The resignation of environmental, consumer and farm worker advocacy groups from an advisory committee on the Environmental Protection Agency's implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act is "clearly not in the public's best interest," say three major commodity groups.  "These groups have a role to play in these discussions," the commodity organizations said.

The advisory committee, known as the Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee (TRAC), was created last year from a White House directive that instructed EPA and USDA to work cooperatively in implementing the FQPA.

"It is unfortunate that these groups have chosen to remove themselves from this public forum," said the National Cotton Council, National Corn Growers Association and American Farm Bureau Federation in a statement.  "The TRAC process has resulted in significant progress, including enhanced communication among interested parties, definition and public comment on important science issues and the development of risk assessment procedures."

The resignations "are clearly not in the public's best interest," they added.