Back when we subscribed to Mother Earth News (M.E.N.), Mrs B and I raised goats, chickens, honey bees, a large garden a huge woodlot and a neighbors pasture full of Psilocybe cubensis. Goats provided milk and yogurt (and underbrush control), chickens provided meat and eggs (and bug control), bees provided honey and pollination (and exercise when you accidentally f**ked with the bees), woodlot provided fuel (and squirrels & deer and woodcock), and Psilocybe did a fine job of eliminating the need for TV. Our footprint was probably somewhere over 5 acres--we still burned a lot of petroleum products.

Is this reasonable?

It depends on how one measures the acre-equivalency. If we use the Sahel or Siberian tundra then we were probably way ahead of the energy curve where it takes a huge amount of acres just for food production. If one used an intensively farmed region then the estimator shifts a different direction and we look like gluttons. the website uses the average, but they are skimpy on what the average comprises.

In other words, I think this website is insightful and instructive, but not definitional.

B