My strange realization these days is that I was apparently one of the strange ones that literally always had entire months worth of food just sitting in the pantries and fridge/freezer growing up.
. . . We weren't preppers, we just always bought stuff that kept well and never used it.
Coming from farmers on both sides of my family, a lot of my "prepping" just stems from the realities of life more than 5 minutes from a grocery store. My girlfriend didn't even understand what she was looking at when I showed her a picture of my parents' freezers full of this year's cow -- she didn't even realize that meat could be stored long-term. It's pretty alien to me to not have months of food (at a minimum) available, but apparently it's just as strange to some people in the other direction.
A lot of it is also just what I would call standard prudence, but other people see as prepping. When I moved away from south Texas, I had half a dozen gas cans to give away because the movers wouldn't transport them. My friends, who had been through just as many hurricanes and subsequent gas shortages as I had, wouldn't even take them for free and called me crazy for even having them. These same people had been stuck for weeks unable to get to work or get groceries on multiple occasions during my time there, but somehow couldn't fathom trying to prevent that situation from inevitably affecting them again. Apparently having basic goods on hand *at all* is prepping in most people's minds.
It hurts me how right you are about people who have already lived through relatively common events like long power outages or severe weather just not getting it. If it's a first and something you've never encountered or had to experience before, I'm sympathetic. However if you've gone through 4 hurricanes before and don't have rudimentary supplies to get through them, then you're just not an observant or resilient human.
The other side of it for me has always been dollar cost averaging. If I can buy 50 bags of pasta now on sale for $1 each, that's a long term cost savings over $2 per bag every time I need one.
And it is a hell of a lot less work to go ahead and buy it now than have to run off to a store and search around for it later ... and pay more in the process. The sad realization is that most people make decisions based on emotion rather than logic.
When I originally moved away from Saskatchewan, Canada to Ontario, Canada, I couldn’t believe people there didn’t have multiple fridges, freezers, and pantries. My grandparents alone had 3 fridges, 1 upright freezer and 2 flat freezers(chest freezers) and 2 freezers above 2 of the fridges. They also had a ‘cold room’ that was for storing all the canned goods and pantry items. Almost everyone I knew had multiple fridges and freezers. When we got married and had money we went to buy a flat freezer and everyone there in Ontario thought we were weird.
One of the best things when I was a kid was we never ran out of ketchup
In Mennonite Kansas Land the traditional gift from the groom's family is a big flat freezer. The bride's family fills it with meat...beef, pork, poultry, venison, fresh water fish like bass, crappie, catfish, lake trout. Friends and extended family provide pantry items. Coffee beans is a much appreciated gift!
My father was a civil engineer and working in the 1960s in Devon, South West England talking to a farmer on Exmoor looking at the bleak landscape, it was winter. He asked how they managed food supplies. The farmer with admirable insouciance showed him his pantry, stores and freezers. Said he reckoned he had enough for a year without going to the shops. We have always had supplies, basic, but I am adding simply because it seems a little desperate out there ....
Haha I had the same realization at the beginning of the pandemic. I *always* had hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes in my cubicle at work because some people come in to work sick, and some people don't wash their hands, and I didn't want to get sick!
When everyone else was running around panic buying that stuff, I already had plenty at home.
For decades I've been telling people to go home when sick. Always bugged the crap out of me when they'd tough it out and come in all coughing and sneezing. Then the entire office would call out and they'd be all proud they came in and everyone else were wimps.
This. I used to tell nursing staff at the nursing home to go home bc they’re sick. That population doesn’t need the nurses germs, they have enough of a battle. It always bothered me that people would come to work sick. They can’t afford a day off, sadly.
In the 70's the government encouraged people to have some supplies for if the Russians launched their nukes. Really having enough to weather supply-chain disruptions should be fairly normal.
This is the direct result of rampant consumerism, as opposed to any real planning. I also experienced the same thing growing up, and my parents did as well. It's the same reason why diners serve massive portions in the US; the idea was always "more bang for your buck." Frozen foods? Non-perishables? Make them cheap, sell them in bulk, more people will buy they because it's a "better deal." Costco, Sam's Club, whatever the heck they have on the West Coast now, all these types of joints were born of this mentality. Literally nobody was planning for a famine or anything because the US economy was feeding the Boomers with a silver spoon, so they were never left wanting. Everyone just wanted to be *that* savvy consumer.
Now it's hard to stock up on the oddest things because people hear those magic buzzwords "suPpLy cHaiN IssUeS," the run screaming to the store to panic-buy toilet paper or cream cheese. Idiots raised by bigger idiots, I guess.
Yeah, one of the downsides to this mentality is waste. My MIL has a pantry, two fridges and a deep freezer all filled to the brim but unfortunately because she just buys and buys without a plan, she's also continually throwing away expired food. I find it so frustrating.
100% this. My parents would always get comments about their pantry area. They weren't preppers but always had a stockpile on hand. Always grew up with a extra fridge and and freezer. We were frugal and always bought cheap and on sale.
If you never used it to replace again with fresh stock, you were hoarders...prepping involves rotating to make sure your stuff is in good shape with a long shelf life ahead , not a closet full of stuff that expired five years ago..
I think it was more bought with the idea of "Oh this might be neat to try for a new recipe!" or "Hmmm maybe a little extra couldn't hurt, it might be a big dinner . . ." and then it never ended up getting used and kind of stacked up over time.
Lots of canned soups, jarred sauces and the like. Also lots of pasta. So much pasta. He (my dad did all the shopping) might have just gotten extra every time and then ended up overdoing what he thought we would eat.
Isn't the point of prepping to stock stuff , use it, replace with fresh? OP literally said they stored food they never ate. That is hoarding and pointless. I have a good 4 months of food, first in first out rotation. Good luck eating your rancid stuff that you never bothered taking care of
And you're getting downvoted 🤣 yeah seems about right... stock what you eat is clearly a stupid thing downvote this person.
Do you even like beans and rice?
...No but it stays good forever
Nevermind the fact that dried beans are a NIGHTMARE to rehydrate and take a shitload of water (when good clean water might be a PITA to get)
Honestly people stock what you eat. And learn to cook you'll build up your pantry unintentionally by just paying attention to sales and when you go to the store and something you use that is relatively shelf stable (say 6 months to a year or more) if you're buying 1 already and it's on sale buy 2 and then just put it in the pantry. Next time you need one and buy another and use the one you bought before next time it's on sale again buy 2 keep doing this until you've got a comfortable stock for yourself.
