Strawberry Protection

I don’t blame Ventura County strawberry farmers for opposing the ban of methyl bromide (“Pesticide Ban Shows Frustration Among Farmers,” March 18).

Doubt grows that man-made chemicals harm the ozone layer enough to matter. Many think their effect is minor compared to natural fluctuations. Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is described in a recent Times article as “one of the world’s leading experts on the physics of the sun . . . laying her impeccable scientific credentials on the line by taking a highly unpopular stand on . . . the ozone layer.”

Baliunas says the increased risk caused by synthetic chemicals over the next 10 years would be about the same as it would for someone living in Southern California to move 20 miles closer to the Equator. Unfortunately, scientists who think like Baliunas are ostracized, which is why most remain silent.

The Ventura County strawberry crop is a $110-million business that deserves protection, or at least a fair trial. The evidence is uncertain. As Baliunas says: “There’s no reason to guess about the ozone layer. Just measure it.”

I hope the farmers win, but I doubt they will. The coalition of “environmental activists,” the United Nations, reluctant scientists and most of all a sympathetic and unquestioning media may be too powerful for common sense to overcome.

JOHN QUIROGA

Westlake Village