What Happened to the Beans?

Since spring, I've noticed an abundance of corn fields this year - and a dearth of soybean fields. "Where are all the soybeans?" I've been wondering.

About, say, 10 or 15 years ago, Illinois used to have about half corn and half bean fields (at least that's the way it seemed to me). This year, because of increased demand for ethanol, the balance has shifted mightily toward corn. How much? This much:

U.S. farmers are on track to grow their biggest corn crop ever, an astonishing 12.8 billion bushels, a government report said...

In Illinois and Iowa, the two leading corn and soybean states, growers cut soybean plantings by a total of 2.1 million acres from 2006.

I've also seen quite a few wheat fields this year. I hadn't seen a lot of wheat fields since I was a kid.