How much food does one villager eat?
The community wiki's food article puts it at 24 food items per villager per year. So the quick rule is: multiply your population by 24 and that is your yearly food bill. 50 villagers eat 1,200 food, 150 villagers eat 3,600, 400 villagers (the Town Center tier 4 requirement) eat 9,600. Villagers eat their food in a random order, so you cannot make them eat the food that is about to spoil first. Food that rots is food you grew for nothing.
The wiki's farming article gives a useful stockpile rule on top of that: more than 9 months of food in storage is great, 6 to 9 is fine, under 6 means you should grow more, and under 3 is an emergency. With 150 villagers, 9 months is 3,600 x 9 / 12 = 2,700 food.
How many villagers one crop field feeds
A field's nominal harvest is the crop's output per tile times the number of tiles. On a full 12x12 field (144 tiles), one nominal harvest feeds this many villagers for a year:
| Crop | Output per tile | 12x12 harvest | Villagers fed | Fertility per planting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Leek | 17 | 2,448 | 102 | -6 |
 Wheat (as bread) | 16 | 2,304 | 96 | -8 |
 Cabbage | 14 | 2,016 | 84 | -4 |
 Rye (as bread) | 14 | 2,016 | 84 | -6 |
 Beans | 8 | 1,152 | 48 | +1 |
 Carrot | 8 | 1,152 | 48 | -3 |
 Peas | 6 | 864 | 36 | +1 |
 Buckwheat (as bread) | 6 | 864 | 36 | -1 |
 Turnip | 5 | 720 | 30 | -3 |
Those are nominal numbers. Good soil does better: a player who measured a perfect field (100% fertility, no weeds or rocks) harvested 3,208 wheat and 1,688 beans from 12x12, roughly 40% over nominal. Poor soil does worse. The field window shows the forecast for your field as a fraction (forecast over nominal), and the food calculator takes that percentage as an input.
Worked example: 150 villagers on beans and wheat
150 villagers eat 3,600 food. Say hunters, foragers and fishing cover a quarter, so fields must supply 2,700. A 12x12 field running beans, wheat, clover grows 1,152 beans in year one, 2,304 grain in year two and nothing in year three: 3,456 food over three years, or 1,152 a year on average. 2,700 / 1,152 = 2.3, so you need three such fields, staggered so each year has one in beans, one in wheat and one in clover. That rotation loses 4 fertility per cycle on perfect land (+1, -8, +3), so plan a compost load every few cycles.
Bread: the chain behind wheat and rye
Villagers do not eat raw grain. It has to go through a Windmill (10 grain to 10 flour) and a Bakery (10 flour, 2 water and 1 firewood to 10 bread). The good news is that the conversion is one to one, so 2,304 wheat really is 2,304 bread. The catch is that the Windmill needs Town Center tier 2, a Saw Pit and 1 Heavy Tool to build, and the Bakery also needs tier 2.
Grain keeps 24 months in storage while bread keeps 6 (Vanquisher values; Pioneer is 2.5 times longer). Store the grain in a Granary, which doubles lifetime, and let the Bakery work through it during the year. The production chain lookup shows the bakery and windmill cycles for any amount.
The catch: rotations, soil and spoilage
The table makes leeks and wheat look like the only answer. Three things stop that from working.
Fertility. Leeks take 6 fertility points off the field every planting and wheat takes 8. Wheat also depends on fertility more than any other crop, so a tired field hurts it most. You get points back with clover (+3), peas and beans (+1 each) and compost (+6 per load), but those gains are cut by the field's Environment Fertility Factor. On poor land you cannot rebuild fertility as fast as wheat burns it. The crop rotation guide covers this in detail.
Spoilage. On Vanquisher, greens and bread last 6 months, beans and root vegetables 12, grain 24. A huge leek or cabbage harvest in late summer has to be eaten before spring. The spoilage guide lists every food and what storage does to it.
Disease and weather. Beans and buckwheat lose 80% to frost, peas lose 75% to heat stress, carrots lose 80% to drought. Crop diseases build up in fields that repeat the same crops and spread to nearby fields growing them, so ten wheat fields side by side is a risk. Wheat Rust, for one, can spread 300 meters and cost 90% of the crop at full strength.
Food that does not come from fields
A player measured up to 384 meat a year from one hunter (16 villagers), 168 food from one forager shack (7 villagers), and 1,919 meat and milk from a full large barn of 20 cows (about 80 villagers). Those are best cases. Meat and fish keep only 3 months, so a hunter or fishing shack needs a Smokehouse next to it: 15 meat and 1 firewood make 15 smoked meat that keeps 24 months.
Food variety matters too. Houses upgrade only when villagers have enough food types (the Homestead needs 2, the Large House and Manor need 3), and the game counts categories, not crops: greens, roots and beans are all one vegetable category. A village living on beans, leeks and turnips still has one food type.
Food questions
How much food per villager in Farthest Frontier?
24 food items per villager per year, from the wiki's "Food, by the numbers" article. Multiply your population by 24 for the yearly total.
Which crop feeds the most villagers?
Per tile, leeks (17) and wheat (16). On a 12x12 field one nominal harvest of leeks feeds about 102 villagers for a year and wheat about 96, but both drain fertility fast and leeks spoil in 6 months on Vanquisher.
How many crop fields do I need?
Divide the food the fields must supply by the average yearly output of one field over its rotation. With beans, wheat and clover on 12x12, that average is 1,152 a year at nominal yield, so 100 villagers fed entirely from fields (2,400 food) need about 2.1 fields, which in practice means 3. The food calculator does this for any rotation.
Is bread worth it?
Yes once you have the Windmill. Grain to flour to bread is one to one, grain keeps 24 months, and wheat grows twice as much food per tile as beans. The cost is a Heavy Tool for the Windmill and 1 firewood per 10 bread.
Why does my food run out faster than the math says?
Spoilage. Villagers eat in random order instead of eating the food that spoils first, so fresh meat, fish, bread and greens rot while the beans and grain get eaten. The Settlement Items window has a food spoilage bar; if it is high, smoke the meat, store grain instead of bread and grow fewer greens.