Dont' get me wrong, I agree completely with what you are suggesting and I would love to see an era of farming that uses no chemical - it costs us thousands of dollars each year to buy the stuff and some of it smells that bad that you know it can't be good to have long term exposure, but I just can't see it being feasible world wide kwim? Personally I do only buy in season produce because that's when it is the best and the kids are starting to understand why I walk straight past the strawberries and watermelons atm but it will take a long time to change that mindset that's for sure. I have always been in disagreement with come crops being gown in areas where if it weren't for irrigation, then they just couldn't grow there. I have a huge issue with the big cotton growers to the north as they are the ones largely responsible for the rape of the river systems as they divert the natural water flow of rivers and dam all the run off that should naturally run into them. I live in the MIA and have an issue with growing rice in this area as without irrigation it just can't be grown as the natural rainfall isn't high enough (and having that opinion has gotten me into some interesting discussions let me tell you!). I am all for R&D being done into disease resistant crops, but the Govt is in the process of closing all the ag stations where all that research is done, so while ever you have a govt that it anti-farming (on a state level and to a certain degree a federal one) our hands are tied.