Alex Avery

About the author: Alex Avery is the director of research and education at the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, a public policy research organization.

Pesticides reduce contamination of the food supply, increase the availability of fresh produce, and do not pose health or environmental risks. Therefore, they are essential to farmers and society. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should consider the benefits of pesticides and end its excessive regulation of these chemicals.

Why is the Environmental Protection Agency regulating pesticides as if it were a pole vaulting competition instead of requiring pesticides to simply be safe? The agency keeps raising the safety bar and crowing about how much it is improving public health. Yet the bar has now reached a ridiculous height. Increasing pesticide safety standards from one theoretical cancer case in a million to one...