protection Act; and since we have been discussing that in a very enlightening way, I thought that I would proceed with the remarks which I had prepared. I am speaking as a member of the Committee on Agriculture and one who has been involved in working on pesticides for about the last 25 years. I thought that I was finally witnessing some substantive progress with the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act in the 104th Congress. I should have known it was too good to be true. The committee report language appears to place pesticide decisions into two categories: the 'please-go-faster' category includes registering new products and granting emergency exemptions. I note that reregistration decisions are not included in this category, even though we have been promising the public and the farming community for over 26 years that all pesticides on the market today would be reviewed to ensure that they meet contemporary health and safety standards. We have yet to keep that promise. In the 'please-go-slow-if-you-go-at-all' category includes the implementation of the science policies and new methodologies required to fulfill the mandate that Congress gave the agencies 2 years ago to take account of the special needs of infants and children.”