In short, no. The most comprehensive study of global food supply chains to date carried out by the United Nations found that small farmers (who often farm without pesticides) feed 70% of the world’s population.
It is a myth that we need to produce more to “feed the world”, as the pesticide industry claims – rather, it is a problem of priority. Just 55% of the world’s crop calories are actually eaten directly by people; 36% is used for animal feed; and the remaining 9% goes toward biofuels and other industrial uses. The ‘efficiency’ rationale behind using pesticides also does not account for the many externalized costs of industrial farming, such as impacts on the environment and public health.
Finally, an important factor to highlight is that the UK wastes almost one quarter of the food that we buy, meaning that we don’t need as much food as we consume currently.