How much land does a good life require?

Sherman promised 40 acres and a mule. We won't go into partisanship and failed promises here,

G. K. Chesterton said three acres and a cow and you'd be good.

The Melchiores say you can do it with a quarter of an acre in your backyard. That seems kind of tight to me, but it can be done because people have done it.

My question to you all is... Where's the sweet spot? And yes, I realize "a good life" can be interpreted broadly but I'm talking permaculture, homesteading, regenerative gardening and/or agriculture. I'm talking everything in the deck of permaculture playing cards.

I'm doing fine here at Willow Acre except for the poop part. My son has chickens and they're fertilizing the barren dirt at his new house. Building a foundation. I could have chooks if I wanted them because of a new city ordinance overturning decades of "no chickens inside the city limit. We get all the eggs we can eat from the boy and his wife's birds. But my wife has recently been oohing and ahhing over baby goats of all things. The city isn't going to allow that.

If it were plausible, I would take Chesterton's three acres and goats instead of a cow, thank you very much. I'm too old for 40, and already have more than a quarter acre. The only question for me is...could those other two acres be a shared venture not too far out into the county where several families work together on a sort of internal community supported agriculture venture? Close enough for me to ride my bicycle out there, with or without cargo? Such ventures require a lot of trust in others showing up consistently and doing their part and things like that periodically go wrong. But they always do and that isn't an excuse not to do a thing. You just temper the idealism with realism and keep showing up.

What do you think? Forty? Three? One-quarter?

Jim

I see many variables.  I suspect, as you hint at, this is hugely a matter of individual preference. I am sure location is a major issue as well. At one time I figured that in the Midwest I would want 20 acres if I was going to raise livestock with the goal of self-sufficiency. I have never owned 20 acres … nor I have I been self sufficient.  

Of course, your question is about the good life. For many, including myself, it is different than being self sufficient.  I do like having 11 acres.  It is not to raise food on….but it is to provide a buffer between my neighbors and me.   So for me, 10 acres is critical for my personal satisfaction.  It also contains a large pond that  the Wood Ducks seem to appreciate, as do the Herons and migrating geese. This has nothing to do with self-sufficiency but much to do with the good life.  

As I age, I am moving more toward container gardening near my back deck that I appreciate.  I am also experimenting with Paul’s food pump concept.  I still have a large garden, but I plant crops that need less attention there. It is nice to have those vegetables, but I doubt if I need them for  the good life. I recently opened up a jar of 2016 tomatoes from my basement.  I know I posted on Permies that I have at least a years supply of food in the house.  I suspect I it goes well beyond that.

A good life is what you make of it.

You can live in an apartment and have a good life.

I have usually lived in places that I like and had a good life.  I could live in places I didn't like and still have a good life.

What does a good life mean to you?

Like the dwarves in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, I've dug too greedily and too deep , but when it comes to writing, not mining. I was referring more specifically to a particular strain of philosophical thought which answers occupy a certain range...that the good life one lived in a community that values and defends human flourishing. Whew... ok. And as it relates to land, how much is ideal? For me, community translates more toward communication with something bigger than myself, with others around me, and with the natural environment. I want all three.

Your replies are excellent. Philosophy, even from a stoic like Marcus Aurelius, has a lot more to say about quality over quantity. Some argue that life outside the city, and they weren't speaking of modern multi-million population centers, rather the size of a city-state. Where the fine arts can develop, etc. So one answer is that it takes zero land to lead a good life. You used to be able to do that because the country came to your marketplace every day, and there was no concrete and no cars zipping up and down it.

But the city can't exist without the country, the farms and trades and (homesteading) that makes life there in the city possible.

With this post, I'm not suggesting there is one right answer. There are many. I just wanted to see what they were.

If I optimize Willow Acre for production instead of beauty and diversity, I could feed my family and part of my community. But that would defeat my current purpose. I'm experimenting with inputs to see what the results are and how they work together or at loggerheads, adjusting, and moving on.

Jim

Jim Garlits wrote: With this post, I'm not suggesting there is one right answer. There are many. I just wanted to see what they were.

Many, many right answers!

