Garden of Eden FACT SHEET for the United States

1) A ¼ acre piece of land produces an average of about 7.3 pounds of food per day, for one person, for one year, with 47 common crops grown in the United States. (See Crop Yield Verification paper.)

2) According to Random House Dictionary, an acre of land is 43,560 square feet, so ¼ of an acre is ¼ of that, or 10,890 square feet. If a quarter-acre piece of land is square, it is about 105 feet long on each side of the square. If we double ¼ acre, we get ½ of an acre. This is 21,780 square feet. This allows ¼ acre for food and ¼ acre for a residence, recreation, etcetera.

3) As of the 2000 census, the population of the U.S. is about 281,000,000 people. If you gave everyone in the nation ½ of an acre of land per person, how much land would that be?

(281,000,000 people) X (½ acre land/person) = 140,500,000 acres.
4) There are 640 acres in one square mile. How many square miles is 140,500,000 acres?
140,500,000 acres ¸ 640 acres/square mile = 219,530 square miles
5) If 219,530 square miles was one, big, square piece of land, how long would one side of the square be?
answer: Ö 219,530 = 468.5 miles/ side of square
6) The United States is 3,794,083 square miles, in size. What percent of this land is 219,530 square miles?

219,530 square miles ¸ 3,794,083 square miles = 0.057

converting to percentage: 0.057 X 100 = (approximately) 5.7%
THAT MEANS THAT ALL AMERICANS COULD EAT ON LESS THAN 6% OF OUR LAND WITH THE GARDEN OF EDEN LIFESTYLE!!!

7) There were 937,000,000 acres of agricultural land in the U.S. in 2004. How many square miles is this?

937,000,000 acres ¸ 640 acres/sq. mi. = 1,464,062 square miles
8) What percentage of the total land area of the U.S. is 1,464,062 square miles?

1,464,062 square miles ¸ 3,794,083 square miles = .3858 = 38.58%
THIS MEANS THAT RIGHT NOW THE UNITED STATES USES ALMOST 7 TIMES AS MUCH LAND AS WE WOULD NEED TO LIVE IN A GARDEN OF EDEN LIFESTYLE!