This leads to increasing corporate control over farming because only through economy of scale can a farming operation survive. Corporate farming can have a devastating impact on the environment, as evidenced by corporate hog farming in the US farm belt. The hungry are those with control over little or no food-producing resources. Francis Moore Lappe, Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1982. All in all, the high-tech fixes have been disastrous for starving people, family farm economies and the environment.
Genetic engineering is set to make it worse.
By relying on large scale monoculture farming, with heavy use of mechanization, toxic chemicals, and water, we have contaminated the Earth and have systematically reduced the range of diversity of indigenous plants. For example, Monsanto s soybean could spread its herbicide resistance to related weeds through normal pollination and cross-breeding, or become a weed itself. Not only can this kill insects indiscriminately, including insects beneficial to crop pest management, it could eventually cause a resistance among pests. As weeds and insects are repeatedly exposed to a pesticide, they gradually become tolerant to the toxin, leading to pests that require heavier doses of pesticide to kill. This only leads to a perpetuation of the crop chemical treadmill, where farmers must use more and stronger chemicals to control their pests.