Indirect Effects of Pesticide Regulation and the Food Quality Protection Act

Number 4/2003/p.73-79

A Journal of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society

Indirect Effects of Pesticide Regulation
and the Food Quality Protection Act

Sean B. Cash

Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta

David L. Sunding

Associate Professor and Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource
Economics, University of California, Berkeley

Aaron Swoboda

Doctoral Student, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
University of California, Berkeley

David Zilberman

Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,

University of California, Berkeley

This paper was presented at the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society
workshop “The Economics of Food and Health” (Vancouver, May 2003). Papers
presented at CAES workshops are not subjected to the journal’s standard
refereeing process.

The Issue

A driving factor behind pesticide regulation in Canada and the United States is the
desire to protect consumers from harmful residues on food. The Food Quality

Protection Act (FQPA) was unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and hailed
as a landmark piece of pesticide legislation. It amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA),
and focused on new ways to determine and mitigate the adverse health effects of
pesticides. The FQPA is different from past legislation; it is based on the understanding
that pesticides can have cumulative effects on people and that policy should be designed

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