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Could you grow enough food to feed yourself and your family if you wanted to—or needed to?

Gardening is often pitched as a relaxing, therapeutic activity—and it is relaxing and therapeutic! But it’s also a sign of how advanced society has become that we can regard growing food as a charming hobby instead of an absolute necessity. On the one hand, that’s a clear sign of mankind’s mastery over the world. On the other, it’s left us remarkably dependent on a system of farming and delivery logistics that has been shown to be distressingly fragile.

Anyone who has ever successfully grown a tomato plant in their backyard has wondered if they could go “off-grid,” grow their own food, and be done with their local supermarket. The answer is yes, but that’s the wrong question. The question isn’t whether it’s possible—the question is how. It’s all about the logistics: How much space do you need to grow enough crops to feed you and your family? Math will help you figure this one out.

Calculate the necessary square footage

If you’ve only ever gardened for fun, or to supplement your store-bought groceries with some tasty home-grown treats, you might not be aware of just how much space is required to feed someone. You may have noticed that family farms are kind of large, and there’s a very good reason for that (though some of that space was traditionally given over to livestock and draft animals). Estimates vary. Different crops require different amounts of space, for example, and some gardening gurus estimate you’d need at least 4,000 square feet per person, with more space allotted for stuff like lanes between crops.

Most of us don’t have 4,000 square feet to dedicate to gardening, but you probably don’t need quite that much as long as you’re efficient. A good rule of thumb is that you need about 200 square feet per person for a self-sustaining garden. So if you’re a family of four, figure you’ll need about 800 square feet, or a space about 20x40 or 10x80.

That’s ... still a lot of space, especially if you’re in an urban setting. The key is planning your garden out, because different crops take up different amounts of space, and if you’re going to live off of those crops you have to include a wide variety of plants for nutritional completeness. Your garden will need to include these:

• Proteins. If you’re going to survive on a garden, you won’t be eating meat. While nuts are an excellent source of protein, nut trees take up a lot of space, so make sure you plant beans. Growing lima beans on poles will require about six square feet of garden per person. Snap beans will take about 10 square feet and soybeans will eat up about 30 square feet.
• Carbohydrates. You’ll need some starch in your diet. The good news is that you have a lot of options. Beans will pull double duty here, in fact. Potatoes will require about 25 square feet per person, corn will require about 30 square feet per person, squash will need about six square feet, and peas need about eight square feet.
• Vitamins. A complete diet requires a load of nutrients beyond protein and carbs, so plan on including stuff like spinach (eight square feet per person), broccoli (eight square feet), kale (one square foot), or cabbage (10 square feet).
• Fruits. You can live on vegetables alone, but having some fruits is a great idea. Melons are great (six square feet per person), as are pumpkins (10 square feet), strawberries (10 square feet), and watermelons (six square feet).
• Medicinals & Spices. Some plants don’t offer much nutritional value, but make life a lot better by providing seasoning or health benefits. Some examples include cilantro (one square foot per person), garlic (four square feet), onions (eight square feet), and mustard (two square feet).

If you grow every plant we just discussed for a family of four, you’d need a garden space of approximately 754 square feet of garden—so the 200 square-foot rule tracks pretty well.

Here are the caveats to surviving on your own food

There are a few caveats here, or aspects of a survival garden you really need to think about before you decide that just because your backyard is precisely 200 square feet you’ll be able to pull this off. First of all, the list above isn’t comprehensive and only included a few examples. You might want things like carrots, okra, or cauliflower. This garden size calculator will give you some idea of how much square footage each crop requires. When planning your garden, the main rule is this: Grow stuff you want to eat. Growing food you despise is no way to live.

Other things to consider:

• Variety. Keep in mind that growing just enough food to survive on will wear on you over time. Sure, you could go full Mark Watney and try to live on potatoes alone (and you just might be able to with some supplements thrown in), but if you think entering year two of nothing but potatoes won’t be depressing, you’re kidding yourself. Keep in mind that variety is the spice of life, and diet variety will require more square footage.
• Seeds. Make sure you always select open pollinated seeds so you can recover seeds from your crops and re-plant.
• Spoilage. Growing food is a battle against nature. The moment your crops start to grow, hungry things will show up to eat them in the middle of the night, bugs will nest in them, and diseases will somehow find them. You’re going to need a margin of error if you’re going to live off your garden—and you will likely need a year or two to figure out what not to do and make adjustments to your plan.
• Design. There are many ways to lay out and manage a survival garden. Square foot gardens use raised beds and a grid system to maximize space, keyhole gardens are drought-resistant, and homestead gardens utilize a farm-like layout (and require more space). When planning a survival garden, look at the space you have and consider what kind of garden design will maximize your yield.

