[central_va]

You cannot support yourself let alone a family on three acres.

[Lurker]

“You cannot support yourself let alone a family on three acres.”

Look up micro-farming. It’s hard work, takes a ton of planning, but it can be done.

L

[Bryanw92]

>>You cannot support yourself let alone a family on three acres.

That’s why I said that growing and selling food is a great education in economics.

[txhurl]

These guys barter for everything, weed, beer/wine, meat, dairy with other farmers. Keep ‘em occupied until heaven forfend the next RAT president.

[Sacajaweau]

They don’t even own it...the rent the 4 acres...which means they’re not living on the farm...they visit it.

[Georgia Girl 2]

You can make about $75000 per year on 2-3 acres. We know people who are doing it and we plan to do some of it as a cottage industry supplemental retirement income. You just have to know what to grow in your area.

[Pollard]

It can and is being done.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=jean-martin+forier&iax=images&ia=images

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Martin_Fortier

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1.5 of the farm’s 10 acres are kept in biologically intensive production. The farm produces variety of organic vegetables, as well as some herbs and fruits. The farm direct markets its products at the Knowlton and St.-Lambert farmers’ markets in Montreal, to restaurants and stores, and through 140 community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares.[2] In the farm’s fourth season, when sales first topped $100,000, the business won a farming competition prize for its outstanding economic performance.[2] The farm now grosses about $140,000 in sales in a typical year.[5] Fortier and Desroches employ paid staff and host interns.[6] They also host on-farm events and tours to help promote sustainable farming.[6]

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He even invented his own greens harvesting tool powered by a cordless drill.

Most aren’t anywhere near that successful of course but as a whole, they’re coming up with new techniques. Most of them are modern day hippies but some are real entrepreneurs.

If they can take a bite out of big ag, Cargill, Monsanto, Tyson etc., I’m all for it. And the food is a LOT healthier. They don’t choose varieties for their shipping and long storage qualities.

One thing they’re doing is relearning a lot of the old techniques that were all but forgotten.

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Another one is Joe Salatin although he does it on a larger scale, 550 acres and mostly famous for growing chickens profitably without the overcrowded Tyson type chicken housing. No antibiotics etc. IIRC he charges $4-5 per bird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin

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In all cases, you have to be near a populated area and they’re not selling to people in da hood but it’s a start.

There’s another guy in Vermont that produces 100k eggs per year with no feed costs. He runs a compost operation. He collects scraps from restaurants, yard waste etc. The birds turn the compost and get fed at the same time. He has input finishing the compost but the birds cut his labor input in half.

[antidisestablishment]

I fed 22 kids off of 15 acres. We had about 3 acres gardens, 2 acres in berries, about forty fruit trees, a few acres pasture and the rest woods. We only bought some staples, and we bought raw milk from a dairy down the road; but, we raised all our own meat and eggs, canned both meat and veggies.

We didn’t make a dime, but we fed ourselves and all the kids learned the meaning of hard work. They never realized how well they ate growing up until they went out in the world and finally got to eat store-bought “food.”

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ve fed us and fed us well, on ONE acre.

Of course, we both still worked and had incomes and had health insurance, but between hunting, fishing, keeping laying hens, cooking all meals from scratch and gardening, my monthly food bill for three adults (myself, then-husband and his brother) and three teen boys (Step-Son and two Nephews) came to about $150.00/month...and most of that was for MILK, LOL!

Granted, it was only for 5 years, but it still helped our bottom line. A lot.

But, this article is full of holes...