Finally, we are getting to something really interesting – how much land would a person need to be self-sufficient with food and firewood? It does, of course, depend on a lot of the previous factors, but let us talk about a moderate climate and moderately fertile soil, like I talked about at the end of the previous post.
I was not actually thinking about this whole issue that much until a few years ago, when one commenter on Affinity brought up the concept of vertical growing of vegetables at home. In their opinion, vertical farming was supposed to be an agricultural revolution, including this small-scale home version. I have immediately expressed deep skepticism about this idea, and in the years that followed, I feel fully vindicated. Vertical farming boomed off big way, and then busted, as I expected. Not to mention that most of the startups that I saw were growing salads and herbs, neither of which are foods; they are condiments.
And thus, there is one thing that I feel confident in saying right off the bat – the land use needed to feed one person is probably a lot more than an average city dweller’s idea. And one of the reasons for this is that most people actually have no real first-hand experience growing anything except perhaps that bonsai/orchid they got for a birthday from a clueless relative, which then hung on for dear life for a few months before it inevitably died.
Talking about my own experience in my garden, I estimate I’d need at least 500-600 m² of arable land for food, and ten times that for wood. However, I am currently heating the house for three people, not just one. With a domicile for one person only, it could probably be reduced to 2000 m², arriving at 2600 m² total. This counts only the production areas; there would need to be more for the house, the storage spaces, animal sheds, paths, etc. Let’s not count too much and round it up to 3000 m² overall, for just one, very thrifty person.
We shall see how I personally would use said land in order to meet my food and firewood needs.
All numbers are, and will be, estimates. After all, I am writing blog posts, not a PhD dissertation.
These calculations are fascinating.
Most people eat an omnivorous diet of both plant derived foods and animal foods. But for ease of calculation, the two most informative calculations would be what one person needs on a vegetarian diet and what they need on a carnivorous diet, such as if their only land is only good for pasture and firewood.
Then people can calculate omnivorous cases by mixing the two extremes together.
For a carnivorous diet for one person, I imagine one would raise either sheep or goats, although perhaps pigs or chickens would be easier to model, depending on what data you have locally for the analysis.
In the Middle Ages, some monasteries also kept fish ponds, so one could also live on fish.