How Growing Less Corn Would Improve Our Health and Help America’s Heartland

The report argues that the current U.S. agricultural landscape is dominated by corn and soybeans due to federal subsidies, which contradicts national nutritional goals. Using economic modeling, the authors find that aligning production with healthy dietary guidelines would significantly increase fruit and vegetable acreage while reducing cereal grain production. Such a transition would likely improve public health, reduce environmental degradation from monocropping and livestock operations, and create new economic opportunities for farmers, particularly in the Midwest.

• Increasing U.S. demand for fruits, vegetables, and nuts (F&V) to meet MyPlate dietary recommendations—a hypothetical 173 percent increase—would result in an 88 percent increase in domestic F&V production and a 50 percent increase in devoted farm acreage, rising from 10.7 million to 16.1 million acres.
• A shift toward federally recommended fruit and vegetable consumption would significantly impact global trade, increasing F&V imports by 120 percent. This would drive production increases in NAFTA countries (26%), banana-exporting equatorial countries (15%), and southern hemisphere countries (10%).
• Changes in dairy consumption would directly affect grain production: a 33 percent reduction in dairy (Harvard scenario) would decrease U.S. cereal grain production by 3% and acreage by 1.9 million acres, whereas a 100 percent increase (MyPlate scenario) would increase cereal grain production by 9% and acreage by 5 million acres.
• Reducing meat consumption would lower the demand for feed grains. Under the Harvard Protein scenario, beef production would fall by 54%, leading to a 10 percent decrease in U.S. cereal grain production and a reduction of 5.7 million acres of cereal grain acreage.
• Transitioning to a healthier diet could yield massive public health savings; meeting federal dietary guidelines for fruits and vegetables could prevent 127,000 deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke annually and save $17 billion in medical costs.
• The current dominance of corn and soybean monocultures causes environmental harm, including soil fertility loss and the creation of fish-killing "dead zones" due to fertilizer runoff. Additionally, beef and dairy production contribute to global warming through methane emissions and deforestation for pasture.
• Shifting corn and soybean cropland to fresh fruit and vegetable production in six Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) could generate 6,724 new jobs and $336 million in additional farmer income.

APA

Mulik, K., & O’Hara, J. K. (2013). How Growing Less Corn Would Improve Our Health and Help America’s Heartland. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/healthy-farmland-diet.pdf

Chicago

Mulik, Kranti, and Jeffrey K. O’Hara. How Growing Less Corn Would Improve Our Health and Help America’s Heartland. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/healthy-farmland-diet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mulik |first1=Kranti |last2=O’Hara |first2=Jeffrey K. |title=How Growing Less Corn Would Improve Our Health and Help America’s Heartland |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=October 2013 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/healthy-farmland-diet.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mulik2013how, author = {Mulik, Kranti and O’Hara, Jeffrey K.}, title = {{How Growing Less Corn Would Improve Our Health and Help America’s Heartland}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2013}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/healthy-farmland-diet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }