Trophically balanced sustainable agriculture

► We theoretically demonstrate a successfully designed farm can produce a positive energy-return-on-energy-investment (EROI). ► Similar to the ecosystem, we show that actual energy budgets of sustainable agroecological farming operations are tight. ► We show that growing a nutritionally balanced diet is possible within a positive EROI sustainable farm operation. ► We reveal extreme asymptotes of sustainable farming EROI performance beyond which indicate regions of system failure.