My understanding is this farmer was paid to grow food, not buy it from another farmer.
The expectation was this farmer would grow new calories (increasing the supply of food for the region).
You may argue there is a fixed number of crypto released and thus not fair, but allocating that money towards the open market instead of toward hardware and energy company has an impact on the crypto's value.
Akin to 'farmer neither has corn growing nor money to buy corn to fulfil promises to customers'
That would be the crime...