There are a large number of farms across the US that no longer till the soil. They leave the crop residue either corn stubble or plant residue from soybean harvest on top of the ground and no-till the next years crop directly into the prior years crop residue. In addition, many farms plant a cover crop after corn harvest or even fly on cover crop seed before harvest. You also need to recognize that many livestock farms currently rotate grass and alfalfa with the corn they grow. Finally, ethanol is needed as a gasoline additive to replace MTBE which pollutes. The byproducts of ethanol production are used as cattle feed, so if ethanol was phased out some of the corn would still need to be grown for cattle feed. There are a number of articles about no-till and cover crop use on Ag-Web.com.
There are a large number of farms across the US that no longer till the soil. They leave the crop residue either corn stubble or plant residue from soybean harvest on top of the ground and no-till the next years crop directly into the prior years crop residue. In addition, many farms plant a cover crop after corn harvest or even fly on cover crop seed before harvest. You also need to recognize that many livestock farms currently rotate grass and alfalfa with the corn they grow. Finally, ethanol is needed as a gasoline additive to replace MTBE which pollutes. The byproducts of ethanol production are used as cattle feed, so if ethanol was phased out some of the corn would still need to be grown for cattle feed. There are a number of articles about no-till and cover crop use on Ag-Web.com.