Crops in the Upper Mississippi River Foodscape
The United States Corn Belt leads North America in row crop production, yet this high productivity comes at an environmental cost in terms of nitrate loss, soil erosion, and greenhouse gas emissions. The Nature Conservancy focuses on the upper Mississippi River basin within the US Corn Belt as a “foodscape” - a food-producing landscape around which to organize local stakeholders for agricultural transformation to reduce environmental impact.
The Upper Mississippi River Foodscape encompasses parts of southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin, and northwestern Illinois. Cropland in the area is dominated by corn and soybean production, which occupy 73% of the land.
The growth of this increasingly simplified corn and soybean monoculture system, which is dependent upon high amounts of external inputs, has driven negative environmental outcomes, especially soil degradation, erosion, and nutrient loss. Before we can develop new and better systems to reduce those impacts, we need to understand how the land, and the crops produced there, are used now.
Real agricultural transformation requires collaboration among different actors in the Foodscape - including growers, livestock producers, and ethanol plants. There are over 67 million chickens, 12 million hogs, and 1.6 million cattle in the Foodscape, all of which consume corn and soy, as well as 28 corn ethanol plants in the Foodscape counties, and 57 more in the four Foodscape states. But because corn and soybean are traded as bulk commodities, growers and downstream buyers do not know how they might be connected, making it difficult to know how they might work together.
The Institute on the Environment at University of Minnesota has developed the FoodS3 platform to track the flows of commodities like corn and soy on a county and facility level. Using that platform, we find that crops grown in the Foodscape are mostly used as fuel and feed within the Foodscape - so producers and consumers depend on each other.
How are foodscape corn and soy used?
Corn
Over half the corn produced in the Upper Mississippi River Foodscape goes to produce ethanol, making biorefineries by far the largest user of foodscape corn. Animals use 22% of foodscape corn, with hogs the largest animal consumer.
The fermentation and distillation process used to produce ethanol also results in a byproduct called “dried distillers grains with solubles” (DDGS). Because most of the fiber and protein from the corn remain in DDGS, it can be used in animal feed. The high level of ethanol production in the Foodscape also produces large quantities of DDGS, more than can be used by the Foodscape's resident livestock, and thus most is shipped by barge down the Mississippi River to be exported at the Port of New Orleans.
More about flows of corn from the Upper Mississippi River Foodscape
Soy
The US is the second largest exporter of soybeans in the world, and nationally, about half of all soybeans are exported. By contrast, only 23% of Foodscape soybeans are exported. The rest travels to soy crushers, which produce soy oil for food, biodiesel, and industrial uses; and soy meal, which is fed to animals.
More about flows of soy from the Upper Mississippi River Foodscape
A connected foodscape...
While only about 1% of agricultural production value in the Foodscape is used directly as human food within the foodscape, a large fraction of the crops produced are used locally - as feedstock for ethanol or fed to animals within the Foodscape.
Almost three quarters (73%) of Foodscape corn is used in the foodscape counties, with an additional 10% in foodscape states, leaving only 4% used in other states in the US. Half (51%) of soybean is used in foodscape counties, with 25% used in foodscape states, and only 2% going to other states in the US. Foodscape use fractions are smaller for processed commodities, but the largest non-export use fractions are still in foodscape counties and states. For DDGS 32% stays in foodscape states, and 16% is sent to other parts of the US. Sixty-five percent of soymeal stays in foodscape states, with 19% going to other states in the US.
While the majority of the corn and soy produced in the foodscape are used in the foodscape, it is also true that the corn and soy consumed in the foodscape comes predominantly from the foodscape, as shown in the table below.
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... needs collaborative solutions
One avenue toward a more sustainable Foodscape starts with reducing the environmental impacts from the corn already grown there. Many ethanol producers want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but most of those emissions come from growing the corn used to make ethanol. With the FoodS3 platform we now know that 97% of the corn used by ethanol plants in the Foodscape is also grown in the Foodscape, these ethanol plants have opportunities to work with Foodscape farmers to make corn production more sustainable.
Another opportunity for improved sustainability within the Foodscape is crop diversification. The current corn-soy rotation provides limited opportunities for breaking pest and disease cycles, while reliance on similar practices for weed control in both corn and soybean is leading to increased herbicide resistance. Adding a small grain like wheat, oats, or hybrid rye back into the rotation can mitigate these challenges, while also making farming systems more resilient and sustainable by building soil health and optimizing nutrient cycles.
However, new crops would need markets. While ethanol can be made from crops other than corn, retooling is difficult and expensive. Animal nutritionists, livestock producers, and crop farmers could work together to support new animal diets that include small grains in addition to corn and soy; thereby creating the market supply and demand necessary for a more diverse landscape.
FoodS3 allows us to see connections that were previously invisible. Building on these connections, actors from different sectors in the Foodscape can come together to develop solutions that benefit all of them. Using these connections, they can transform agriculture in the Upper Mississippi River Foodscape to benefit people and the planet.
This brief was created in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The publication of this material was made possible through funding by the Walmart Foundation. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations presented in this brief are those of FoodS3 alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Walmart Foundation.