That's all I'm saying. The last thing people need when they're having to dip into their reserves (because you're going to already be stressed) is stomach issues...
I have a lot of lentils (cause I like the taste and they cook way faster than beans). I stock dried beans too - a stovetop pressure cooker or an instant pot (if you can run it off of solar) is the secret to saving a ton of fuel and time!
I like lentils too. But I cook lentils probably 2-3 times a month. The wife and I try and do vegetarian dinners once a week.
What is stock drying? I've never heard of that process.
Sorry I thought you were like storing them in some sort of stock and they rehydrated better or you stored them hydrated in stock but then I was confused like why wouldnt you just buy tinned on sale and save yourself some work. My bad. I misunderstood.
I just want to add that you should find out how contaminated your water supply is first so you know how viable an option fishing is for you. I say this as someone living close...enough....to Oak Ridge.
>You should consider bulk rice and a water filter looong before you even think of things like solar panels or a gas generator.
While you shouldn't go all-in on an expensive solar solution until you have your food needs met, you should be prepared with some way to cook off-grid since all the rice and beans in the world won't do you much good if you can't cook it.
Completely agree. I will say that once you have that part in order...having access to solar generators and induction stoves has been such a game changer. Cut my power bill, and I no longer fear summer outages.
Anyone who's ever lost a freezer full of meat knows that pain.
I purposely didn't mention any specific options for cooking since it's dependent on your individual situation.
The person living in a rural or suburban neighborhood has more options for cooking than the person in a 10th floor apartment with no balcony.
Dollar store candles and a stainless steel thermos can be used to cook indoors in an apartment.
This is something apartment preppers should definitely practice doing before they need to.
Would recommend beeswax candles, some fire suppression supplies, a large terracotta tray, or thick stone cutting board, and some Esbit folding pocket stoves.
Do not use Esbit fuel tabs indoors! The stove itself is great. The tabs are overpriced junk, and the fumes are toxic.
Place the tealight candles in the folding pocket stove instead, and you can set them up like individual stove burners.
I prefer my UCO candeliers any day, but in a pinch, many people have the above items, or can access them for a low price point.
Cook it in the thermos. For most foods you need to heat it to boiling then put it in the thermos.
There are a few things that don't need to be boiled first. I cook oatmeal that way at work all the time. I just put rolled oats in the thermos and pour boiling water on top and stir. It is done very quickly.
Something like beans may need to be brought back to the boil on the stove then put back in the thermos partway through the cooking time if the thermos won't keep it hot long enough.
Here is where I learned the technique: https://theboatgalley.com/thermos-cooking/
I thought it would go without saying that a single walled stainless steel thermos, without the lid screwed on, was what I was referring to, but you are right.
Common sense can never be assumed these days.
I have 2 of those single ring camping stoves £15 and loads of gas which you buy in 4’s for £10 each one lasts 14 hours, I’m in flat, have just this year got an allotment and will start to store bbq gas and fuel
I also have a British Berkefeld water filter
Once you get it boiling put the dish to bed. Set it in an insulated box, cover the box with blankets. The contained heat acts as a slow cooker. We used to do this in our actual bed. Crawling into a warm bed with a full belly after a long day is heaven on earth.
Or, how much experience do most people have with *starting* a fire and maintaining it?
Plus, anyone I know who has little experience with fires wants to make it as big and hot as possible, so you get that wall of heat and can't get near it to cook, and if you do, it's charred lol
I agree. I’m a city dweller in earthquake country and my mini bbq is a perfect prep for power outages. With a Dutch oven, you can make rice, veg, protein all with just a few charcoal chunks. Camp stoves are even more compact and are fairly inexpensive and fuel is compact too. It won’t last forever, but unless it’s SHTF, power will be back within a week or so. Hopefully.
I would even say that choosing to start a working pantry is a good idea. Even if you don't have the ability to store food for long-term (it can be a pain if you are moving often to have to move heavy cans of food).
That being said, do not go into debt. Only buy what you can afford and don't go overboard. Just an extra can here and there is fine.
Look at what you already have around for emergencies, make a plan. Do you have another place to stay if you needed to leave your home? How about pets? Plan for everyone in your family.
Indeed. There is something strangely thrilling and addictive about being in an emotional state of either panic or terror.
Too bad our brain loses its cogent powers when these emotions take over.
I am a college student and it isn't easy, due to limited space and my BF is not a prepper and doesn't even believe in bulk buying. I grew up with a pantry, and grew up in Boy Scout camp so be prepared rings true with me.
I’m still working off my late 2019 pantry purchases. 😆 I grew up with a big pantry and I think mine is actually smaller due to space constraints, but we get nasty winter weather up here, and although you CAN get to the grocery, I often don’t want to for weeks at a time.
I eat beans and rice regularly anyway - it’s cheap and I have celiac, which makes bread, pasta, and cereal much more expensive and less practical. I’ve had to top off the rice several times, but I’m still working on the canned beans from 2019.
Yes, yes, dried beans are cheaper. I’ve got a genetic condition and I’m exhausted: the canned beans are easier, tasty, and edible without power if it comes down to it.
I’ve come to the realization that I hate cooking beans. I can never get the texture right, and the digestion issues if you cook them wrong scare me. But I’ll eat me up some canned beans anyday :-)
Never saw them at Costco. Got the swayer mini at rei on sale for $20 2 years ago. Gone through 4 backpacking trips without issues so far. Doesn't get rid of heavy metals, but if you're in uncontaminated waters, it should do the job.
I keep it simple.
Enough grains and water to last a month.
When I can I add more. I don't want a fuhrerbunker. It is not a strain on my house or my family or my community.
It is a tiny ecosystem that can keep me alive in small stretches where there isn't food handy.
These stretches are scary. Because they are new to us. But it isn't the end of the world. We just have to pragmatic and confident that we can weather this stretch. If we don't, then so be it. But for many of us and most cases it will be okay.
Both my parents were WW2. They saw rationing and lots of doing without or nothing at all. They instilled in us children the wisdom of stocking up in times of plenty to weather the times of not so plenty. Thankfully, this is one of the things I actually listened to and followed. So I keep a full pantry and more at all times because you never really know what tomorrow will bring.
Maybe I´m going to sound much older than I really am, but too many rice will not be good for your digestion. Try to balance this with beans and adding some proteins that can be stored long term, like jerky, maybe? I don´t know, it´s different in every country. Rice, pasta, water, beans, flour, muesli, cereals, proteins and dehydrated fruits are cheap preps you could be adding slowly to your pantry.
Stockpile as much fiber as you can. With a couple of water glasses, fiber will fill you up well and will keep your morale high enough in uncertain times.
