High yields for a wide variety of crops in a wide variety of places. If a lower variety was maintained locally with plants that were more robust in that setting the use of pesticides could be reduced, supply maintained (but choice reduced).
This is the right answer. Crop growth needs to be distributed locally and become more integrated with architecture in big cities. These large-scale industrial farms make communities less self sufficient in many ways.
You'd be surrendering colossal economies of scale were you to do that, causing much higher food prices. Most people in big cities don't care to grow food, and most people who grow food don't care to live in big cities. The parent with whom you're agreeing also mentioned a lower local diversity of things grown, which means that to get a decent variety of stuff, that actually increases reliance. I think if anything, we're going to see a desire to become less reliant on others (especially internationally) which will drive people to grow a larger variety of crops locally.
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