food storage 102 – 2 weeks is not enough
Posted by admin on 10 Jul 2008 at 05:28 am | Tagged as: collapse, peak food, sane words
more sound advice from Sharon Astyk.
Last time I ran the food storage class, I started off with a Food Storage 101 post that discussed the bare minimum for food storage – the 2 weeks recommended by both the US Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross. I reviewed the fact that 2 week extended periods in which we are unable to shop or get supplies are actually not at all uncommon – that they have occurred many times in rich world nations including the US, and that all of us should, as simply commonsense preparedness, have a 2 week supply of food. I then went along trying to get you all to store much more food than that, but I didn’t want to push too hard on that, because I know that for some people, the idea that you might not be able to get food at the store for more than a couple of weeks due to a short-term disaster is just plain crazy talk.
But this time around, I’m going to push the issue, even if it makes you think I’m nuts (if you are just figuring this out, you may be new to the blog
). Because the truth is that 2 weeks is nowhere near enough – 3 months really should be the minimum.
And if you haven’t got a garden yet, start thinking about it. What can you easily grow yourself, that would disappear from shops during a crisis (or simply ro protect yourself from the increased fuel and food prices). Vegetables go off quickly, and the distribution of fresh food relies on regular deliveries, that could be disrupted by many things. We’ve been pushing harder than Sharon, for people to think of never-ending crisis (the days of making the rest of the world to act as our veg garden, and big companies stealing – buying, but do they give any choice? – land from poor people, is coming to an end. We think that would be great, and the world as a whole will be better off, but you are going to find it hard if you dont start thinking about your own necessities.
Finally, the most likely disaster to befall you is this. You lose your job. Your spouse losess their job. You spend your savings on a medical crisis or two. You are stretched trying to keep your house/pay your rent/buy gas to get to work, and you don’t have any money for food. Your kids are hungry, and the food pantry is, as at least one US pantry was, down to stale Doritos because of the huge demand. Maybe you get food stamps (assuming the program can still be funded after a radical drop in tax revenue), but they don’t stretch to the end of the month. And two weeks worth of food won’t save you. Neither will three months, but it gives you options.
I know that some of you can’t buy extra food because you can’t buy enough food. For the rest, you need to do what you can, both to protect yourself, and to make sure that you don’t compete for food resources with those who have no ability to protect themselves, maybe ensure that you can drop a few cans at the food pantry, even when things get tough at home. That means a minimum of three months of food. Build it up gradually, write down what you eat, focus on meals based on staple foods like grains, dried beans, locally produced and home preserved vegetables. I wrote during my last class about what a 3 month supply of food looks like.
Good advice. Industrial food makes us ill. Overworked stressful lives makes us really on fast food. The slow down, and return to proper lives, and proper food, grown locally and fresh, should make us much healthier too.
I know this is hard – in March I was being soft, and helping people with baby steps. I’m going to be blunt now – I don’t think we have that much time before it gets harder and harder for more and more of us to prepare and get ahead. I don’t think it will be that long before many of us can’t afford those extra bags of rice anymore. So I’m not going to suggest baby steps anymore – I think all of us should get very, very serious about this. And I wish I didn’t think that.
Those of us that survive the transition, and the attempts by government and the wealthy to hold onto their power, will hopefully find that life is actually much more pleasant. Get to know your neighbours and start planning your transition activities together. Many people don’t even understand the facts of climate change and peak oil. Its up to us that do to take the initiative, and start making plans and actions to prepare, as Sharon says, get very very serious about this. The time that we are able to acquire things from this dying empire is running out, fast.