A survival garden can bring a lot of relief to your pocketbook and a lot of independence to your life—if you have the necessary space. Hey, no one said going off-grid was easy.


https://lifehacker.com/how-much-garden-you-would-need-to-100-survive-on-1848829190

Are we really sure this calculation is correct? I mean I haven't given a try myself so I can't say if it is correct or not but I have had gardens before, bigger than 754 square feet, one of them MUCH bigger than that, and I never really considered it. I mean don't get me wrong maybe I have no talent in it, or maybe this requires advanced farming techniques that I didn't consider, but it looks quite difficult. On the other hand, with the way hydroponics are going, it will be quite possible to grow enough food to make it "profitable" for people in a small room and still call it a business, we just need the equipment to get more affordable. So with that kind of tech, maybe this is possible in such a small space.

Money, experience and time appear to be the largest obstacles to solve for the world to fully embrace independent & organic food production.

....


This source claims an average of 200 square feet needed to produce adequate food for 1 person. Which conflicts with many claiming its impossible to grow sufficient food on 1 acre of land, which is 43,560 square feet.

I think it assumes the usage of chemical fertilizers, which are increasing in price due to them being manufactured from natural gas. While it may be possible to grow food in a reasonably small space, the dollar cost of soil, dirt, containers, compost, seeds, plants, mulch. And the man hours of care necessary could make the bar to entry prohibitive for many.

Money, experience and time appear to be the largest obstacles to solve for the world to fully embrace independent & organic food production.

Carbohydrates. You’ll need some starch in your diet. The good news is that you have a lot of options. Beans will pull double duty here, in fact. Potatoes will require about 25 square feet per person, corn will require about 30 square feet per person, squash will need about six square feet, and peas need about eight square feet

I don’t know how big my garden is, but it’s not overly large and can produce food for 4-5 people. However, I must emphasize that this is an eco garden where it is much harder to keep plants healthy, which means that I had to learn how to produce eco plant protection products and fertilizer. In the end, I would certainly go cheaper to buy products in the store, but what I produce really has no price since it is 100% natural and healthy.

Bro, weed out those strawberries  ;D
As for the I have about 100m2 of raspberry and about the same of strawberries in a 5x40 greenhouse and they are just gone as they are getting ripe, it's been the second year with nothing left for jam.  ;D
200 sqft, that's probably only enough for Barbie's dollhouse.

For potatoes, you quote 25 sqft per person, which seems to be 2.32 square meters.
The maximum yield for full industrialized production is 40 000 kilos per ha, 10 000 sqm, 4 kilos per sqm

Bro, weed out those strawberries  ;D
As for the I have about 100m2 of raspberry and about the same of strawberries in a 5x40 greenhouse and they are just gone as they are getting ripe, it's been the second year with nothing left for jam.  ;D

200 sqft, that's probably only enough for Barbie's dollhouse.

Like these claimed results of 105 kilograms of potatos grown in 6 square meters, which works out to 17.5 kilos of potato produced per square meter.

I grew 235 lbs Of Potatoes in 200 sq ft Without Watering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrytUqXE9Ns

I honestly don't bother much with strawberries🍓, they grow without too much effort - although I always plan to get as many varieties as possible and pay a little more attention to them. Since I'm allergic to something that producers spray strawberries on (and other fruits and vegetables), this is the only way I can eat them without looking like I've been stung by bees or wasps🐝

This source claims an average of 200 square feet is needed to produce adequate food for 1 person.

235 lbs is 106 kg
200sqft is 18.5 sqm
It gets you 5.7 kg per sqm, nothing out of the ordinary for somebody who does this in order to get results.

While plants do technically grow out of thin air they still need nutrients to grow that big fruits or tubers or else, your average garden without aid won't be able to produce 20 kgs/sqm unless much of that is water, like cucumbers. And you can't live on cucumbers

I wonder what you tried to do with yours that went wrong, potatoes are quite resilient in growing, it takes art to mess them up . My specialty is growing cabbage with leaves opened up like a sunflower and harder than bamboo!

Back to the main topic, did a bit of math on those assumptions.

7 billion means 1.6 trillion sqft, so if the online convertor is right this is about 57392 square miles so we could feed the entire world if we raze Georgia to the ground and make it all agricultural land.
The metric system is simpler, 18.5 m2 per person,  148 000 km2, so ~ Sweden or Spain, and we have land for beaches and resorts left.
Seriously doubts those claims, it would mean  Lesotho would be needed to feed the whole of Africa.

https://i.imgur.com/fVlcCmL.png

If you can't see that tiny green dot there, I don't think you can see any reason to believe the claims either.  ;)

My father lives in a rural town where there's ample of land for gardening or even farming. And he indeed grows his own food. Actually, the entire neighborhood is partially independent when it comes to food. They've got chickens, pigs, cows, goats. They've got all kinds of vegetables and fruits around, both planted and wild.

