Food safety concerns involving pesticide residues continue to receive widespread public, legislative, and scientific attention. The National Research Council's 1993 report Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children concluded that significant improvements in the U.S. government's pesticide risk assessment and food tolerance establishment procedures were needed. Strict interpretation of the Delaney Clause by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has led to the projected elimination of several pesticide uses due to statutory, rather than scientific considerations. Congressional “solutions” to the Delaney problem may have broad impacts upon future pest management practices if adopted. Emerging issues include the safety of imported produce and the potential effects of trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT upon U.S. pesticide residue standards.

Pesticide use is regulated within a complex legal framework that includes the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and other environmental laws. The framework includes risk-benefit rules for some decisions that permit full consideration of comparative performance, cost, and risks of a pesticide and its alternatives before decisions to permit or ban uses. The framework also includes risk-only standards, such as the Delaney Clause, that prohibit such comparisons and can have unintended and undesirable consequences by increasing health or environmental risks while increasing the cost of producing agricultural commodities.