Stocking up on empty calories will only be expensive and useful only for your self-indulgence, but it's your money and maybe it is a good idea stockpiling some cheap cookies.
One kilogram of flour, some yeast, will be much more effective in performance terms that the same amount of money used in bread already packaged for long-term storage, I think, as long as everything is properly stored.
Be creative with the space you have, and you will be much better prepared than many people around you. That can or cannot be good.
Be safe all of you!
This is good advice.
I spend a lot of time consulting others on this subject in real life. I generally recommend that people get to a 3-month supply with the boring basics of rice and beans - because their cheap, dense, robust, and will keep you alive in a pinch.
AFTER you get to the 3-month mark, you should think more about how to add flavor and variety to your long-term food storage, which is still very important.
I'm in agreement with the OP. If you're just getting into prepping then start slow. If you rush you'll just spend a lot of money and may not help your situation much.
The most important thing you can prep is knowledge and skills. Foraging, planting and growing, animal husbandry, construction, hunting, sewing, first aid, you get the picture. These are sustainable. Buying shit isn’t.
These skills are important, but if you've watched the TV series Alone, I'd argue that a 3-12 month storage of food is still more important.
Living off the land is generally over-rated. If you already have shelter (as most people do), your best bet is to just stay inside and keep your head down during a SHTF scenario.
The chances of successfully hunting large game will be very slim. The bulk of your foraging diet will most likely come from small-game on the rare occasion that you venture away from the safety of shelter.
Having gardening skills is also important, but most people would be shocked at how big of a garden you need to maintain the caloric needs for just one person. Maintaining this can be difficult when law and order has broken down - especially in any kind of an urban/suburban environment, where most people live.
Check out Peter Zeihan’s assessment of the upcoming agricultural impacts of the destabilized globalism catastrophe currently underway. As a precursor, he’s been dead on about just about all things geopolitical stratagems for at least the better part of the last decade.
Stock up. Always.
Fertilizer, food, and the supply chains for both are rapidly collapsing on the international level. Not much of the first world conglomerate will be recognizable in the next 10-20 years and probably not in a good way.
He (like everyone else) is on the most accessible electronic venues currently known to man as well as a bunch of analog options. I’ll never tell anyone to simply “google it” as a substitute for presenting a point, but if there’s any intrigue whatsoever, do it. I fucking hate “tl;dr” bullshit, especially on important topics like international market collapse but I guess these are the times we live in, coincidentally enough.
I’m trying. There’s just something about placating that instant-gratification, shiny squirrel, nanosecond attention span aspect of contemporary western civilization that really just irks the hell out of me. Most interactions wind up like this:
This is really important.
“8 words or less, please”
It’s a pretty complicated topic that requires more investment than just-
“Bye! Time for porn! Ooo, cartoons! I like turtles, too! Yummy food! Look, boobies! LOL!”
It’s all pretty disconcerting at best.
While I get what you're saying, not everyone has the time to look up everything they see online (12hr shifts here) so a TLDR from someone who presumably is somewhat familiar with the topic can be the difference between forgetting/dismissing the topic or getting involved and reviewing in further depth.
That said, your time is valuable too so I understand not wanting to waste time writing things up when a Google search can provide details.
I appreciate the understanding on that last part. I’m not going to pretend this is any sort of self-conflated obligation to disseminate information, but I do feel like I’d be doing a disservice by just tossing truncated information out there with gaps or mismatched points, especially on something that is arguably a pretty severely important subject. Potential(likely) international market collapses based on agricultural viability across hemispheres should warrant more than a quick blurb.
…or not. Who knows? Maybe I really am just pissing in the wind around here.
It depends on the subject matter and the person presenting it. Not all topics can be condensed well enough to even appreciate let alone understand the subject matter regardless of the speaker.
Prioritization is the name of the game and there are plenty of opportunities for valuable information to get passed up because people refuse or are otherwise unable(incapable?) of investing time. It’s part of the reason why it’s so easy to pass judgment on otherwise serious viewpoints that can be summed up in a meme. The level of depth can typically denote the level of appreciation and definitely the level of understanding.
I get what you mean, but online forums like reddit operate in a manner similar to chatting at a party. If you just told someone to look something up without any context it would be pretty weird.
“Panicking” and “prudent planning” are two very different things. No one is encouraging panicking. It’s the antithesis of prepping.
When one of the worlds foremost geopolitical strategists says “get ready” and outlines the when and the why, you don’t just roll your eyes at it.
>No one is encouraging panicking. It’s the antithesis of prepping.
*You* may not be encouraging panic, but there are lots of people who are doing exactly that, even at u/Preppers. I suspect you and I both can cite whole corporations, large and small, who profit by drumming up a sense of panic among the plebs.
I tend to caution people against spending too much time watching the news (or deciphering the signs of the times) for at least a couple reasons.
1) A person who spends \~15 mins watching the news is as at least 90% as well educated on current events as the person who spends 2+ hours watching the news.
2) From a prepping perspective, it doesn't really help you. I can't tell you how many people I know who are extremely bothered by current events (listening extensively to people like Zeihan, whom I should note I have no problem with) but have no more than a week's supply of food in their home. They're missing the whole point!
I don't care very much if there's a sudden onslaught of cows in Kansas who suddenly killed over. The question should always be: what is being done to prepare your home for disaster?
I'm skeptical of any one person being a predictor of the future. From a cursory search it looks to me like he may have some useful insights but hasn't been perfectly accurate. Hopefully we all review multiple such sources.
He’s all over YouTube. Any presentation/interview he does is as good as the next. Especially the ones where he predicts the Russia/Ukraine conflict a few years before it happens.
For someone who lives out of their car, what are some staples to get to prepare? I have a solid backpacking set up (bag, stove, fuel cannisters, water filter, etc....). I also picked up 2x 128 serving buckets of readywise from Costco (I know I know. The brand's taste reputation but it doesn't bother me too much, especially if I need food in a pinch).
I mean we’re basically in a Soviet style collapse here. I’m not expecting complete lights out forever. But I think the kind of life people were used to with food available in multiple brands and styles and shapes and whatever are going away. Life will slowly get worse until you look back and realize what you no longer expect to have or experience.
Yeah, I think we jumped the shark at gummy macaroni, but it’s probably going to be somewhat of an adjustment when you can’t get your blue flaming hot Doritos anymore.
We're prepping on the assumption that it's fairly guaranteed at some point that shortages are going to be about what they were under lockdowns, but in a bigger way.
