How much land do you need to feed 1 person?

It’s estimated that the average adult eats around 1 metric ton of food per year, this figure can vary wildly but based on an average diet for an adult of normal weight, it’s around 1 metric ton (1,000KG).

In the UK a farmer will pull in an average potato yield of between 8 and 15 tons of potatoes per acre on each harvest depending on the type. This would mean in theory that 1 acre can feed up to 15 people for 1 year in terms of how much is produced compared to how much food weight is consumed per person.

However…..

Since all this food comes in one harvest and the average person doesn’t have a freezer capable of storing several metric tons of potatoes, the vast majority of it would go off, and not to mention you would be stuck eating nothing but one vegetable all year leading to massive deficiencies in much-needed vitamins and nutrients.

An acre is just under 4047 m2, which when laid out in a square has equal sides of just under 64 metres. With only one acre of land to grow crops on you will be stuck eating mostly vegetables and have little room left for fruits and grain.

Animals take up a huge amount of space not only in the area where they live but also in extra ground required to grow feed for them. The only exception to this is chickens which can live in much smaller spaces, but are only productive for their eggs in terms of the food weight they produce. The amount of land that you would lose to housing chickens would be much more productive if used for growing crops, so if you’re stuck to 1 acre of land, you’re going to be forced into living off a vegan diet. (Unless you can place a sneaky beehive somewhere in the corner)

On a 1 acre layout, you will get 3 main harvests per year, with the first coming at the end of spring/start of summer for your salad crops, and quick-growing vegetables such as certain types of small potatoes.

The second harvest is at the end of August or the start of September (depending on where you are in the world). This harvest will include any grain, fruit, and the bulk of your summer vegetables, and since this is the only time to grow grain if you’re in the UK, you’ll have to make sure you have enough to dry and store for the whole year.

The last harvest comes mid-winter and is restricted to mostly vegetables planted at the end of summer. This harvest will include things such as brussel sprouts, cabbage, turnips, parsnips, and various other vegetables capable of surviving the harsh winter temperatures.

This means that you will be producing next to no food towards the end of winter and the start of spring, so if you don’t produce enough preservable foods like grain and things you can dry such as peas and beans during the summer, then your pretty screwed.

You are still quite limited with what you can grow with an extra acre, but it will allow you to set aside half of your growing space for one main summer crop of grain, which will not only ensure a food supply for the whole year but also provide a source of feed for some chickens.

The Corn Example

The average corn yield per acre is 175 bushels. When threshed and turned into dried corn grain, you get about 56.25 lbs (25.5kg) of grain per bushel.

If the average corn yield per acre is 175 bushels, this would mean that you would end up with 9843.75 pounds of corn grain, or 4464kg if you prefer. This is close to 4.5 metric tons of pure corn grain, which in theory is enough food weight to feed 4 people for a year.

However……and there’s always a however……

This is the average farm yield after harvest, and the land you have available can greatly alter this amount. It also means that this average harvest weight came from crops using modern fertilizers that have been professionally produced and distributed.

If you’re looking to be self-sufficient, then you would be growing and harvesting your grain with hand tools and whatever fertilizer you could make, and unless you had a small tractor that runs on some kind of bio-fuel you’re able to produce yourself, then the back-breaking work of harvesting would be done with scythes and sickles.

If done yourself by hand with homemade fertilizer you can expect the overall harvest weight of corn to reduce by half or even more, leaving you with anywhere between 1.5 and 2 tons of dried corn grain. Even though there’s still a massive reduction in produce, 2 tons of grain will provide enough food to feed 2 people with no problem, or 1 person and up to 30 chickens.

A 2-acre layout is best used by treating the first acre as a regular 1-acre farm layout minus any grain or whatever bulk crop you plan on growing through the summer, and the second acre provides your preservable food to last all year.

With a layout of this size, any type of grazing animal is out of the question, as dairy cows eat around 10kg of grain per day while they are producing milk, as well as a sizable amount of hay and grass which you won’t have room to grow. Goats and sheep require less grain but still need feed and much more room than 1 acre, and the same goes for pigs who eat a hell of a lot more than sheep and goats do.

Having grazing animals on one of your acres will prevent you from growing your summer bulk crop of grain, and simply isn’t practical on anything less than 5 acres.

The majority of estimates state that anywhere between 5 and 10 acres per person is reasonable to comfortably feed yourself on a diet of fruit, vegetables, meat, and grain. In fact, on 5 acres you could actually grow enough excess produce to sell and buy most of the other things you’d need to survive on your own.

An example would be two acres of grain, one to feed yourself and one to feed whatever animals you choose. One acre for the animals to live on along with some crops for their feed, and the other two acres for your home and food just for you.

This would give you a year’s supply of grain, ensuring fresh bread and cereal all year round, and two acres of vegetables and one-season fruits such as strawberries. However, something to consider when it comes to having meat in your diet is that the five-acre layout only works with multiple people.

For example, cows need a good amount of room to be happy and healthy and receive enough grass in their diets. They can also eat around 10kg of grain per day along with grass so each cow would consume close to two tons of food per year, which would require several acres of land dedicated just to growing grain to feed them.

(The most effective method of farming is large fields with only one thing, which won’t be an option on 5 acres or less)

On your own, you may be able to put aside two or three acres of land to grow their food and have enough room left over for several cows to live on and also be able to grow some crops for yourself, but this would leave no room for any of the other meats and limit vegetable growing space.

To have access to all four of the main meats, beef, pork, chicken and either lamb or goat, you would indeed be able to do it with 5 acres per person, but it would require a minimum of at least ten people who would all have different setups to provide food and space for the animals.

Each person in your homestead community would have to dedicate their land to one thing, and you would have to feed each other by sharing. If each person had 5 acres and there were 10 people, that gives you 50 acres, half of which would have to be growing nothing but grain for both the people and animals. Another 15 acres would have to be farms to house the animals and the other 10 acres would grow vegetables and seasonal fruit for everyone. A set-up like this would be extremely difficult and unlikely to happen, with the best real world example of this being the Amish comunities of North America.

There’s also the added problem of slaughter times and how long you can preserve the meat for. If you have twelve cows in your community then you could in theory butcher one per month and have beef all year round. But the problem would be that the cows would have to be born one per month in order for them to be at the appropriate size at the time of slaughter, and this simply wouldn’t happen.

You would instead end up with half your herd being slaughtered at the same time, as all the young would be born in spring and all be the right size for butchering at the same time. It would be incredibly difficult to moderate the birth times of all the animals in your herd so they can be slaughtered at regular intervals throughout the year.

It is entirely possible, just very difficult. As for anything above five acres of land, you will have more space than you could possibly need, giving you the option of more animals or growing some kind of cash crop to help fund things you can’t produce on your own.

This would limit you to a very small selection of foods, but it would be possible to fulfill the majority of your nutritional needs and also provide enough range to keep the average rabbit happy. Doing this would not only be very expensive but would also mean you wouldn’t be able to produce root vegetables which can’t be easily grown in this type of system, and also plants that take up too much height such as all the types of grain.