page_title: Food Quality Protection Act
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Food Quality Protection Act / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Spraying pesticide in California
context_page_description: The Food Quality Protection Act, or H.R.1627, was passed unanimously by Congress in 1996 and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 3, 1996. The FQPA standardized the way the Environmental Protection Agency would manage the use of pesticides and amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. It mandated a health-based standard for pesticides used in foods, provided special protections for babies and infants, streamlined the approval of safe pesticides, established incentives for the creation of safer pesticides, and required that pesticide registrations remain current.
  One of the most prominent sections of the act, the specified protections for babies and infants, was the topic of the National Academy of Science's 1993 report, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants & Children. The EPA has cited this report as a catalyst for the creation of the FQPA.
context_section_description: Legislation similar to the FQPA was drafted and presented to Congress in 1995 but was never acted on. In 1996, the political landscape had changed and new pressures to act on pesticide control reform surfaced. In 1991, a coalition of environmental groups sued the EPA for failing to enforce the Delaney clause. The Delaney clause, an amendment of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, banned all food that contained any trace amount of any pesticide that may cause cancer. Although the EPA argued that the legislation was outdated and should not apply to the current situation, the coalition won in 1995 and the EPA was slated to ban 80 pesticides in late 1996. Under these new, more urgent circumstances, Congress was able to pass a bill that was celebrated by both sides of the debate; farmers, food processors and pesticide manufactures were glad to see the Delaney Clause go, while environmental groups and consumer advocates were pleased to have a formalized safety standard with an added emphasis on children. John Cady, president of the National Food Processors Association, praised the legislation for being "...based on modern, real-world science".
caption: A cropduster spraying pesticide on a field
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