I have been living much better through chemistry. A big part of that is the pesticides and herbicides that have made life much longer and better. Among man’s great achievements is this development which has saved millions through the near elimination of malaria and sleeping sickness due to DDT (almost a curse word nowadays, but a great boon to millions, non-the-less).

Yet some insist that man-made chemicals are the source of every ill from cancer to a shortened life span to infertility. They ignore that nature produces far more chemicals in far higher doses, and that most chemicals are innocuous at low doses.

Herbicides are the easiest and cheapest way to control brush and pestilent weeds, and they don’t tear up the soil or take a lot of gas, machinery, and smoke from the same to work. As the growth of herbicides and no till farming increase the yield, the National Cancer Institute confirms that cancer rates declined 1.1 percent per year.

Let’s not let the seal-bludgeoning, fish-killing, hoax-creating, silly science folks at Greenpeace scare us into abandoning a great resource that benefits us all.

Scott Vanderlinden

Oak Harbor