It used to be that as farmers aged, they had offspring that would move in and allow their parents to gradually retire. Sometimes, the youngest girl stayed home and looked after the parents and then what? Stayed until she was forced to sell as she too was too old to manage and hope to get to keep enough of the money to pay room and board in the closest town?

So part of the "right answer" is recognizing that the right answer may change over time. Having a permaculture attitude and lots of land that can be allowed to revert to "Zone 5", works so long is it doesn't become a danger. But are you prepared to build your perfect spot in the country, only to have to give it up when health becomes an issue? An acquaintance had a homestead on one of the Gulf Islands and a husband who was 12 years older than her. He was ready to retire, so they found a place on 'the big Island' and as much as she wasn't quite as ready as he was, she recognized the need. Now some of her old neighbors realize they left it too late. They can't face the work involved in moving and lack the supports they need to stay where they are. She moved early enough that she's got a strong new friend base, and is near medical care and services that help her stay healthy and helped her husband pass safely when his time came.

I have been totally amazed at what some permies have done with less than an acre of land. They may not be self-sufficient, but they can definitely provide quality nutrition for themselves and their immediate families.  I also think that if I set my priorities, I could have a "good life" on far less land than I might like to have, so long as I set priorities and think outside the box if needed.

For me, I like 10 acres.  One acre of intense human use space and 9 acres of intense wild space (permaculture zone 5, if you will).  I feel like I need the nature space almost as much as nature needs it!  I do forage in the nature space, harvest a tiny fraction of wood and reintroduce native species into my nature space, so it's not total hands off, but the wildlife is also most certainly not hands off on my 1 acre

I have spent my life attempting to answer this question for myself.  I love everyone's answers thus far, and agree that it all depends on need, ability and support team, as well as the overlying goal, in my opinion.  My overlying goal is survival in any circumstance, to the best of my ability.  I was spurred into gardening on a small Santa Cruz, CA lot in the late 1980's when my housemates and I needed "free" food to supplement our weekly fishing catch. We all worked full time jobs but made only enough to pay for our rent and vehicles and school debt so I gardened, as taught by my parents. On weekends we would trade coolers full of fish to the local sushi restaurant for an amazing meal.  Then the Loma Prieta quake occurred and I became a 'prepper' at that point, as we were without utilities for quite a while, but sustained very well on the garden and daily fishing. Our house was an end-to-end 2 car garage on a tiny lot, but we gardened the 12 ft x 12 ft back yard. Three adults and a dog survived well.  From there the recession moved me to Wyoming which is a different type of survival but I have lived on 15 different types and sizes of properties since I arrived in 1991.  At one point I was married with one child and rented a house with 700 acres. That was too much. Hundreds of deer poachers and way too much fence to maintain. I could never afford the property taxes on a huge lot that I don't use, even as a buffer.  Eventually, we had two kids on 5 sloping acres.  Then I became single with one child and I've scaled down further and without horses and hogs anymore, I have managed to have 2 large polytunnel greenhouses, an orchard and many chickens on land that totals 0.42 acres with a 1600 sf house and many outbuildings. I can afford the property tax for now.  I received a 50% discount because I live here full time, etc.   I do not have close neighbors but nearby homes are starting to be replaced with 4-plexes.  I absolutely hate the sound of traffic and it is very loud around my area, but if i get up early enough, the birds serenade the morning around 4:20am and I enjoy it before heading to my job.  This works for me and I am 63 years old now with my son as my housemate, and although he doesn't drive, he is pretty helpful as a team member to continue our life of growing what we eat, and buying or hunting local meat.  Until we are annexed into the city limits, I can feasibly raise more animals if needed but now I have lots of local contacts with meat and dairy animals, and I'm an okay hunter and fisherwoman.  If I ever have the means to retire, I will hone more skills beyond herbalism and food growing and preservation. For now I am aging in place and focused on creating simple systems to make everything safe and easy to maintain, with manageable property taxes.  

If you are planning on a family compound, you will need as much land as the government allows for homesites.  And remember to prepare for property taxes, water and power availability, access and maintenance. What are you willing to do for the rest of your life?  I'm getting less and less interested in some tasks and giving away my money.  Best of luck!!

