Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so.
This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s good for them.
EDIT: He's also buying up all the farm land with water rights in the USA. He is the single largest holder of US farmland. So when drought inevitably comes and swaths of farmland become too dry to use, he will profit. If you apply to one of their foundation grants for agriculture, you will see a big emphasis on "bundled services", so they seem to want to build a "farm as a service" system where farmers don't own anything. It's a new enclosure movement where the lords own everything and everyone else pays them to use the land. We have enough in this world we can live pretty cheaply if we work together and share in the right ways. But control of the land is vital or we will all die in poverty from rents.
Since 1990, when the number of people living in extreme poverty peaked at 1.9 billion, we have been on the steady march towards eradicating extreme poverty. Despite the fact that there are almost 6 billion more people alive today than at the turn of last century, the number of people living in extreme poverty has reduced from 1.3 billion to 730 million [1]. Despite its flaws, the Green revolution and the modern system of agriculture has saved billions of people from starvation.
It's a popular narrative, but one that Jason Hickel argues falls short. He disputes the poverty thresholds used in these calculations as far too low - $1.90 per day today is lower than the consumption of 19th century US slaves, he argues:
As far as the Green Revolution, again this story that is has saved millions from starvation is a popular one. But we can look at Vandana Shiva for example who says it became a way for multinational corporations to take over the farms and food systems of India, leading to mass farmer suicides, erosion of the soil, and poisoning the land:
If I was one of the richest man on the planet, I would also invest in various fields, which would probably mean I end up one of the single largest owners in that field (through sheer fact I am one of the richest people on the planet).
This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s good for them.
EDIT: He's also buying up all the farm land with water rights in the USA. He is the single largest holder of US farmland. So when drought inevitably comes and swaths of farmland become too dry to use, he will profit. If you apply to one of their foundation grants for agriculture, you will see a big emphasis on "bundled services", so they seem to want to build a "farm as a service" system where farmers don't own anything. It's a new enclosure movement where the lords own everything and everyone else pays them to use the land. We have enough in this world we can live pretty cheaply if we work together and share in the right ways. But control of the land is vital or we will all die in poverty from rents.