Those familiar with the US agriculture sector's long history of productivity and efficiency have maintained that increased demand for grain can be readily met through increases in the amount of feedstock produced per unit of land, not through expansion of the area devoted to cropland.

This contrasts with a lot of global talk lately about land use change and the impact of biofuels on global agricultural markets, whereby some believe the increased use of grain for biofuels like ethanol will lead to the direct and indirect conversion of non-agricultural lands in the US and abroad.

The Renewable Fuels Association offers this comparison to counter the argument:

In 2009-10, corn demand for ethanol will reach 4.2 billion bushels, according to USDA's November supply and demand forecasts. That's about 520 million bushels over last year's levels.

Average corn yield per acre this year is up nine bushels, but the US ethanol industry will only require one of those new bushels of corn per acre for the coming year.

In all, therefore, yield growth alone will provide significantly more than the 520 million bushels of additional feedstock required by the ethanol industry in 2009-10.