Bingo. The Green Revolution massively increased Earth's carrying capacity, but at the cost of total dependence on artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides

Bingo. The Green Revolution massively increased Earth's carrying capacity, but at the cost of total dependence on artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and machinery, with the alternative being "half of the human population on Earth starves to death". Fertilizers we can make without fossil fuels -- the Haber process could likely use hydrogen sourced via electrolysis. I don't know about limits on phosphate or potassium (the "PK" in "NPK"). Equipment and farming practices are improving in terms of energy and material efficiency, and I suspect we'll get to the point where we can run everything off of electricity in the next decade, but we still need to generate a lot of that -- which means nuclear, because I don't see renewables getting there any time soon.