Really depends on your wants and needs.  Personally I would say at least 5 acres.

Just a little more... :)

I think 10 acres would be a good amount. 1 acre for the house, outbuildings, kids playground, berry bushes and flowers. 1 acre for a large garden. 2x half-acre ponds for water and wildlife. 4 acres for a couple cows or sheep or something... and leave 3 or so acres for woods for firewood and wildlife habitat. I think that would be a good life.

But... I like to dream big, and I would love the chance to use 100 acres to increase the life across that acreage. Beneficial for humans and animals alike.

The OP  had my mind in gear, moving towards an answer in tune with Nature.   Human Nature, as experienced by my friend and companion Leo Tolstoy.
He can help with this complex  life balance.  
After reading all his work, I remain awed by the man and his life.  Especially his lesser known short stories.  Born wealthy while serfs were often starving, he changed his life focus, to humble work on poor farms and giving away almost every ruble he possessed.  One short is indelibly seared into my soul, please take a minute to see why I was deeply moved....

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
(1886):
A famous parable about the balanc of life

Goodness, I need more apples!

Jim

How much land does a person need?
Well a person doesn't need much, even a small family. On a couple of acres you could probably provide most of your food. If you live in a colder climate and need to burn wood for heat probably 10 acres maybe 20 for wood and a little scenery.
Needs and wants are two different things, and wanting land sounds a little possessive to me.
This is my two cents worth:
Acquire as much land as you can afford, you can develop the small part you  NEED and then become the steward of all of the rest, you can keep it from being developed, clear cut and otherwise abused.
You can possess a thousand acres and it's no problem because you don't have to do anything with it the land will take care of itself.
If a person who is concerned about the land owns title to it that person can then protect the land .
And in my opinion protecting the land is the ultimate responsibility of those who can.

How much land does a person need?
The parable.

From personal expierence, in the climates I've lived in, I like about 2 to 3 ha (5+ acres) for a family - and really good neighbours.  

That's enough for some livestock, a woodlot, orchard, and a few gardens.  Not so much that it's going to take every waking hour to care for.  

To grow everything we need to survive, 50ha would be about right (150 acres), or we could cultivate a local community so that people who are good at making one thing, make an excess, and people who are good at growing another thing, grow excess.  It's shared amongst the community.  

Greatly depends on the climate, the labor willing to work it, the equipment you are willing to buy/maintain, and the inputs you are willing to import.

I’ve got just shy of 6.  Plenty enough to keep me busy.  We might grow 25-40% of our food for 4.  I used to think I might buy  a few acres from the neighbors but those days are over.  Right now I am trying to figure out how to keep things running when the kids move out.

I like to think about what one person can maintain with minimal equipment and inputs.  Ball parking, maybe 1/2 an acre of garden, maybe 2-3 acres of orchard, and maybe 100+ of pasture.

Rich Rayburn wrote: You can possess a thousand acres and it's no problem because you don't have to do anything with it the land will take care of itself.
If a person who is concerned about the land owns title to it that person can then protect the land .
And in my opinion protecting the land is the ultimate responsibility of those who can.

In the Province of British Columbia, we have very limited arable land (our mountains are very pointy and prolific). Wealthy people have been buying up huge swaths of farmland inflating the price and crowding out genuine farmers. This is not helping food security one bit.

There is a fair bit of archeological evidence that a great deal of our land was being "managed" with largely sustainable methods by indigenous groups. If it was all "old growth forest", variety of both plants and animals would have been reduced. The Indigenous practiced controlled burning of small areas. This was certainly a better practice than all the 'tree farms' that have been planted in the last 40 years or more. Mother Nature and all her creatures don't respond well to mono-cultures.

Some people will buy land because they believe they can be good stewards of it. Some people seem do it just to make money or to prove that they can. Some of the latter group realize what they've done and are awakened by some event and realize they need to work really hard at figuring out how to join the 'good stewards' group. I have read case studies of USA ranchers who have genuinely learned to appreciate beavers and now recognize that what they'd been told about keeping their herd in tight groups and on the move really does rehabilitate the land, and coupled with beavers, helps to keep water on the land and shorten droughts. I just hope it isn't too little, too late.

