Well remember that 40% of the U.S. corn crop is used to produce ethanol. Ethanol use can be eliminated (electric cars and getting rid of the ethanol subsidies...). Land and climate good enough for corn is good enough for other crops.
Absolutely, corn is a very nutrient, heat, and light intensive crop.
The added buffer would allow for doing crop rotations including more legumes and cover crops to reduce fertilizer usage. If we need to grow less food, we can be less demanding from the soil as well. Perhaps we could build soil rather than destroy it.
Several studies show that these models yield excellent crops with fewer inputs, but it’s hard as hell to compete when you go low and slow with ag.
I suppose as long as we want to export food, we’ll need to continue our insane resource intensive methods, ignoring the externalities, in order to stay competitive.