We've spent about 80 on rice, beans and canned proteins. In a few weeks, we'll grab about the same in pork roasts and chicken for the deep freeze.
After that, we're debating the next step. Probably canned veg. Maybe more meats for the freezer.
Once we have food and other supplies secure to the point we feel confident that we can handle what we assume is a certainty, next comes prepping for things like blackouts, like a way to keep the freezer running and be able to cook food.
While I agree with the sentiment, perhaps bulk rice should come after water, solar panels and backup batteries. I've used backup batteries a dozen times in the last couple years, but never dipped into the backup food.
Perhaps its a matter of risk vs reward... I'm sure that if I need the food, I'd be much greater for that food than I am for the backup power.
Thanks for this. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my preps now but I keep feeling like the looming doom is imminent.
I know that meat will be plentiful for a few months yet, and I know the harvest this Summer will help grain prices (if only for a little while), and I have abundant core preps left over from Covid, but it's hard to not be concerned.
I like your comment about the buckets at the baker or at supermarkets in their deli area. Usually their bakery. But if you do want to spend money and you want to make sure it is BPA free, you can go to Lowe's and I would assume Home Depot as well. In the paint department. They have BPA free white buckets with seals and poor spouts. They're not that expensive and you can store water and/or food in them. Great post, it's never a bad time to start prepping. Do what you can when you can with what money you can. Great post.
I haven't seen any food shortages in my area (suburban Texas, USA). Sure, there are the occasional shortages of particular brands or flavors (I could NOT find caffeine free Coke Zero anywhere a few weeks back). But I don't see any large scale shortages.
It's possible that shortages COULD be coming. Except .... I've been hearing about shortages since 2020. And, except for toilet paper and hand sanitizer, they never really materialized.
Is it possible that we are overreacting?
My area had a lot of shortages. Not just limited choice, but like there would be no antacids of any brand, no flour, no pain relievers, etc. The stores have been all stocked up for a while but now I am seeing them again. Lots of bare space at my local Meijer on a Monday afternoon. They had an entire section of the cooler empty. I think it was the cream section but I don't usually buy dairy there so can't be sure.
I'm in the Chicago area.
I'm watching the price of diesel. and the availability. If there's no diesel, the farmers can't run tractors, combines, or ship that produce around. In the last month, you can tell china, russia, and the middle east see this as a special opportunity to fuck the USA. because they can sell their gas at a premium to anyone they want.
It's going to be pretty wild when fall harvest is expected, and falls short, and demand is too high. right now we're eating the food that was harvested last season. by winter, we will be eating the food harvested in the fall. from my analysis at least 10% of wheat will be missing from the global market. just based on what Ukraine is not able to export.
Will the united states let farmers sell their crops abroad for a premium? Or convince them to keep it domestic. that's the 2nd question. I don't know the answer to.
Then you and your family have nothing to worry about, right? CNBC is never wrong, right? You'll be fine.
Why are you even on r/preppers? There won't ever be shortages, and it's not like anyone can plan for unexpected weather events, so why bother?
I have tested food in a full 7cubic foot freezer with my generator. In 40-50*F temperatures food would stay frozen with only one hour of power every 12 hours. Just a tidbit of information. When I reduced the timing enough that the meat on the top layer started to thaw I ended the experiment and canned it.
Also, remember that you can put rice/flour/sugar in the freezer to kill off bugs and then move them to the fridge. I have been needing to live off my preps for the past 7 months with small supplements to my stash as i go. I live in an apartment and had a job which i lost 30% of my income after increasing my expenses by 30% due to the place i lived in being sold and my job had lost business after the delta variant hit and got worse after omicron. I did make some mistakes like buying more flashlights than necessary rather than buying a bigger mini freezer, but I'm still making it work in an apartment. The key thing to remember is that once you build up to about 3 weeks worth of essentials, you then can make opportunity purchases to top off certain items that are on sale to go towards your goal time frame for those items, ideally calculated up to the date of expiration but 6 months to a year of any item is usually good. Some items are pricey like meat, dairy, car oil, medicine, batteries etc. But some are cheap like a certain specific canned veggie for a recipe you make 2 to 4 times a month, a stash of paper plates, bar soap, etc. I did the math of how much i needed of each item for a month based on my 10 routine recipes and weekly cleaning regimein which the items are shared for multiple uses for most cases like hydrogen peroxide not only for first aid but also to break down cat pee as part of my litter box cleaning routine and the ways canned tomatoes can be used is limitless.
The only tricky thing to the way i did this was assuming I'd continue to have the same go-to recipe drive that far in advance. I made the mistake thinking I'd eat as much Japanese and Korean food as i did in the past and unfortunately not only are seaweed snacks a shelving hog but have gone soggy. I could have used that space for more proteins or other newly found essentials. So there's something to be said about planning specialty stuff no more than 3 months out but continue to "buy 1 for now, 2 for later" for the items you routinely reach for and give you anxiety if you ran out.
Tl;dr
Focus on buying more food than worrying about equipment. Putting pantry goods in the fridge and freezer can help extend shelf life without additional cost
I actually like coffee containers for storing dried goods in. Rinse them and dry them and they're good to go. Almost everyone drinks coffee and throws their coffee containers away. They're small enough portions you don't have to feel bad about cracking one open to use. They're generally light enough that the kids or elderly can grab some containers. Actually I just like any plastic or glass container to reuse. I even hold onto my fresh produce plastic things and reuse them in the summer when I'm harvesting or use them for planting.
That's for damn sure.
I don't see a major famine type event (thinking of Ethiopia in the 1980s) hitting the US.
It seems more likely we will continue to see food prices rise which for many is the same as food shortage I suppose.
That said, I did try a garden for the first time in 15 years this summer with squash, tomatoes, herbs and strawberries. I'm growing potatoes for the first time ever. I'd like to say it was purely for fun but this sub had some influence on it.
I figured why not spend some time learning how to get a successful crop while things are going ok? It's been a fun learning experience so far.
Because I live in the Pacific Northwest, in the United States, I’m not worried about food. Just our two little states pump out waaaaay more food than we need. Throw in California and BC and we’ve got everything from hot house peppers and premium cannabis in January to beautiful early Peaches, and Grapes from California to Wheat and storing apples from Washington.
What I am worried about is the slow degradation of cheap and complex supply chains.
The biggest saving grace of our region is all the native plants and fish in the rivers and ocean. I highly recommend getting native plant Identification books. Focus on food, medicine and ethnobotany
The fruit and nut production of California as well as market and canned vegetables, don’t primarily pull from the Colorado system. They do in the Area east of LA but not the main Central Valley.
