Richard Feynman on organic food and pseudoscience - video

[Frank S]

With over 7 billion hungry human mouths on this planet, plus the additional plant substances required to feed the meat product animals we eat, when we factor in the total amount of accessible arable land couple the limited numbers of folks willing to till or tend to this land for raising crops life as we know it would be very hard to imagine without GMO's and pesticides.
In defense of the commercial AG industry, research in holding down costs while increasing production is a delicate balance. On one hand if they use just barely enough extremely toxic pesticide to kill the bugs their costs may be less, however some residual remaining on the plants are not easily or economically removed and some of these pesticides are proven very harmful for human consumption. SO these are restricted for food stuffs destined for animal feeds. Then it is discovered the animals absorb these chemicals in their tissues and can be passed on to humans when they eat the meat products.
So a chemical with lower toxicity levels must be developed and used meaning higher quantities are usually required or at the very least doe to the complexity of manufacturing the cost per unit is much higher the added downside is with lower toxicity to humans and animals comes a lower kill ratio to the bugs which leads to the bugs developing immune tolerance levels hence new formulations are required
DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) developed in 1874 was probably the most effective bug killer ever developed, but in its 80 some years of use many species of bugs had started to evolve to the point that it was requiring more and more of the chemical to be applied each passing year. It was only when the application levels reached a critical level that it became known to be harmful to some humans. Not all mind you just some but the percentages were high enough to make its use unacceptable which was enough to get it banned for use in the USA.
One interesting thing about DDT is it is still produced and sprayed on the walls in houses in some countries today as a mosquito repellent it will not kill the mosquitoes like it did during the Panama canal construction days as they have developed a tolerance to it but it is still a highly effective means of repelling them.
In the post WWII era of Europe many species of malaria carrying mosquitoes were all but eradicated. I believe that had the USA taken the initiative back in the early 1950 when the huge B52 bombers were developed had DDT been loaded in them and the entire planet been carpeted with spray over the course of a few years mosquito's as well as many other species of bugs would have been made extinct. Had this been done the pest control problem of today would actually be controllable.
and more focus on less harmful to soils fertilizers could also have been developed

[Jon]

Now here's one we might all agree is a bit excessive:

[Frank S]

Now here's one we might all agree is a bit excessive:

Let me see the last time I checked charcoal was made from removing the impurities of wood chunks or sawdust by the use of high temperatures to make lumps & chunks or pressed and even extruded
to advertise as being 100% organic is just a ploy to get millennials to pay more for something they themselves could make in their back yards from tree trimmings