The US agriculture system very inefficiently turns fossil fuel energy into food energy . Try farming without modern equipment, fertilizers, and pesticides and let us know the true potential. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource even though we treat them as if they are.
That statement is a false dichotomy.
Industrial farming uses fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers and herbicides / peesticides because that is the cheapest way to do it.
If there are no fossil fuels, we can convert our tractors to bio diesel and even some battery electic from solar, geothemal, or wind, spread out animal production (pig and chicken houses, feed lots) to allow the use of manure as fertilizer, and breed insect and blight resistant varieties of crops. The cost of food and fiber would go up, but not enough to materially effect our living standard.
Malthus was wrong. You are, too.