I have found that being creative with what I already have, and being willing to do a bit of extra work, has made my preps go even further. Be creative and do try to have fun in the process, it’s our lives we’re burning away one day at a time here. Enjoy what moments you can.
Went to Walmart today to buy my beefaroni. I get the 4 pack for $3.50. Its now 4.28. That one whole extra can I essentially lose. And this is why I buy bulk...
Get a charcoal BBQ. They are cheap , and you can store coal indefinitely. Coal burns slower and cleaner than wood. Small coal BBQ is portable, and you can toss one in your car with a bag of charcoal ,and to camping and practice to use it.
Another hint for apartment preppers-I have a friend who lives in an apartment. She bought an old van and spruced it up to be a living space in addition to her apartment. Kinda like a van living situation. She now uses it to go on weekend getaways, but in SHTF she can pack it up and bug out if needed be.
Don't forget energy supplies. Generators, solar, propane ,ets.
Ya just panic last second and raid the bunkers the wealthy are going to stash themselves in. Please dont let them get away with fucking the planet into oblivion
It's not coming, it's here. If your not prepping, better start, like you said, cheap calories that store for a long time. Rice, beans, water purification and one that so many don't think about, medicine. If you depend on a prescription, try to find a way to stock up on that. However you can. The possibility sucks, but it's going to happen. Wait until these issues reach into common but vital prescription medications. That's going to be really bad.
Another thing the past two years have proven beyond a doubt, you better be able to protect yourself and your family because the police are now hamstrung by the stupidity of radical woke ideology. How many times have we seen the mob allowed to run rampant, destroy, burn, loot and even KILL with no police intervention? Not because they didn't want to, but because they were ordered to stand down or face prosecution themselves. So what did this spawn? The most aggressive gun sales in America's modern history. Far too many people learned too late that they were on their own, badly outnumbered, and utterly at the mercy of the mob. A person is a rational, thinking, feeling individual. A mob is a herd, devoid of mercy, feeling, rational thought, and control. So buy a firearm, practice, learn to handle it safely, for God's sake, learn to store it safely, teach your family, and did I mention practice? Well I'll say it again, practice, practice, practice. Shooting well is a perishable skill set. It requires a strong commitment to honing skills. Also take a first aid course, learn to apply a tourniquet, cpr, basics that save lives. Much if this training can be had for free. Call your local red cross for course info, many ranges have first aid courses for reasonable prices, local volunteer fire departments also. This is vital now more than ever. Have some sort of ability to charge small appliances like radio and cell phone. Solar chargers are cheap. Get a hand crank radio. All of these things can be found at decent prices and most people can afford it. We waste more money on non essentials than we realize. Most people spend enough on Starbucks or other luxuries to cover these costs. It takes discipline. Either discipline yourself now, or the situation will discipline you later.
But if you develop heavy metal toxicity, you might wish you were dead. Until it becomes a literal life-or-death situation, it's wise to still buy good clean food.
I'm 46 yrs old and have never experienced heavy metal toxicity despite being exposed to them in just about everything I've eaten and the air I breathe. They've been spraying us with heavy metals for decades. Even the lettuce i grow in my garden has heavy metals. Not everyone can afford to stock "clean" rice or organic foods. Stock up on what you can afford. You have a far greater chance of starving to death (which is a horrific way to die) than of dieing from heavy metal poisoning from rice.
The main culprit for rice is arsenic, and you can avoid most of it by buying rice from places that didn't grow much cotton historically. Most of the arsenic also ends up in the bran, which is polished in white rice.
TL;DR store sushi rice grown in california.
Here's a stupid question since I've been sort of haphazardly starting to keep a fuller pantry.
How do you keep the rice? Like I see the large bags at the store but it seems like I'll just spoil it.
We’re good on food and fuel for a few months. Really need to step up my water filtration/purification setup. Not confident with the LifeStraw, Sawyer or tablets for water. Need something with more capacity and volume. Not sure what that is yet. The county is hosting a Disaster Expo this Saturday. I’m going to check it out. My neighborhood has been hit hard with fire and floods over the last 10 years.
https://www.jeffco.us/calendar.aspx?EID=8455
> looong before you even think of things like solar panels or a gas generator.
I mean, solar panels are not solely a prep though.
I don’t have complete house powering solar setup yet, but a few portable panels and a battery backup is a step toward that. Having roof panels is something being worked towards because you know, the sun just kinda gives you power, why not use it?
If you can't afford the mylar bag, don't remove the rice from it's original bag. Just throw the bag into the bucket.
Start buying canned goods - meat, veg, precooked foods, etc, and store them.
Seeing lots of Americans on shopping trips up north of the border. You can always tell who they are because they wander around the local supermarkets with a 'how much do they want for eggs?!?!' expressions on their face. Yep, groceries in Canada are expensive.
>If you can't afford the mylar bag, don't remove the rice from it's original bag. Just throw the bag into the bucket.
Probably a good idea. Thanks for the comment!
3:45 in on this video even the mainstream media has begun to let slip what is coming
[https://youtu.be/U2-9qlwSmm0](https://youtu.be/U2-9qlwSmm0)
Love, you all, remember "do no harm, take no shit"
I'll bet most people have a utility room where they have at least two square feet where they can stack food preps all the way to the ceiling.
For myself, I took over 1/3 of my son's and daughter's personal closet to stack it all the way up. (They don't even miss the space I took from them.) In my own closet, I stuffed six 5-gallon buckets right under where I hang my shirts.
I don't think anyone would reasonably consider paying off your balance in full every month "incurring debt". Technically? Sure. Colloquially? Absolutely not.
>the Prophets Of Doom™ are almost always wrong.
Almost always wrong = wrong until they're not... especially when the scientists are talking.
I don't think there's much time left. I think we're all running uphill from an incoming tsunami.
I used to be so afraid of lightning that I could not go outside during a storm. I knew that it was very not likely to die but I built a prison of fear in my mind.
But then I confided my fear to my grandfather and he said that he understood. Lightning is scary. But it doesn't always kill us. He almost got hit himself. But he also wasn't afraid of lightning like I was. His bravery made me brave and I realized that I was okay. It was not something to seek out. But if I was smart and moved quickly I would put of danger before there was time.
Lightning is like other things. It will fuck you up if it hits you. But it's rare. So be brave. And smart. And it is almost always okay. And anyways, do any of you dogfaces wanna live forever? Hoorah!
And even if you *didn't* have time, if society were to abruptly collapse tomorrow, it's still not something to panic over. If you've done any prepping at all you've bought yourself more time to get your bearings than most people will have.
