Sustainable Food Production

[from permaculture friend/expert in New Hampshire]

"The people in Biosphere II in Arizona ... raised 80 percent of their food for two years within a 'closed system.' Their experience demonstrates that a complete year's diet for one person can be raised on the equivalent of 3,403 square feet! ... In contrast, it takes commercial agriculture 22,000 to 42,000 square feet to grow all the food for one person for one year, while bringing in large inputs from other areas [and] causing the loss of approximately six pounds of soil for each pound of food produced."