Jay Angler wrote:
In the Province of British Columbia, we have very limited arable land (our mountains are very pointy and prolific). Wealthy people have been buying up huge swaths of farmland inflating the price and crowding out genuine farmers. .

Jay, the problem you describe has also happened in the United States in a lot of the mountainous areas or areas with high scenic value.
It's hard to tell what these corporations are planning with their land purchases and I see that some of them are actually developing the properties.
I also noticed that in Quebec they have land use laws that prohibit out of province ownership of certain types of land especially agricultural.
        Being that the original posting was how much land does the good life require I would again say buy as much as you can afford thereby having the ability to protect as much as possible. And the folks that we are talking about buying the land would be homesteaders and hopefully they would have only good land stewardship policies in mind.

In Normandy around 2015, around four acres were enough to comfortably feed a family of 4 at the 'Ferme du Bec Hellouin', as was studied by the French farming research agency (INRA).

From there i would say it depends.

I am sure they had lots of birds to listen to, but if you prefer the song of a high desert under the morning mist or the murmur of wind through elder cedar trees, you will need much more, and your harvests will differ.

Have a nice evening,

First Post!!

Hello Permies! It's great to find you here!

I happen to currently be investing in my own definition of what I consider to be a solid foundation for the good life. I am now under contract for a 4 acre spot with a running creek at the back of it that is very close to where I currently live in zone 8a, and we should be closing on it early next month. Right now my fiancé and I are living with my mother, and have been taking care of her for the last several years. I have been raised bed gardening in 2 rows of planter boxes, and maintaining a small orchard of pear and peach trees, as well as a few species of blueberries for quite a few seasons now. I have been letting a lot of vegetable plants go to seed, and collecting a pretty massive trove. We do not plan to move there for quite a few years, but I plan to begin what work I can to improve upon it as soon as we close on it. Many of my fruit and nut trees are now dotted with air-layer pods, and my pails and buckets are all full of cuttings.

I also have 1 duck of unknown species that was left at my house where I live on a very large (and overcrowded) recreational lake. There were 2 ducks originally, but we are pretty sure his sister was taken by some visitors to our neighbors (she was the more social of the 2, and more likely to talk to strangers). The male (Quackers) comes to my beach every morning and again in the evening when I get home. We chill there on the beach for a while as I feed him duck feed. He will be coming with me, assuming he is still coming around when it is time to make the move.

I have been watching lots of videos, and have read (and listened to) quite a few permaculture books. I think the lifestyle is the logical next step for me and my little family. I plan to start participating in conversations here, asking questions, and sharing my experiences as I roll up my sleeves to contribute a little bit back to this planet that has given so much to me and mine.

Thank you all for having me! We'll chat soon.

-Tony T

I agree, the good life can be many things according to the person and place and time, individually or in combination. I know it's been different for me quite a few times.

When I lived offgrid in a remote place in the late 80's that got less than 11 inches of rain a year on 20 acres, that was more than enough. We didn't grow all our own food there--we were working toward it, and did grow, wildcraft, and/or harvest almost all of what we ate at times. It was a good life.

It had a big hill and a ravine with a part-year stream that separated it into roughly 2 parts. We lived on and used one part, and the other was our hiking and nature area. There were pines and oak that we harvested nuts from, and various native plants. We planted a few fruit trees and had a garden where we learned to garden along with many books that are classics now by Mollison, Ruth Stout, Masonoba Fukioka, Rodale Press, Jeavons, etc.

We made our own composting toilet. We did not have a well and we were far, far from any kind of city water. We bathed in solar heated 50 gallon water barrels, or by putting water in 5 gallon bottles in front of a partially unrolled roll of aluminum flashing to heat it and then putting a cork in the top that we'd put a low flow showerhead through before turning it upside down on top of the shower area we made. We hauled water from a nearby spring in those 5 gallon bottles placed in a wooden box so that we could carry 4 on a dolly as we walked to the spring and back.

Eventually we set up running water into our pole cabin by running an ag water line (usually used for mainline with drip irrigation) from the spring's overflow to a 50 gallon water barrel on top of our cabin (which was still low enough in relation to the spring to gravity feed there). That would gravity feed the water into the kitchen sink, and the grey water from that went to the garden, as did the grey water from our baths (as we didn't use soaps, etc.) where there was a sediment filter before it went into the garden. The garden water was gravity fed too.