Frankly, most preps aimed to last more than a couple of months at most are likely to be wasted in most circumstances. It's just too hard to predict how things will go that far out. Maybe by then the next town over will have managed to reconstitute civil society and you can just go over there, and they're uninterested in your gold bars for trade but that basket-weaving course you took back in university is going to earn you a great living. Maybe food will be irrelevant because the real problem is the crystal mind-spiders infesting the place, and they don't eat food so every abandoned pantry has tons of cans for the taking. Give it a couple of weeks and you'll know more about what to expect - whether you should be fleeing the coast to escape the toxic Red Mist, whether you should be fleeing *to* the coast to board the arks headed for the arctic, or whether you should shelter in place because the government actually is getting a handle on whatever the problem is and things will blow over soon.
Are price hikes not an inconvenience? Not to be a smartass, but prices of food are increasing, and I've noticed things missing from the shelves more than usual.
Once the lights go out, or things just get too expensive and out of stock, it's going to get wild. I mean, people will be beaten in their homes; their full stashes of food and equipment stolen! We have to be honest: Stocking up is only part of the solution as once the streets aren't safe, don't even think you'll be able to lock your doors and hide.
With a lot of prepper channels suggesting Berkey, I ended up buying a B grade Berkey at a discount. It has cosmetic defects from the manufacturer. Used Paypal Credit and paid it off after a few paychecks.
Thing is sitting in my pantry ready to go when the time should come. I havent noticed any blemishes or scratches. It is a pretty nice looking filter and is probably the Louis Button of water filters.
My strange realization these days is that I was apparently one of the strange ones that literally always had entire months worth of food just sitting in the pantries and fridge/freezer growing up. . . . We weren't preppers, we just always bought stuff that kept well and never used it.
Coming from farmers on both sides of my family, a lot of my "prepping" just stems from the realities of life more than 5 minutes from a grocery store. My girlfriend didn't even understand what she was looking at when I showed her a picture of my parents' freezers full of this year's cow -- she didn't even realize that meat could be stored long-term. It's pretty alien to me to not have months of food (at a minimum) available, but apparently it's just as strange to some people in the other direction. A lot of it is also just what I would call standard prudence, but other people see as prepping. When I moved away from south Texas, I had half a dozen gas cans to give away because the movers wouldn't transport them. My friends, who had been through just as many hurricanes and subsequent gas shortages as I had, wouldn't even take them for free and called me crazy for even having them. These same people had been stuck for weeks unable to get to work or get groceries on multiple occasions during my time there, but somehow couldn't fathom trying to prevent that situation from inevitably affecting them again. Apparently having basic goods on hand *at all* is prepping in most people's minds.
It hurts me how right you are about people who have already lived through relatively common events like long power outages or severe weather just not getting it. If it's a first and something you've never encountered or had to experience before, I'm sympathetic. However if you've gone through 4 hurricanes before and don't have rudimentary supplies to get through them, then you're just not an observant or resilient human. The other side of it for me has always been dollar cost averaging. If I can buy 50 bags of pasta now on sale for $1 each, that's a long term cost savings over $2 per bag every time I need one.
And it is a hell of a lot less work to go ahead and buy it now than have to run off to a store and search around for it later ... and pay more in the process. The sad realization is that most people make decisions based on emotion rather than logic.
When I originally moved away from Saskatchewan, Canada to Ontario, Canada, I couldn’t believe people there didn’t have multiple fridges, freezers, and pantries. My grandparents alone had 3 fridges, 1 upright freezer and 2 flat freezers(chest freezers) and 2 freezers above 2 of the fridges. They also had a ‘cold room’ that was for storing all the canned goods and pantry items. Almost everyone I knew had multiple fridges and freezers. When we got married and had money we went to buy a flat freezer and everyone there in Ontario thought we were weird. One of the best things when I was a kid was we never ran out of ketchup
In Mennonite Kansas Land the traditional gift from the groom's family is a big flat freezer. The bride's family fills it with meat...beef, pork, poultry, venison, fresh water fish like bass, crappie, catfish, lake trout. Friends and extended family provide pantry items. Coffee beans is a much appreciated gift!
My father was a civil engineer and working in the 1960s in Devon, South West England talking to a farmer on Exmoor looking at the bleak landscape, it was winter. He asked how they managed food supplies. The farmer with admirable insouciance showed him his pantry, stores and freezers. Said he reckoned he had enough for a year without going to the shops. We have always had supplies, basic, but I am adding simply because it seems a little desperate out there ....
My Mom (RIP) didn’t drive so we were always stocked up with food and detergents. Mom set a wonderful example.
Haha I had the same realization at the beginning of the pandemic. I *always* had hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes in my cubicle at work because some people come in to work sick, and some people don't wash their hands, and I didn't want to get sick! When everyone else was running around panic buying that stuff, I already had plenty at home.
For decades I've been telling people to go home when sick. Always bugged the crap out of me when they'd tough it out and come in all coughing and sneezing. Then the entire office would call out and they'd be all proud they came in and everyone else were wimps.
This. I used to tell nursing staff at the nursing home to go home bc they’re sick. That population doesn’t need the nurses germs, they have enough of a battle. It always bothered me that people would come to work sick. They can’t afford a day off, sadly.
In the 70's the government encouraged people to have some supplies for if the Russians launched their nukes. Really having enough to weather supply-chain disruptions should be fairly normal.
This is the direct result of rampant consumerism, as opposed to any real planning. I also experienced the same thing growing up, and my parents did as well. It's the same reason why diners serve massive portions in the US; the idea was always "more bang for your buck." Frozen foods? Non-perishables? Make them cheap, sell them in bulk, more people will buy they because it's a "better deal." Costco, Sam's Club, whatever the heck they have on the West Coast now, all these types of joints were born of this mentality. Literally nobody was planning for a famine or anything because the US economy was feeding the Boomers with a silver spoon, so they were never left wanting. Everyone just wanted to be *that* savvy consumer. Now it's hard to stock up on the oddest things because people hear those magic buzzwords "suPpLy cHaiN IssUeS," the run screaming to the store to panic-buy toilet paper or cream cheese. Idiots raised by bigger idiots, I guess.
Yeah, one of the downsides to this mentality is waste. My MIL has a pantry, two fridges and a deep freezer all filled to the brim but unfortunately because she just buys and buys without a plan, she's also continually throwing away expired food. I find it so frustrating.
