growing beans

[redcannon]

in an attempt to live outside of capitalism in some way, i was thinking about growing beans in my backyard.
(kidney beans)
i just have a few questions:
How many plants would i need to grow in order to keep up a consumption of 1 cup of beans a day?
What are good growing seasons for beans?
any pests i should look out for? any organic way of getting rid of them?
(i live in southern california btw)
Should I try growing corn as well? I have about half an acre of arable land


any other advice would be appreciated

[OkaCrisis]

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1212/cornbeanssquashvl2.jpg

DIY: http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/...2/mar02-pg1.htm (http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/March02/mar02-pg1.htm)


Successful intercropping system of maize, beans and squash is seen primarily in the tropics where a high percentage of agricultural production is still grown in polyculture mixtures. As many farmers are unable to afford inputs, they have adapted low input, high yield strategies such as corn-bean-squash intercropping. The results of a series of studies has shown that maize yields in corn-bean-squash intercrops can be increased by as much as 50% over monoculture yields. Although the yield for the two other crops was reduced dramatically, the overall yield for the three combined crops was greater than if they were grown separately in monocultures. (source. (http://"http://www.agroecology.org/cases/cornbeansquash.htm))