We had no electricity for a year or two, and at some point got a single solar panel to run a light for at night and a little radio in the daytime. Later on it also ran our swamp cooler fed by that barrel on the roof. It helped keep the edge off when it was over 100 or 110 for a few weeks in the summers. We had string hammocks mounted between the poles in our cabin for sleeping at night, which we could unhook one end and hook it to the other in the day for space. The hammocks kept us cool from the air underneath and made for some great sleeping. I used evaporative cooling to keep veggies from the store good (we had no refrigeration) by wrapping them in old cotton money bags and wetting them from time to time.

In a city 2 hrs away we salvaged some 4" thick insulated metal panels that were discarded apparently from a walk-in refrigerator. We dug a hole for them and made a kiva style root cellar with them. It worked well! We also got a treadle sewing machine that I used to sew quilts and clothes for us--loved that! I have one now too.  We had a wood stove for heat that I would cook on when it was in use. We used a solar oven for cooking a lot of the time, and had propane as needed. I still cook with a solar oven daily, but it's changed over the years. The nearest phone was 15 miles or more away, and cell phones were rare bricks like sat phones, etc. and it wasn't an issue.

There were some organic seed farmers who lived nearby (a couple miles away) that had a kid who we'd watch when they needed to go to their farmland in the valley (which was many more miles away). They were part of the handful of people who lived in our the 2,000 acres area our 20 acre place sat. They'd give us seeds, knowledge, and access to acres and acres of crops at times the crops weren't going to be harvested.

For instance, they were growing melons for seed, but did not have buyers for the melons themselves, so we could get all the melons we wanted. There were quite a few organic farms in that valley and there were times that they had planted the wrong kind of seed for the accounts they were growing for, (like yellow tomatoes instead of red ones), so our friends would tell us about it and get permission for us to go and harvest all we wanted. We already had wooden racks to sun dry things which we also used as shade for our veggies, so were able to sun dry I don't know how many pounds of tomatoes and used them regularly for over a year.

The life there changed when someone moved in right next door as close to our property line as possible, and was, well, hard to live by... dangerous, actually. So, we ended up leaving there with plans to go to the tropics.

We had a good life in the tropics as well... took many years to get to the point where we could get property there, and we did organic gardening and permaculture along the way as much as possible. Sometimes that was full time setting up systems at other people's places, sometimes it was doing market gardens on other people's properties, sometimes it was part time in our yard. After almost 2 decades we did finally get some property, a bit over an acre and a half, and that was plenty.

We grew all of my food there as well as cotton that I spun and made into clothing. We grew enough to feed the rest of our family (and more), but they liked to eat other things too. We set up a water line that was covered by a screen sock (to prevent fish from getting sucked up) which gravity fed from a spring-fed pond above the property into a pond we made out of an above ground pool that had fish and water plants, etc. Sediment filters brought water from that pond to a pump which pumped up to a water tank at the top of the property. Then everything that needed water was watered gravity fed from that and included all those nutrients as well.

We had a separate line from the spring that went into where we used gravel, sand, schmutzdecke, etc. and all to make it clean for drinking. The main things that needed water were salad greens, seeds and seedlings, and anything in the high tunnel we got after a few years. There was enough rain that trees and many other plants were fine without once they were established. Some things you could just stick a cutting in the ground and it was good.

We planted as many varieties and types of fruit and nuts as we could find, and filled up over an acre of it. We did a combo of organic gardening, permaculture, companion planting, agroforestry, and other types of polyculture. It worked well and we sold things that produced faster than the trees we planted (mostly from seed), like salad greens, tomatoes, herbs, and other veggies, bananas, papayas, pineapple, etc. and anything we didn't eat from the other trees as they matured enough to produce. We sold trees we'd grown from seed that we didn't plant ourselves. We didn't have the money to build a house yet, but we were saving up for it. We had a place about an hour away where we lived with our kids when we weren't camping at the property or at the farmers markets, etc. This land was all 12' tall grass, unfenced, unimproved when we started. We poured all our heart, soul, and resources into it as it was where we planned for our forever place, and it was what we'd been planning and working toward for decades. It responded in kind with abundance.

