Food Question 1

From CFI

Researcher

Jason Bradford jcbradford@ucdavis.edu 707-456-0760

Question

How many acres of land are required to feed the approximately 10,000 people in the Little Lake Valley region?

Assumptions

Zero or very little mechanization of agriculture. Mainly human labor involved. Small-scale mini farms using methods such as biointensive, biodynamic, and/or permaculture employed. No details of population age structure accounted for, i.e., everyone needs about 2000-4000 calories. Diet primarily vegetarian, most meat from off farm sites, such as wild game, or animals fed some food wastes, or pasture only.

Answer

4000 sq ft of quality arable land is sufficient for one person’s food needs (Jeavons, 2002). Theoretically, then, about 10 people could be fed on one acre (over 40,000 sq ft per acre). Dividing the population of 10,000 by 10 people/acre gives 1000 acres.

In practice, however, the need for paths between growing beds, infrastructure for equipment, shelter, and the fact that landscape variability makes some areas poorly suited to gardening (e.g., shading, soil structure, water logging), only half the area is usually available for intensive gardening within a mini-farm site (Martin, 2004). So doubling the above figure of 1000 acres yields 2000 acres of farmland.

Sources Jeavons, John (2002). How to Grow More Vegetables. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley and Toronto.

Martin, Charles (2004). Personal Communication to Jason Bradford.

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