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Date: 97-11-09 22:10:17 EST
From: jgruv@wam.umd.edu (joel b gruver)
To: Erorganic@AOL.COM
eak: I get the most interesting replys. I meant 8 acres as the total for a
family of 5. My numbers come from farming and feeding a family for 24 years.
My answer was based on providing all the food, year round, vegetables,
legumes, fruit, sweetner, grains, diary, eggs and meats for that family plus
bettering the soil, structurally and fertility wise.
Hello Eric...
Your suggestions for the acreage neccessary to feed a family of
5 (15)... or a milking cow (8)... are much too high for Maryland (where
my families farm is located) or anywhere on the east coast...
A family of 5 could obtain its entire annual supply of food on less than 1
acre.
eak: I have never found this correct.
I have some personal experience with self sufficiency diets... I just
finished 10 weeks of purchasing no food...
Eating a simple diet primarily of potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes,
kale, beans, popcorn... I have no problem feeding myself on only a few
thousand square feet...
From only 6000 square feet I can easily harvest enough wheat for 1 lb loaf
of bread/day for a year... 6000 square feet could easily
produce a ration of 2 lbs of corn/day or a lb of soybeans/day...
2 acres of good pasture can easily support a 1200 lb cow during the
grazing season plus provide stored feed for the winter
I have managed a CSAs supplying 80 families with
vegetables from 7 acres.
eak: Vegetables, yes for how many weeks? Protein, dairy, fruit and grains
are not supplied would take close to 640 acres. Vegetables provide by far
the most quanity of human palatable production per acre. Fruit and nuts a
close second. About 15,000 acres of strawberries supplies almost all the
strawberries eaten in the US.
Where do your numbers come from ?
Joel Gruver
U of MD, Agronomy >>
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