Several years after we started, there was an assessment on the land which we couldn't afford with the income we had, so we had to be away more to work for that money. When we were away for about 10 days we were robbed-big time. What they didn't take they vandalized so much that it wasn't usable anymore. They even ruined many of our trees. Our composting toilet, solar panels, water pump and its little pump shed, tractor, tools, building supplies we'd been gradually gathering, even the gates from off our fence. We had security cameras, but they stole them too, and they were the type that store the images in the camera because there was no internet available. The property was in a subdivision that had a locked gate, and we had a locked gate on our place, and the pump house was locked, and the pump was chained and locked to a T-post driven in the ground... So it was totally devastating to discover and we weren't able to recover from that, so ended up having to leave what was going to be our forever place. We felt aimless for many years, and became nomads full-timing it in a small RV traveling the US.

Full-timing it in the RV was interesting and a good life in its own way, but not what feeds our souls. We are permies by nature, and the little bit of gardening we were able to do on the road and/or at places we stopped, just wasn't cutting it for us. During the lockdowns we got stuck at a nice place in Washington were we set up a large garden and grew a lot of our own food, but it was too cold, wet, and cloudy for us. So once that was over we went in search of a place to settle. We fell in love with the desert and found a place there.

I believe we've lost the faith in being able to have a forever place forever... as things change, but we're feeling like we'd like this place to be our forever place if that works. It has been quite challenging at times, but it's also been the good life overall. It's 40 acres, and we're not using all of it, but there is a well, septic, and it's not off-grid for electricity (yet). We can see for miles and miles, loving the big sky, privacy, and nature--there are so many kinds of critters. There's a house too, so it's a little different than the other situations in our past. We're older now too, and the environment is even more extreme than anywhere we've lived (other than places we dry 'camped' with the little RV), so the house and well helps.

We've tried quite a few homestead and permie things here too, with mixed results. Tumbleweeds have turned into quite a benefit for us in the compost pile and as a mulch. I've got a lot of plans for the next monsoon plantings too. I have been able to grow 95% of my own food here at times, but recently we had some trouble with our well and were not able to use it for several months so there were some losses as a result.

Amazingly, there were some things that kept on that we wouldn't have expected yet. We have been working on setting up things to be able to be on their own more, but we weren't 'there' yet for them.. yet they are continuing anyway. Here are some examples. We still have most of the trees we planted, and those that were here before us, same with the grapes and cactus. The chard, carrots, green onions, and celery are still going strong, as well as some of the parsley and all of the oregano. I expected the rosemary and thyme to survive, but they didn't.

Of course, the mesquite, various oputina, cholla, London rocket, wild amaranth, etc. are still doing their thing like usual as they don't depend on us watering them. I'm hoping that the maturation of the mesquite beans will coincide with a dry spell long enough so that we can harvest before they get the dangerous mold, as that hasn't worked out the last couple of years and I really want to eat them. I have yet to learn how to prepare nopales for eating, as I had been shy of the glochids... the larger spines, no biggie, it's those little guys that make me insecure about whether I'm able to remove them all. I remember a terrific trip deep into Baja Mexico in college where I ate some of the best nopales I've ever had... I'm going to get over my fear of glochids and start using the oputina more this year.

I think the amount of land you need for the good life depends on how many people you are feeding, what kind of animals you’ll be raising, whether you want to grow all your own hay and other animal feed, and whether you will want to keep a male of the species around.

Where I live, if you’re making all your own hay:
• You need around 5 acres per cow/calf pair, and then you’d want to keep quite a few cows to justify keeping a bull.

• For goats and sheep here, around 2 sheep/lamb or goat/kid pairs per acre seems about right. So to justify keeping a ram or buck, you’d probably want at least 3 acres.

In cooler or drier climates than mine you’ll probably need more land than that.

Without hay, you can keep double the amount of animals, but there are bad hay seasons, and relying on overpriced hay can be stressful.

