U.S. corn production has skyrocketed, but the environmental cost is higher than you think.

Effectively all growth in corn production over the last 20 years has been dedicated to ethanol fuel.

20 million acres of diverse land have been converted into endless rows of corn monoculture.

This massive shift in land use is effectively strip mining our nation's precious topsoil.

Corn is the most fertilizer-dependent crop, yet it only absorbs about 40% of what is applied.

1.7 million tons of nitrogen runoff flows into the Mississippi basin every single year.

This massive chemical overflow isn't just going downstream—it's polluting local water supplies too.

Nitrogen runoff expands the Gulf 'Dead Zone,' an area where aquatic life cannot survive.

The Dead Zone threatens the Gulf, which provides 40% of all domestic seafood in the U.S.

It is hard to find a worse way to create fuel given these massive downstream consequences.

Sustainability requires looking past the harvest to the health of our water and soil.