In the most developed countries, we spend 7-15% of our income on food. The poorer you are, the higher that percentage is. In some African countries, families will spend upwards of 70% of their income for not just food, but for bags of rice. The bare minimum.
In the past 4 decades, we've increased our crop yields by 4x. This is because of intensive farming.
Now, is it destructive to the environment? Yes
Does it create fragility in our food systems and supply chains? Yes
Should we immediately stop using herbicides and large-scale monoculture systems? Think carefully about that one.
When people say, we need to implement regenerative agriculture, or organic practices, or stop eating meat, etc, they rarely have a full understanding of how our agrifood system works.
I'm an advocate for improving these systems, reducing herbicide use, and implementing sustainable practices (whatever that means at this point). But please, please, please try to fully understand how our food system really works. Try to understand the magnitude of cost reduction our current system has provided. Try to understand how global life expectancy has increased by >20 years due to these practices.