Drizzle it on pancakes, slather it on toast, stir it into your coffee (yes, really) or eat it with a spoon straight from the jar – I think we can all agree that there is no wrong way to eat Nutella.

However, while there seems to be no end to our collective obsession with our favourite chocolate spread, it turns out this is not such good news for the environment. According to new reports, the intensive hazelnut farming driven by Ferrero, the Italian company that makes Nutella, is causing massive ecological problems in the Italian countryside and for Italian farmers. Speaking to the Finacial Times, Giacomo Andreocci, who runs a small organic farm north of Rome, said he feels like part of a dying breed — thanks to Nutella. Andreocci explains that the land around Vignanello, where he farms, used to be planted with a diverse mix including olives, vines and hazelnuts. However, in the past few years, Ferrero has made sure many of the surrounding valleys have been turned over to intensive hazelnut farming, with monoculture plantations replacing grassy pastures, small farms and rows of vines. “Hazelnut cultivation has exploded massively, triggering such rapid change in the ecosystem around us that nature is no longer able to sustain it,” says Andreocci. “Hazelnut trees are now planted everywhere . . . and they are sucking up all our land’s resources.” The problem started when Ferrero decided to reduce their reliance on hazelnuts imported from Turkey and instead shorten supply chains and boost local production, meaning they needed to seriously up the production of hazelnuts at home in Italy. According to The Ecologist, the underlying reason for this move is that after many years of chemically driven intensive monoculture many of the Turkish plantations are becoming sterile and barren. As part of the new plan, Ferrero aims to increase Italy's national production of hazelnuts by as much as 30 percent by 2025 – a target that means that thousands of groves previously used to grow things like olives, grapes, lemons, oranges, peaches, apples and other tree nuts will now be converted by farmers – who are being offered an economic incentive – into hazelnut groves. The problem? The lack of biodiversity often means the land eventually gets ruined – and, according to Goffredo Filibeck, an environmental researcher at Tuscia University in Viterbo – monocultures (only growing one thing) help spread plant diseases and insects, resulting in the greater use of pesticides and herbicides. "Intensive farming can also deplete underground aquifers and rob indigenous species of their habitat," Filibeck explains to the Financial Times. "The more we pursue this approach, the more we move towards a point of no return."

Cancer-causing pesticide use