However, they're still not 100% self-sufficient. For example, there are still spices that they can't grow but they need everyday. They also need condiments that they can't produce. So they still have to go to the market every once in a while. But when worst comes to worst and survival is the only thing that matters, they could probably get by, at least in terms of food.

This source claims an average of 200 square feet needed to produce adequate food for 1 person. Which conflicts with many claiming its impossible to grow sufficient food on 1 acre of land, which is 43,560 square feet.

I think it assumes the usage of chemical fertilizers, which are increasing in price due to them being manufactured from natural gas. While it may be possible to grow food in a reasonably small space, the dollar cost of soil, dirt, containers, compost, seeds, plants, mulch. And the man hours of care necessary could make the bar to entry prohibitive for many.

Money, experience and time appear to be the largest obstacles to solve for the world to fully embrace independent & organic food production.

Anyone who has ever successfully grown a tomato plant in their backyard has wondered if they could go off-grid, grow their own food, and be done with their local supermarket. The answer is yes, but thats the wrong question.

It was nice to remember how everything was beautiful and green in the spring, and now, unfortunately, the heat waves are destroying everything in front of them, regardless of all the effort. Anyone who tries to grow their own food under these conditions really needs to be incredibly persistent or as some would say a little crazy.

It was nice to remember how everything was beautiful and green in the spring, and now, unfortunately, the heat waves are destroying everything in front of them, regardless of all the effort. Anyone who tries to grow their own food under these conditions really needs to be incredibly persistent or as some would say a little crazy.

This source claims an average of 200 square feet needed to produce adequate food for 1 person. Which conflicts with many claiming its impossible to grow sufficient food on 1 acre of land, which is 43,560 square feet.

I think it assumes the usage of chemical fertilizers, which are increasing in price due to them being manufactured from natural gas. While it may be possible to grow food in a reasonably small space, the dollar cost of soil, dirt, containers, compost, seeds, plants, mulch. And the man hours of care necessary could make the bar to entry prohibitive for many.

Money, experience and time appear to be the largest obstacles to solve for the world to fully embrace independent & organic food production.

You can grow more crops in a small place if you have enough knowledge and resource to do that. In many urban places where open space to grow crops is hard to find, people use their rooftops.

People in the modern world like to be involved in service work that doesn't require any physical effort and they intend to buy foods from the market. Very few show interest in growing their own foods by investing some time because they can earn more money within that time if they do other work.

i guess, that's one way to look at it. if you have no time or no interest in growing your own food, you can always find another option or job that can give you income to cater your needs. we can't really expect people to tend their own garden if it is not in their vocabulary. but in that case, he should be the one looking for his options how to survive in this crisis.

also, when it comes to having your own garden. you can always make a barter to your neighbors or friends regarding your harvests. so you can you have variations of vegetables.

Evil tongues say that this is the work of Putin's secret climate weapon, but I think this is the consequences of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, which almost killed the warm Galstream current, which made the climate milder in Europe, when there is no extreme heat in summer and there is no extreme cold in winter. Although I don't have an extra chromosome like Greta Thunberg to be a big climate change expert.

I wouldn't be surprised if Murmansk completely freezes over this coming winter as well /shrug

The whole idea of a "Climate weapon" is quite silly to be honest - I can't imagine Putin being dumb enough to get his only western sea port in the Arctic frozen off as a collateral effect.

Today i live peacefully in a country with a local crypto-exchange, where electricity is cheap and i can't read/understand the daily newspaper.

Everyone finds their own way  ;)

Evil tongues say that this is the work of Putin's secret climate weapon, but I think this is the consequences of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, which almost killed the warm Galstream current, which made the climate milder in Europe, when there is no extreme heat in summer and there is no extreme cold in winter. Although I don't have an extra chromosome like Greta Thunberg to be a big climate change expert.

The environment, as well as the climate, isn't the same as before so growing plants and crops isn't as easy as before. There are also lots of things to consider for us to grow crops and plants. We need a good location, season, and so on so mostly, only professional farmers and agriculturists could grow good plants.
Also, we now have different focuses and priorities. Most of us don't have enough time to do things like planting so we rely on supermarkets when it comes to our necessities. Our generation now is different. We rely on technology and our time each day is limited to doing important stuff for us to survive so planting couldn't be our top priority if there are still other alternatives.

