Land per person with Forest Gardening

It was not the Scotland trial, it may be Denmark.

Thank you for the links, I will have a look if I can find the time. I am just very busy with my business at the moment but thank you for thinking of me.

Kind regards

Yes climate/planting decisions are going to make a big difference... One thing about food forestry is to remember the multiple benefits (i.e. CO2 sequestration, soil building, biodiversity and well being) alongside food security! ... Hope some of the links below were useful....

I don't know if you could also utilise this tool to work something out: https://www.ljt.bio/en/index.html

Introducing urban food forestry: a multifunctional approach to increase food security and provide ecosystem services Kyle H. Clark • Kimberly A. Nicholas

- show a case study of Burlington (Vermont), where in an ambitious planting scenario 108% of the entire populations daily recommended intake of fruit could be met - designing landscapes for multifunctionality can maximise contributions to ecosystem services

- urban agriculture can support in provisioning of nutrient dense food to counter dual crises of obesity and malnutrition. For this reason it's promoted as enhancing resiliences by WHO, FAO, EU and more

- Urban food forestry combines the benefits of urban street trees, of urban greening, and of urban agriculture; resulting in enhanced provision of ecosystem services for urban dwellers - decentralising fruit production will create a system more resilient to shocks, as city dwellers will no longer be reliant on far away sources for such nutrient dense food.

FAO Guidelines on urban and peri-urban forestry

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6210e.pdf

"Urban forests can also boost the productivity of urban and peri-urban agriculture by improving soil fertility and water infiltration, reducing wind speeds and ameliorating pollution and climatic extremes (i.e. agroforestry). Although UPF cannot – on its own – ensure food and nutrition security in cities, well planned, designed and managed urban forests can make valuable contributions to local food production and the provision of ecosystem services that benefit local agriculture."

"• An 80-square-metre urban backyard demonstration food forest in Melbourne, Australia, included more than 30 fruit trees, 16 types of berries, and over 70 types of medicinal herbs (Zainuddin, 2014).

• In Indonesia, homegardens can contribute 7–56 percent of the total income of owners (Soemarwoto, 1987).

• City Fruit harvested 12 700 kg of unused fruit from Seattle’s urban fruit trees in 2014 and donated 10 000 kg to 39 local groups, including food banks, schools and community organizations. The value of fruit donated to meal programmes and food banks is estimated at US$44 112 (City Fruit, undated).

• The value of shelterbelts in raising agricultural productivity has been demonstrated in many countries, suggesting potential improvements in crop yields (25 percent), pasture yields (20–30 percent) and dairy milk production (10–20 percent) (Tisdell, 1985)."

Sustainable food production in a temperate climate – a case study analysis of the nutritional yield in a peri-urban food forest Nytofte, Josefine Lærke Skrøder ; Henriksen, Christian Bugge Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, October 2019, Vol.45

In this study the actual food production potential of a 0.08 ha peri-urban food forest in Coldstream, Scotland is determined based on average annual yield records of the 99 species grown in the food forest from 2011–2017, coupled with information about energy and macronutrient content of these species obtained from nutritional databases, research articles and laboratory measurements.

In this study the annual food production potential of a 0.08 ha peri- urban food forest in Scotland was determined and scaled up to 1 ha. It was found that the food forest has the potential to produce 8913 kg/ha/ yr, 5,188,432kcal/ha/yr, 123,354g/ha/yr protein, 104,929g/ha/yr fat, 1,070,336 g/ha/yr carbohydrates, corresponding to the energy re- quirements of up to five males or six females, the carbohydrate re- quirements of up to 7 males or 9 females, the fat requirements of up to 4 males or 5 females, and the protein requirements of up to 3 males or 4 females.

Hi KR,

Sorry, I could not share anymore, land and production ratio's are not something I have dug too deeply into, due to all of the variables. I don't think there is much research, as this sort of work is often undertaken by institutions and usually has to be paid for and I get the impression that most institutions are not pioneers within food production, they tend to latch on at a later date once the terms like forest gardening have been established as a regular part of our vocabulary, (the term is now used within parts of DEFRA) therefore it comes down to people who make it their personal mission to do it. It would be useful to see more, but I accepted some time ago that every forest garden is unique to each individual's interpretation of the subject and what works for one forest garden and its owner may well not work for another. However, I do really feel that the forest garden movement is going in the right direction and that each and every community should aspire to have one.

Kind regards

Hi Simon, thank you for sharing that information. I will have a look at the site :) KR

Hello Hannah,

I think you have hit the nail on the head with the word variables, position of the site, species selection and diversity, preserving of harvest, and from which year you start measuring from on a long term project, as it won't happen in year one. You might look at Martin Crawford's web site he has various studies posted and informed me once of a site in Europe that he was awaiting a study, where a group of people had sustained themselves for 12 months and stated the hectares required.

Most people use a forest garden to supplement their regular food shop and as time progresses the amount will increase each year, and the food shop will reduce, again subject to the above variables plus the season too.

Kind regards