David Pimentel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

          The location is Eastern  Massachusetts.  The soils has an optimum 5% organic matter.  The forest is  mixture of white pine and red maple.  The pasture is planted to a mixture clover and timothy.  The four-person household has a two story home with a total of 1,000 square feet plus a cellar of 500 sq. ft..  The house will be oriented to make the best use of available sunlight.  There is barn of 1,000 sq. ft. next to the house.  There will be an outhouse constructed next to the barn.

            The heat for cooking and heating the home is wood.  The wood source is a mixture of white pine and red maple forest of 2 hectares that produces about 6 tons of wood per year.  The garden area is also 2 hectares and the pasture occupies 2 hectares.  Rainfall for this region averages a little over 100 mm per year.  Water for the home is provided from a well.  The family is 2 adults and 2 mid-aged children.

            One horse is maintained for tilling the soil and any transportation needs.

            Electrical power needs are provided by photovoltaics and windpower for the computers, lights, heat, and refrigeration and other appliances and other electrical needs.  A rooftop solar collector can heat water for at least half of the year an this water can be kept hot or heated when there is sufficient sunlight using  electrical heat.

            The adjustment of the world population from the current 7.3 billion to 2 billion could be achieved over a century, assuming that the majority of the people agree that protecting human health and welfare is vital, and are willing to work toward a stable quality of life for themselves and their children.  However, continued population growth to 15 billion as expected in 100 years if no attempts are  made to reduce the population to 15 billion a expected in 100 years is attempts are made to reduce the population will result in a dire situation with starvation and disease.  Thus, there is need to make this adjustment from 15 billion 2 billion for the world.  The World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural Organization are currently reporting a total of  about 4.5 billion is currently malnourished out of 7.3 billion people and most of the 4.5  number are dying of  malnourishment  each year.

            The foods grown on the 2 hectare garden area (see table 1) all have cultivars suited to the conditions in eastern Massachusetts and can be stored in the off-season in a root-cellar (beets, potatoes, cabbage) or can be harvested and stored like wheat and corn.  Certainly fruit trees such as apple, pear, cherry could be included as well as nut tree like hickory trees.

Table 1.  Basic foods grown on the land and consumed per day per individual.  Some of the foods, root crops, are stored over the winter months.

David Pimentel
June  1, 2013