For 3 acres and a cow, whatever calf the cow has would have to be butchered early, or you might have to buy in hay. 3 acres and goats could work.

Without hay, you can keep double the amount of animals, but there are bad hay seasons, and relying on overpriced hay can be stressful.

For any community venture, I think you’d need the right people, and it’s hard to know who the right people are until they’re put to the test. With dairy animals, some people might not understand how to fully strip the milk out (or might not think it’s important), which could lead to mastitis. Or that some people are good at picking up when something is wrong with the health of an animal and others aren’t. Different people have different priorities and different enthusiasm for things at different times and when animals are involved it’s important to know that they’ll be cared for at all times.

Also something to consider is what degree of self sufficiency you want to have, and what you personally find important to produce.

You can have a good life growing extra of the things that grow well for you and then using the barter/cash from that to buy in stuff that you don’t enjoy growing, then that can be a good part of a community food system, provided that there is a variety of stuff being produced in your local area and it’s not just 100 people growing excess bunches of kale to sell to other people with excess bunches of kale.

I have a good life.
I'm on about a tenth of an acre. It's more than I can optimally manage.
It's all the exercise I need besides walking.
It's far from supplying all my food, but it's often more of particular foods than I can use. And I don't think I could supply all my food regardless of garden size.
It's a constant education and an opportunity for research and an ongoing art project.
It's an oasis of beauty that I am happy to return to whenever I go away.
It keeps me attuned to the local weather and flora and fauna and the wheel of the year.
It would be harder for me to be happy with less, but I would probably be overwhelmed by much more.

I currently live on 3 acres. It is not enough for the livestock you would need to be self sufficient unless your diet is limited and your animals without the company they may need.
For me 5 to 10 acres as I think of also needing firewood (10 acres). I would love to buy the land behind my current home to turn into pasture for animals. 3 acres allows space for annual and perennial gardens that may in time feed me. Currently only ducks and chickens as layers. Would enjoy sheep but cant imagine where they could live legally. Home is a bit too close to everything. I fear to be a suburb within the next 10 years. Buy far enough into the country and 5 to 10 acres and you could have enough for your hearts desire if you properly plan it out. Moved from a city lot, heaven at the beginning. Now I want more land.

The amount of "arable" land per person has gone down to 0.17ha (WB 2023) or 0.42ac; "agricultural" depends much more on definition, variously including extensive grasing &/ or forestry.  Years ago with more promising data I was looking for 9-27ac.  

Duhon & Jeavons have shown complete nutrition from 1500sf/ 140m² pp under ideal, year-round, Bio-intensive conditions.  Factor in other basic needs+, any income, climate variability, weather events, production uncertainty, harvest losses, forest resources, foraging, contingencies, emergencies, etc, for your own circumstances & localit-y/ -ies.  

It's taken several decades, now we own two different inner-urban drylands homesteads under full production each with the absolute minimum (though opposite grow seasons), & have usufructus rights in several high desert orchards + two different climate low-00ac remote forestry parcels.  

I am ever more concerned, somewhat less for us but very much for others.  I continue to search for & initiate efforts towards cooperative subsistence.  

Patrik Schumann wrote: I am ever more concerned, somewhat less for us but very much for others.

Patrik, could you expand on what's your concerns are for others?.
Thanks.

Ever less land, more demand, higher prices, poorer condition, more work, less stability, higher risk, & that's if things don't go really bad.  The extinction crisis includes horticultural varieties, traditional/ historical/ heirloom cultivars, local land races; I started my work on that long before I had any land to call my own & I'm still collecting, learning, losing.  Self-sufficiency in biomass & nutrient cycling + water availability are additional constraints which took years to decades to secure, & the latter is diminishing for us again.

Patrik Schumann wrote:Ever less land, more demand, higher prices, poorer condition, more work, less stability, higher risk, & that's if things don't go really bad.  The extinction crisis includes horticultural varieties, traditional/ historical/ heirloom cultivars, local land races; I started my work on that long before I had any land to call my own & I'm still collecting, learning, losing.  Self-sufficiency in biomass & nutrient cycling + water availability are additional constraints which took years to decades to secure, & the latter is diminishing for us again.

