Can confirm it is a font substitution issue. When I open the PDF a different font is used (note the very distinctive “r”) which has much better (but not great) kerning.

Also, many GMOs were engineered to be more resistant to pests and thus need fewer pesticides

Colorado?

The article discusses that organic foods are worse for the environment.

Metal — it’s a proprietary graphics API made by Apple

I don’t think Apple has every really had great backwards compatibility. Apple’s last PowerPC computers shipped in 2005, and in 2009 Snow Leopard released with no PowerPC support. That’s 4 years of upgrades, which is about the same as it is now for macOS.

It an expression that means “I agree with what you just said”