At the behest of a Democratic member of a House committee, the General Accounting Office prepared a report on the manner that the FDA and the USDA handled evaluations and reporting on pesticide residues on our food. Dr. Ross had some rather strong opinions on the subject, which we encourage you to read here. In sum, he felt (after reviewing the GAO report) that the FDA and the USDA s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) made their decisions on which pesticides to assay, how often and how to report on those to the public based on science and a reasonable estimate of the benefits and risks of the studied chemicals and how to most effectively utilize their resources.
A spokeswoman for the left-leaning anti-chemical activist group, Pesticide Action Network, felt that the Federal agencies were failing in their regulatory mission, and she focused particular antipathy on their perceived lack of attention to one of the most commonly used pesticides, glyphosate (Roundup). We here at ACSH note the long-term safe use of this pesticide and strongly disagree with PAN. Anyone who wishes more information on the uses and safety profile of glyphosate (among many other pesticides) should review our publication on the subject, here.
(One additional note: the author of the piece, Washington Examiner s Executive Editor Mark Tapsott, refers to ACSH as right-leaning at one point. As our loyal readers know, since our founding in 1978 ACSH has adhered to a strictly apolitical devotion to sound science only, avoiding toeing anyone s party line).