Self-Sustaining On 1 Acre: Is It Possible? (2024)

FAQs

Self-Sustaining On 1 Acre: Is It Possible? ›

Is it possible to be completely self-sufficient with 1 acre of land? Yes. With careful selection of what to grow, you can easily support a person per acre, possibly a family of 4. And not even needing more than hand tools.

The truth is you can be self-sustaining on a 1-acre property but it takes work, education, dedication, and time. So, if you have an oversized lot or small acreage and want to be as sustainable as possible, here are some ideas and suggestions on how to get started creating a self-sufficient homestead.

For the average family of four, you can expect to grow a year's worth of food on three to five acres. We really do think that five acres is the sweet spot because it allows you to stack your animals and really utilize permaculture practices. One acre for gardens, perennials and fruit trees.

As examples of potential production capability one acre of land can produce as much as 42,000 pounds of strawberries, 25,400 pounds of potatoes, or 11,000 pounds of iceberg lettuce.

The Minimum You Need to Be Self-Sufficient

According to this handy infographic, you only need 0.44 acres per person to meet all of your food needs. This works out to about 77,000 square foot for a family of four, assuming that each person maintains a vegetarian diet of 2300 calories a day.

About 1 acre of good land is enough for such purposes. But if the family wants to keep a cow and plans to buy the necessary winter feed, 2 acres of good pasture land, in addition, should be enough, and the extra work will not be excessive.

To attain $30,000 net farm income – approximately 4½ acres at $19,000 gross income per acre ($6,650 net income); approximately 7 acres at $12,000 gross income per acre ($4,200 net income); and approximately 12 acres at $7,000 gross income per acre ($2,450 net income).

A typical 1 AU, 1,000 lb, cow might require as much as 8 acres (3.2 ha) on poor quality pasture with low precipitation or as little as about 0.27 acres (0.11 ha) on an irrigated pasture in excellent condition.

Dubbed "red gold", saffron's high market value makes it arguably the most profitable agricultural crop. Though it requires careful cultivation, the potential profits per acre are unmatched, highlighting its viability for small farms looking to maximize their earnings.

There is a huge debate about how much is enough. I say, you make do with what you have. But in order to produce enough to truly live off the land, you will need at least 5 acres. This allows for enough space to produce for your family and your animals.

How many pounds of potatoes will 1 acre produce? ›

Potatoes are the most important vegetable crop in the world. They provide more usable protein per acre than any other crop (up to forty times more per acre than cows). They may yield from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds per acre. Potatoes are unique as the only garden crop you could live on (at least for a while).

Obviously, if one acre can feed 16 people, that's quite a bit more farming land than is needed in the US.

On a per acre basis, rice produces the most calories at 14 million per acre. This means an acre produces enough rice to feed 19 people for a year at 2000 calories per day.

In total, there are about 57 million square miles of land on the planet, which amounts to 36 billion acres. Much of this land is uninhabitable, as it is either mountainous or desert land. It's estimated that there are about 15 billion acres of habitable land on the planet.

Food production: To meet the dietary needs of an average person, you might need at least 1 to 2 acres of land for growing a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs. This estimate can vary widely based on factors such as climate and growing methods.

33% is desert, and 24% is mountainous, for a total of 57% unusable land. This leaves 15.77 billion acres of habitable land. With some 7.8 Billion people now living at the same time on our Earth, we have about 2 acres per person.

So while there are many variables and lots of imprecision when answering “How much land is needed to feed a person,” for today's American diet, with today's agricultural system, I'll stick with about one acre.

Being in a crowd sounds pretty foreign these days, but it can be helpful to think about how many people could fit into one acre of vacant land. This may sound crazy to think about because of our current situation, but you can fit about 20,000 people on one acre of undeveloped land.

Halfacre Farms began in the fall of 2015, named for the half acre of land my wife, Lydia, and I had rented for a dollar. On this small plot, we developed a scalable, sustainable soil building plan using small animals, market gardens, and cover crops.

77 million landowners privately own 1.3 billion acres (or 526 million hectares), so in a population of 332 million, the median person owns no land. Nevertheless, the average landowner has 16.9 acres (or 6.8 hectares) while the average person has 3.9 acres (1.6 hectares).