[jiggywiggy]

There are many ways that don't require that much more effort. For instance plastic covering the field will clean up a field. But that's a tiny bit more work then just spraying and poisoning everything. Of course the GMO crops that are bred to be glysophate resistant are even more convenient

[voakbasda]

That’s not a tiny amount of work. We are talking about hundreds and thousands of acres. That is not feasible for covering with plastic.

[jiggywiggy]

There is no healthy way to long-term grow thousands and thousands of acres with a monocrop. You have to chemically spray everything to death and chemically try to uplift the soil, but it's just not sustainable over a few decades. And completely unhealthy both for the farmers and consumers. The bottom line is only better off if you ignore all the societal and long-term costs.

[hammock]

Covering with plastic is exactly what happens in strawberry fields every season. There is no other commercially feasible way to grow them.

[elif]

In Japan I was surprised to see that for large fruit like apples etc. they actually put a bag over the fruit when it is young, so the fruit stays protected from all manner of pests for its entire lifetime, up until retail purchase in cases.