How Much Yard Do You Need to Grow Your Own Food?

[Guest post by Pete Tonery.]
Our late arriving spring is just beginning to unleash that gardening urge many of us have. A while back I wrote a series on my family’s experience growing our own food. I tried to offer calculations on how much land was needed but there were so many variables that it didn’t seem wise to give inaccurate information. A few days ago, my son sent me a website that tries to put in graphic form exactly how much land is needed to be food self sufficient. It also shows what’s needed to be electrically independent using solar cells.

It’s pretty cool: How big a backyard do you need to live off the land?
(Scroll down and you’ll see it.)
I don’t want to quibble too much with the graphic because I think it’s accurate. However, it is simplistic too. One cannot skip lightly over ideas such as, ”some vegetables require much more land than others,” I mean, that’s important! The poster doesn’t delve into variety and vegetable selections either which are essential to sound food sustainability.

Studying the chart I couldn’t help but feel that it was a translation of data into pictures. I got the sense that what was being translated was calories into calories into square feet. In other words, “Assuming a vegetarian diet of 2300 calories per person per day requires .44 acres per person,” is just a little cold. The idea that X food type requires Y number of calories and each square foot of land has Z calorie potential is unrealistic. Farming on a scale to feed your family isn’t quite so neat.

I also felt that the footage described for animal production was off. Raising animals could be done as described but only by using old fashioned, unhealthy practices. The small footprint for pigs and goats means the animals are penned and fed without the benefits of foraging. This makes your costs skyrocket and isn’t very desirable, either for the animals or for a good, healthy harvest. The best way to raise animals is to let them rummage and graze! That means the family farm needs sufficient room for rotating pastures, not penning.

All in all I like the chart however. It gives a decent visual to the concept. I would have preferred more caveats so folks wouldn’t rush into the effort only to become frustrated and disappointed. Perhaps its greatest value is not to show what one family needs but through extrapolation what it takes farmers to feed all of America. If this is the minimum requirement for one family of four, and the US has about 115 million families, well- just imagine!

How Big A Backyard Do You Need To Live Off The Land? infographic by Column Five Media.