On Thursday, you published a lead editorial on the subject of farm subsidies to what you feel are the wrong recipients (“Our View: Subsidies for unhealthy foods are killing us”).

While that sounds like an argument with merit, hidden in the text was a wonderful phrase: “the left-leaning Union of Concerned Scientists.”

I would like to know what your source was for the idea that the UCS is “left-leaning.” Can you document papers or releases or reported findings that could actually be “left-leaning”?

To my knowledge from reading of their efforts to protect the health of people, they have been the foes of those who pollute the soil, the air, the waters of our country. They have been exposing reckless industrial behavior for decades.

To claim that their science is “left-leaning” calls for an explanation from you – that is, if you think that your words have impact.

Ironically, on the same day, your front page had a news story about the findings that some of our drinking water is tainted to an alarming degree (“Corrosive water levels very high in Maine”).

This article deals with a report from the U.S. Geological Survey, which is not accused of being “left-leaning.” But the Union of Concerned Scientists has been highlighting this national problem for decades. So what is the difference?

Facts are facts. That’s what science is about.

Brian Holihan

Portland

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