Herbicides, Insecticides, fungicides are all price we pay for modernity. There will be 10 billion mouths to feed by 2100 and yes there will be an increasing number of health issues as the weakest links fall by the wayside. If you want to go back to low intensity non industrial farming techniques then you will need to nominate those populations that will need to perish. GM will be used to develop new varieties that can flourish in degraded soil. Fertilizers won't last forever. Of NPK I think that P is getting harder to find. Home fertilizers have a warning of Cadmium impurities so imagine the build up over 50 years. Hence the need to develop new varieties that are resistant to those unpleasant residues in the soil. Mankind is caught between a rock and a hard place.