There's a saying, "The key to our future lies in our past"
People have been living simply, without technology or electricity since there have been humans. I don't believe that over analyzing a situation or adding high technology leads to a better solution, you could probably ask any peasant farmer from the Middle ages. Those people provided almost everything they needed including clothing for themselves.
Now that most of the worlds population is stacked up in large cities there is quite a bit of land available for those ambitious enough and resourceful enough.
In several Midwest states you can pick up land for one or $2,000 an acre, and that land may have heavy woods, some arable ground and even one or more water sources.
What most people lack is the information and the self-confidence to proceed. Personally for information and some self-confidence I would recommend Books over the internet, the internet often has too much information, and there is another old saying" Too many choices is like having no choices at all"
If you're trying to live in the California Central valley you might have a problem or if you want to try and live in the Rocky mountains, much of that major agricultural and "scenic" land is being brought up and in high demand and very expensive.
However in the state I live in a person can pick up 40 acres of land with a shallow water table and probably some swamp, but also plenty of woods and patches of high ground for building and gardening purposes.
All you have to do is a little research and I think you'll find that self-sufficiency or close to it is quite attainable for many people well into the future.

How long is a piece of string? As noted above, there is no simple answer to the OP's question.

My answer is something along these lines: when you hit a sort of equilibrium, where the land is able to give you what you need -- and you are able to give the land what it needs. Ideally, there is a sense of partnership. If there is an imbalance, where the land overwhelmingly owns you, a change of method is needed.

(I know, I know, this never quite works in practice. But I think the philosophy is sound.)

That's all right, much depends on one's principles, objectives, resources, path.  

I myself have over several decades been working up seasonal migrations I can pull off & my wife can manage far into old age, we & our young teen can subsist on any place therein indefinitely, a setup that carries itself & us financially at basic needs+ level, that offers choices & options no matter what comes at any level, that all have mutually supportive communities.  

We can't do it all ourselves so we have thrown in for several components with others.  The carrying costs at one three-decade homestead can be paid by a single housemate, at the other one-decade old by a built-out rental unit, both of those have full subsistence horticultural food production.  A half-dozen usufructus orchards with my rare fruit/ nut/ berry collections on their land for ½ & ½ cuttings & harvests.  The taxes at one forest by ten cords of fuelwood, also with another, the usufructus/ collective subsistence forestry & horticulture with semi-permanent camps & indefinite stay in emergency.  

No need to pull up & start over away from family, friends, places going back to childhood.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: when you hit a sort of equilibrium, where the land is able to give you what you need -- and you are able to give the land what it needs. Ideally, there is a sense of partnership.

Beautifully written Douglas,
If the human species had followed that philosophy we might be living in Paradise! 🌴

Is land a requirement for a good life?

The first video is from Vanderbilt University!  What is "the good life"!

The second video is a crash course from Crash Course Philosophy. Want to take a crash course?

There are many lives that are good without access to private land. There are many aspects of permaculture that are not gardening-based. There are even ways to access land that are not ownership based.
Community garden plots - even better, organizing and helping in community gardens. Community gardens don't only grow vegetables, they grow outreach. People engage with the people they see working, and learn what is happening and what is possible.
Care for people - volunteering in libraries, schools, school gardens, senior homes, your own extended family or neighborhood. For some people, even politics. Working on local water quality or land use issues. Learning how to work collectively for goals that are larger than personal.
Gardening on waste land - the parking strip, vacant lots. We have a couple of parks that used to be garbage dumps and are pretty barren. I occasionally go put local acorns and fruit seeds in the ground there. Do any come up? Who knows. Do the ground squirrels eat them all? Maybe. I still find it worthwile. Despite our teminology, nothing is permanent. A tree that lives for five years rather than fifty is still a net benefit.
Education. Both in schools and elsewhere. I'm a docent at the local native plant garden. Lead nature hikes and foraging outings in the city and in parks. The more people know about our natural world, the more they care about the Earth.
Production. We don't have to grow the produce to participate in the production of our sustenance. Brewing, fermentation, fiber arts, cooking, woodworking, natural building, repairs of all sorts, clean transportation; as you can see by the forums these are all part of permaculture and all are important to how we live well.