Also keep in mind that turning nature into agriculture also has huge environmental costs not captured in energy usage. If "developed cultured" is fixed by pric

Also keep in mind that turning nature into agriculture also has huge environmental costs not captured in energy usage. If "developed cultured" is fixed by pricing the externalities, it would be absolutely better to pack people in cities, replace subsistence farming with sustainable industrial agriculture (no tilling, no aquifer depletion, etc.) and decrease the portion of land devoted to agriculture.