It was nice to remember how everything was beautiful and green in the spring, and now, unfortunately, the heat waves are destroying everything in front of them, regardless of all the effort. Anyone who tries to grow their own food under these conditions really needs to be incredibly persistent or as some would say a little crazy.

Unfortunately, people are increasingly becoming some kind of techno zombies who spend more and more time looking at screens, instead of trying to deal with other things. Large corporations produce food that is unhealthy and poisoned, poorly paid workers put the same food on the shelves, and then people like ants grab that food and deliver it to their homes.

Evil tongues say that this is the work of Putin's secret climate weapon, but I think this is the consequences of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, which almost killed the warm Galstream current,

Solariums.

You're not going to like it, but int he near future even the farmers will be looking at screens, J&D just brought their autonomous tractors CES, our company has in plans to test by 2025 the first full autonomous loader /unloader in one of our logistics centers, and delivery will probably start being dominated by pi-cup delivery locations like those safe boxes that have been popping up like mushrooms from Denmark to Bulgaria.

Look what hail did a few months ago in my country, and even greenhouses with glass that was supposed to be resistant to hail impacts were destroyed.
https://www.zagorje-international.hr/2022/05/25/tuca-kakva-se-ne-pamti-nema-kuce-i-staklenika-koji-nisu-osteceni-usjeva-koji-nije-unisten/

You must be aware that some plants cannot bloom and form fruits if the temperature does not suit them, so for example, we do not plant green beans in spring at all, but in late summer, which is more suitable for them and they produce good fruits in autumn.

If I could, I would start growing my food. I wish I had the knowledge and expertise to do so, but the other major issue is the land.

If you don't have your own land to grow herbs or fruit that you can eat, then try to rent it to someone else if the rent is not that expensive and you feel it is very suitable to do the job. Because if you are a reliable farmer who has a lot of knowledge about agriculture and is able to manage every crop, then that is an advantage for you in terms of farming.

a small well maintained garden will be enough - it gives peace of mind, and it is a very healthy activity too.
Even if you don't have space there is a lot of trend of having a rooftop garden and balcony garden and people are growing there vegetable and fruits there.

There are lots of way to make a garden though even if you have if you have small space left. Some farmers/gardeners hang it in the wall with a pot but it limits of what you must plant and herbs are the best choice for a pot but for the crops you really need some space to grow them. And if someone was living in an apartment it's not gonna work but if it's your own land you can do whatever you want since no one would hinder what you've been doing since planting really need a lot of time and care to grow.

My country belongs to the category of half developing countries where many residents of the 70s generation in remote areas still make full use of the vacant land around them for daily food needs without relying on traditional markets at all. Even though it is only a small plot of land (not even 0.1 sq. acre), with the support of 2 tropical seasons,  it can produce food for 4-5 family members with almost complete nutrition all year round from farming and partly for raising livestock.

It is a very informative post. Infact time is very high that we need to start becoming self reliant for our food production. I think aquaponics can also play very good role for growing food in our apartments.

Self-reliance is just a dream, impossible to realize in today's world.

Although I agree with that in principle, when you already mentioned Japan, I remembered an example of an office building that contains 43 000 square feet of area for growing about 200 different types of fruits and vegetables. I was really fascinated by such an approach, which not only produces food for the employees, but also creates a very pleasant working environment - except for those who don't really like to be in the natural environment.

https://archello.com/project/pasona-hq

※Urban Farm’s original address, Gofukubashi Building, was closed in June 2017 and subsequently demolished. Pasona Group Inc. has moved to the new location.

If you want to survive by growing your own food the space inside your garden won't be enough.
You have to plant vegetables on your own(or rented) piece of property,somewhere in the fields.
This raises another question.Who is going to protect your vegetables from stealing? ;D
Having access to water is really important.What if your property is too far away from a river or a lake?
There's not enough agricultural land for all the people in the cities,so I guess that the division of labor will be preserved.The farmers will keep farming and the people in the cities will keep doing their business.

I think that such things should be done by specialists. What can you grow? What food? To grow something you need to work in the garden all day. Maybe bad weather and then the crop will not grow. It could be a hurricane, a tornado, a drought, anything, in some countries it may be sudden frost. I stand for the fact that every case should be done by a professional. And what seems simple is not always the case.

For people who have land in front of their own house, it is very nice, because they can immediately turn their home page into a small garden to grow plants and fruits that can be consumed. But this will not be able to be run by those who only have a house without having a qualified front yard. So I think the advice you give is very limited because it is only for certain people.