The sprayer significantly reduces the amount of pesticide needed. It’s not crop dusting, it’s precision spraying.

Agree with you that we need to move away from pesticides (and also do think something like lasers sounds like a great idea). And also agree with you that John Deere is not a great example of how to run a company (they are monopolistic and are know to charge insane pricing for repairs).

But, the thing I like is John Deere is the major player in farming equipment. They can have a huge, immediate impact on the amount of pesticide used today - this not a product that is being developed, it is available and already reducing the usage of pesticides.

It'd be better if it came from a better company, but it's a great transition product that will probably have a large impact on pesticide usage.