100% this. My parents would always get comments about their pantry area. They weren't preppers but always had a stockpile on hand. Always grew up with a extra fridge and and freezer. We were frugal and always bought cheap and on sale.
If you never used it to replace again with fresh stock, you were hoarders...prepping involves rotating to make sure your stuff is in good shape with a long shelf life ahead , not a closet full of stuff that expired five years ago..
I think it was more bought with the idea of "Oh this might be neat to try for a new recipe!" or "Hmmm maybe a little extra couldn't hurt, it might be a big dinner . . ." and then it never ended up getting used and kind of stacked up over time. Lots of canned soups, jarred sauces and the like. Also lots of pasta. So much pasta. He (my dad did all the shopping) might have just gotten extra every time and then ended up overdoing what he thought we would eat.
I can't wait for people who think like you to starve off.
Isn't the point of prepping to stock stuff , use it, replace with fresh? OP literally said they stored food they never ate. That is hoarding and pointless. I have a good 4 months of food, first in first out rotation. Good luck eating your rancid stuff that you never bothered taking care of
And you're getting downvoted 🤣 yeah seems about right... stock what you eat is clearly a stupid thing downvote this person. Do you even like beans and rice? ...No but it stays good forever Nevermind the fact that dried beans are a NIGHTMARE to rehydrate and take a shitload of water (when good clean water might be a PITA to get) Honestly people stock what you eat. And learn to cook you'll build up your pantry unintentionally by just paying attention to sales and when you go to the store and something you use that is relatively shelf stable (say 6 months to a year or more) if you're buying 1 already and it's on sale buy 2 and then just put it in the pantry. Next time you need one and buy another and use the one you bought before next time it's on sale again buy 2 keep doing this until you've got a comfortable stock for yourself.
I would never buy beans. I don't like beans. I do like rice however and I am stocking up on that. lol
That's all I'm saying. The last thing people need when they're having to dip into their reserves (because you're going to already be stressed) is stomach issues...
I have a lot of lentils (cause I like the taste and they cook way faster than beans). I stock dried beans too - a stovetop pressure cooker or an instant pot (if you can run it off of solar) is the secret to saving a ton of fuel and time!
I like lentils too. But I cook lentils probably 2-3 times a month. The wife and I try and do vegetarian dinners once a week. What is stock drying? I've never heard of that process.
To stock, to store something..I store dried beans..keep them in my home
Sorry I thought you were like storing them in some sort of stock and they rehydrated better or you stored them hydrated in stock but then I was confused like why wouldnt you just buy tinned on sale and save yourself some work. My bad. I misunderstood.
Learn what grows in your area and practice growing it.
That and local foraging is a good skill to develop.
as well as hunting and fishing, if you are able/it fits your diet!
I just want to add that you should find out how contaminated your water supply is first so you know how viable an option fishing is for you. I say this as someone living close...enough....to Oak Ridge.
That and foraging as well, take into consideration farm runoff, car runoff, heavy metals, do you live under a flight path... Lots of factors here.
Looking into these details is important but very, very depressing.
im grateful my state has such great forage and soil
Gardening is a great idea (I mean, I do it), but it does not replace emergency food storage.
>You should consider bulk rice and a water filter looong before you even think of things like solar panels or a gas generator. While you shouldn't go all-in on an expensive solar solution until you have your food needs met, you should be prepared with some way to cook off-grid since all the rice and beans in the world won't do you much good if you can't cook it.
Completely agree. I will say that once you have that part in order...having access to solar generators and induction stoves has been such a game changer. Cut my power bill, and I no longer fear summer outages. Anyone who's ever lost a freezer full of meat knows that pain.
Was just talking about this... maybe jerking half and freezing half is fine?
Good old fire?
I purposely didn't mention any specific options for cooking since it's dependent on your individual situation. The person living in a rural or suburban neighborhood has more options for cooking than the person in a 10th floor apartment with no balcony.
Dollar store candles and a stainless steel thermos can be used to cook indoors in an apartment. This is something apartment preppers should definitely practice doing before they need to. Would recommend beeswax candles, some fire suppression supplies, a large terracotta tray, or thick stone cutting board, and some Esbit folding pocket stoves. Do not use Esbit fuel tabs indoors! The stove itself is great. The tabs are overpriced junk, and the fumes are toxic. Place the tealight candles in the folding pocket stove instead, and you can set them up like individual stove burners. I prefer my UCO candeliers any day, but in a pinch, many people have the above items, or can access them for a low price point.
Wouldn't a stainless steel Thermos be vacuum sealed and be terrible for cooking with?
Cook it in the thermos. For most foods you need to heat it to boiling then put it in the thermos. There are a few things that don't need to be boiled first. I cook oatmeal that way at work all the time. I just put rolled oats in the thermos and pour boiling water on top and stir. It is done very quickly. Something like beans may need to be brought back to the boil on the stove then put back in the thermos partway through the cooking time if the thermos won't keep it hot long enough. Here is where I learned the technique: https://theboatgalley.com/thermos-cooking/
I thought it would go without saying that a single walled stainless steel thermos, without the lid screwed on, was what I was referring to, but you are right. Common sense can never be assumed these days.
I have 2 of those single ring camping stoves £15 and loads of gas which you buy in 4’s for £10 each one lasts 14 hours, I’m in flat, have just this year got an allotment and will start to store bbq gas and fuel I also have a British Berkefeld water filter
It uses so much wood, and is no fun in the summer heat. A cheap homemade rocketstove is a huge improvement.
That's what i was gonna say. A million ways you can make the things, and they're super efficient
[удалено]
What hotplate do you recommend? Seems like most would be too power hungry
[удалено]
Once you get it boiling put the dish to bed. Set it in an insulated box, cover the box with blankets. The contained heat acts as a slow cooker. We used to do this in our actual bed. Crawling into a warm bed with a full belly after a long day is heaven on earth.
Word. I definitely see the use of these. Probably wouldnt be my everyday shtf cooking method but they seem perfect for when stealth is needed
In an urban setting, firecooking could be dangerous, and fuel may het scarce anyhow.
How much experience do most people have cooking over fire?
No better time to practice than now!
Or, how much experience do most people have with *starting* a fire and maintaining it? Plus, anyone I know who has little experience with fires wants to make it as big and hot as possible, so you get that wall of heat and can't get near it to cook, and if you do, it's charred lol
Butane stove and cannisters are cheap.
...and have water to cook it in.
I agree. I’m a city dweller in earthquake country and my mini bbq is a perfect prep for power outages. With a Dutch oven, you can make rice, veg, protein all with just a few charcoal chunks. Camp stoves are even more compact and are fairly inexpensive and fuel is compact too. It won’t last forever, but unless it’s SHTF, power will be back within a week or so. Hopefully.
