We have a few acres of fruit trees and the truth is, it's possible to grow sustainably without chemicals, but most people don't do it because it's a lot of work

We have a few acres of fruit trees and the truth is, it's possible to grow sustainably without chemicals, but most people don't do it because it's a lot of work. You need to pay extra attention to pruning to allow sunlight to hit all of the fruit, and you need to thin aggressively, hang non-toxic maggot traps, etc. The reason why most people don't do that is because it's expensive. So, the reason that spraying is more conventionally popular is not because it's the only way, but because it's cheaper. And the reason it's cheaper is because – as I've mentioned elsewhere – the negative externalities are not paid by the producer, but are rather covered by society. That is to say, if food producers aren't having to pay the cost on society's health, or on the ecosystem's health, then it's the road most farms are going to take. The solution would be for society to cover the equivalent cost in not doing those practices. I.e., dramatically increasing funding for farms that take sustainable approaches.