Serious question here - is there any real reason to build farm upgrades?

It seems to me that expanding too quickly only leads to squalor and revolt. Once the city is huge the amount of farm income seems to be far overshadowed by the problems the additional population the farm upgrades allow. There is no way to destroy a farm upgrade once it is built.

The amount of money spent keeping down revolts just seems to be more than the income you would get from the farms. So the only reason to build them would be to increase population quickly, but since you can't get rid of them even in situations where you want to grow a city fast it still seems like it would not be worth it to build the farm, as in the end it will cause more problems than it provides benefits.

Having to import food doesn't seem to reduce income at all...

Am I just missing something here? If not, I will never buy the farm again (pun intended).

-Khel