For as long as I can remember, the availability of food has not been an issue. If we run out of something, sure it’s an inconvenience but knowing that item can easily be replaced by just running down to the local grocery store makes it really a non-issue.
I believe this is one of the primary issues why most people don’t take the time or make the effort to prepare for the possibility of not being able to go to the grocery store. The idea seems foreign and unlikely for most. Surely the government will do whatever it takes to keep food on the shelves, right?
Unfortunately, far too many good people live in a bubble of complacency assuming all is well and life will continue to move forward as it is today.
The fact is, today is as good as it ever will be. If one believes in the Bible, it’s quite clear that in the last days things are not going to get better. There will be more wars and rumors of war, more natural disasters, more contention between once friends and even family members.
Or as the Apostle Paul describes in 2Timothy 3:1-5: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Do you see this happening around you or in the government today? Yes, we are definitely in the last days!
Food Doesn’t Grow on the Shelves
Grocery stores don’t stock weeks of food anymore. Most keep only 72 hours of food on the shelves. They re-stock based on just-in-time delivery of food supplies. If the trucks stop rolling in your part of the country during a crisis, the store shelves will be emptied almost immediately. In fact, expect a shortage of mainstay items like milk and bread to occur similar to what happens before an approaching hurricane hits. Those who are aware of the problem but who haven’t already made preparations will engage in a last-minute rush to buy a few extra supplies.
Transportation is the Key
Without transportation, farmers can’t get their crops to the wholesalers or food processing facilities. Food is heavy, generally speaking, and it requires trucks and trains to move it around — a literal ARMY of trucks and trains, weaving their way from city to city, optimized and prioritized by computers. If the computers freeze, the whole transportation infrastructure will shut down.
Transportation also depends heavily on fuel, which means the oil-producing countries in the Middle East have to be able to produce the oil that gets refined into diesel fuel here in America. So, in other words, your food supply depends on Saudi Arabia being alive and well. Do you trust the people in charge in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait with your life? If you don’t make preparations now, you’re trusting them by default.
Cities Depend Entirely on Rural Land
Did you know cities would be ghost towns without the supporting imports of food from the country? We should all thank the farmers a little more, because they literally keep us all alive. Cities are like concrete islands. You might think a city is self-sustaining until you really think about it, but underneath it all, that city is a ghost town without the people in the country supporting it.
You may already know that city people and country people have very different views on politics and life in general. Country people tend to be more religious and more conservative. City people tend to be more liberal. So there’s more than a little animosity between country people and city people.
When a crisis hits, and the country people find they are without electricity and fuel, they will still survive, for the most part, because they’re used to surviving. But do you think they will really put “saving city people” high on their list of priorities? I don’t think so. Any food that’s harvested from the fields will be kept and stored by the farmers themselves. They will NOT be shipping this stuff to the cities unless they have excess goods and can find a transportation method that still works (and has fuel).
Unfortunately, if some emergency powers acts are signed into place by the President, the Federal Emergency Management Association will have the legal power to actually confiscate and redistribute food. This makes it all the more likely that farmers will harvest it and HIDE IT in order to keep it. And that means even less food making it to the cities. Bottom line? Cities where food can’t be delivered will eventually be gutted, looted, evacuated and likely burned to the ground.
You Need to Start Stocking Food
You can do a lot if you start early. Unfortunately, “early” might have been yesterday. Now we’re way past early, and you need a reasonable plan to get food supplies that will store well and don’t cost too much.
An important aspect of storing food is assuring you store a wide variety of foods to avoid appetite fatigue. There are those who think providing variety in the diet is relatively unimportant and that if and when the time comes they’ll eat what they’ve got and that will be that. For healthy, well, adjusted adults under ordinary circumstances or for those who have the vital survival mindset this might be possible without too much difficulty. However, the reason for having a home food storage program in the first place is for when circumstances aren’t ordinary.
Times of crisis produce stress – possibly physical, but always mental. If you are suddenly forced to eat a diet both alien and monotonous, it is going to add that much more stress on top of what you are already dealing with. If your planning includes the elderly, young children, and/or infants there is a significant risk they will quit eating or refuse to eat sufficient amounts of the right foods leaving them unable to survive.
This is not a trivial problem and should be given serious consideration. When it’s wheat, day in and day out, wheat’s going to start becoming unpopular fast. Far better to have a variety of foods on hand to forestall appetite fatigue and, more importantly, to use those storable foods in your everyday diet so that you’ll be accustomed to eating them.
In his book, “Making the Best of Basics”, James Stevens mentions a post-WWII study by Dr. Norman Wright, of the British Food Ministry, which found the people of England and Europe were more likely to reject unfamiliar or distasteful foods during times of stress than under normal conditions. Consider the positive aspects of adding variety and comfort foods to your storage program.
So please consider the following, unless you are already familiar with a particular type of food, do not put large quantities of it into your pantry. Sure, there may be great health benefits to eating quinoa or lentils, but most likely your family has not made a habit of eating such grains or legumes.
One of the best ways to overcome this concern is to focus on freeze-dried entrees with real meat you know your family likes. It just doesn’t make any sense to load up on whole grains and basics when what you really need is more comfort foods you know your family will like and eat. In addition, the thought of going to the effort of making a meal from whole grains versus just adding water to a freeze-dried meal, especially in times of stress, just doesn’t make sense.
Please take the time now to assure your family has an ample supply of the food they will want to eat and are easy to prepare as well as having an extended shelf life.
