The problem isn't so much with specific compounds like glyphosate, but the whole method of industrial farming. The current method is the "nuclear option"; chemi

The problem isn't so much with specific compounds like glyphosate, but the whole method of industrial farming. The current method is the "nuclear option"; chemically kill everything, plant the one crop you want (preferably genetically enhanced to withstand your choice of poisons) together with the basic nutrients this plant needs in a easily absorbable ionic form and apply more nutrients and pesticides at predetermined intervals. After harvest, kill everything again and repeat. This is simple and effective and produces consistently high yields. The price is residual chemicals on the food produced this way and "leakage" of the poisons into the environment. You'll pay some variation of this price no matter which specific chemicals you use. And in all fairness it must be added that from an ecological perspective this is already an improvement over the heavy use of tillage from before the age of RoundUp(tm) because the tillage was causing severe top-soil erosion, and GM-crops do reduce the need for poisons (a bit). There are alternatives (sustainable polycultures) but they are more labor and knowledge intensive. As a society we don't have much of that knowledge (some research is being done, but far too little) and don't want to commit the labor. There is one possibility that could resolve this conundrum, though... very smart robots could provide the labor in the future. But we'll have to invest more on the knowledge side if we want to get there quickly and feed the world sustainably.