[mutley]

"Corn for ethanol is not a food OR fuel choice"

But doesn't it become that, if you ask the question:

For which, would you rather deplete the topsoil?

[Mr. Lucky]

Tillage doesn't necessarily deplete the topsoil; to the contrary, it can build it. Profitable farmers tend to make much better stewards of the soil than do unprofitable ones.

[Farmer Dean]

With modern farming methods the topsoil is not depleted.

[Wonder Warthog]

"For which, would you rather deplete the topsoil?"

The Ag Experiment station at the U of Iowa has been single-cropping corn on the same land for a century and a half. Yields have gone up continuously.

Gee, do you think they just "might" know how to grow corn without "depleting the topsoil"??