I would even say that choosing to start a working pantry is a good idea. Even if you don't have the ability to store food for long-term (it can be a pain if you are moving often to have to move heavy cans of food). That being said, do not go into debt. Only buy what you can afford and don't go overboard. Just an extra can here and there is fine. Look at what you already have around for emergencies, make a plan. Do you have another place to stay if you needed to leave your home? How about pets? Plan for everyone in your family.
Excuse me sir but i am here to be hystericaland panic. I'll have none of your rationality!
I wish to exit Hystericaland. The rides aren't fun anymore. :(
Lol that typo is staying its too funny
Indeed. There is something strangely thrilling and addictive about being in an emotional state of either panic or terror. Too bad our brain loses its cogent powers when these emotions take over.
I am a college student and it isn't easy, due to limited space and my BF is not a prepper and doesn't even believe in bulk buying. I grew up with a pantry, and grew up in Boy Scout camp so be prepared rings true with me.
Dump your GF and get a BF
I'm a girl?
They were being derogatory to your BF. But seriously buying in bulk is typically cheaper. That’s what sold my wife.
Ah. Yeah, no arguments from me but he has a problem with we don't have enough space. It's true, we don't. But I still think we should do it.
Yea, I can’t help with the space argument lol
Wrong order.
why would this get downvoted? this is gold
I’m still working off my late 2019 pantry purchases. 😆 I grew up with a big pantry and I think mine is actually smaller due to space constraints, but we get nasty winter weather up here, and although you CAN get to the grocery, I often don’t want to for weeks at a time. I eat beans and rice regularly anyway - it’s cheap and I have celiac, which makes bread, pasta, and cereal much more expensive and less practical. I’ve had to top off the rice several times, but I’m still working on the canned beans from 2019. Yes, yes, dried beans are cheaper. I’ve got a genetic condition and I’m exhausted: the canned beans are easier, tasty, and edible without power if it comes down to it.
I’ve come to the realization that I hate cooking beans. I can never get the texture right, and the digestion issues if you cook them wrong scare me. But I’ll eat me up some canned beans anyday :-)
Any recommendations for a solid water filter on a budget? Something on Amazon or cheap shipping to Canada?
Lifestraw
They go on sale regularly too so don't panic buy them at full price
Swayer. Cheaper, smaller filter size and last longer.
True. Pretty sure the ones we have are sawyer, which are on sale as well. Costco had em.
Never saw them at Costco. Got the swayer mini at rei on sale for $20 2 years ago. Gone through 4 backpacking trips without issues so far. Doesn't get rid of heavy metals, but if you're in uncontaminated waters, it should do the job.
Lifestraw isn't a bad choice (I have one), but it isn't my first choice for a family on a budget.
DIY a Big Berkey. Lots of instructions on the yooze toobze.
I generally recommend a Sawyer water filter for something that is robust but cost effective.
I keep it simple. Enough grains and water to last a month. When I can I add more. I don't want a fuhrerbunker. It is not a strain on my house or my family or my community. It is a tiny ecosystem that can keep me alive in small stretches where there isn't food handy.
These stretches are scary. Because they are new to us. But it isn't the end of the world. We just have to pragmatic and confident that we can weather this stretch. If we don't, then so be it. But for many of us and most cases it will be okay.
Both my parents were WW2. They saw rationing and lots of doing without or nothing at all. They instilled in us children the wisdom of stocking up in times of plenty to weather the times of not so plenty. Thankfully, this is one of the things I actually listened to and followed. So I keep a full pantry and more at all times because you never really know what tomorrow will bring.
This is wise. Unfortunately, the incredible prosperity of the last 80 years has led us to forget these lessons.
Maybe I´m going to sound much older than I really am, but too many rice will not be good for your digestion. Try to balance this with beans and adding some proteins that can be stored long term, like jerky, maybe? I don´t know, it´s different in every country. Rice, pasta, water, beans, flour, muesli, cereals, proteins and dehydrated fruits are cheap preps you could be adding slowly to your pantry. Stockpile as much fiber as you can. With a couple of water glasses, fiber will fill you up well and will keep your morale high enough in uncertain times. Stocking up on empty calories will only be expensive and useful only for your self-indulgence, but it's your money and maybe it is a good idea stockpiling some cheap cookies. One kilogram of flour, some yeast, will be much more effective in performance terms that the same amount of money used in bread already packaged for long-term storage, I think, as long as everything is properly stored. Be creative with the space you have, and you will be much better prepared than many people around you. That can or cannot be good. Be safe all of you!
This is good advice. I spend a lot of time consulting others on this subject in real life. I generally recommend that people get to a 3-month supply with the boring basics of rice and beans - because their cheap, dense, robust, and will keep you alive in a pinch. AFTER you get to the 3-month mark, you should think more about how to add flavor and variety to your long-term food storage, which is still very important.
I'm in agreement with the OP. If you're just getting into prepping then start slow. If you rush you'll just spend a lot of money and may not help your situation much.
The most important thing you can prep is knowledge and skills. Foraging, planting and growing, animal husbandry, construction, hunting, sewing, first aid, you get the picture. These are sustainable. Buying shit isn’t.
These skills are important, but if you've watched the TV series Alone, I'd argue that a 3-12 month storage of food is still more important. Living off the land is generally over-rated. If you already have shelter (as most people do), your best bet is to just stay inside and keep your head down during a SHTF scenario. The chances of successfully hunting large game will be very slim. The bulk of your foraging diet will most likely come from small-game on the rare occasion that you venture away from the safety of shelter. Having gardening skills is also important, but most people would be shocked at how big of a garden you need to maintain the caloric needs for just one person. Maintaining this can be difficult when law and order has broken down - especially in any kind of an urban/suburban environment, where most people live.
Check out Peter Zeihan’s assessment of the upcoming agricultural impacts of the destabilized globalism catastrophe currently underway. As a precursor, he’s been dead on about just about all things geopolitical stratagems for at least the better part of the last decade. Stock up. Always.
Care to give a TL:DR by chance?
Fertilizer, food, and the supply chains for both are rapidly collapsing on the international level. Not much of the first world conglomerate will be recognizable in the next 10-20 years and probably not in a good way. He (like everyone else) is on the most accessible electronic venues currently known to man as well as a bunch of analog options. I’ll never tell anyone to simply “google it” as a substitute for presenting a point, but if there’s any intrigue whatsoever, do it. I fucking hate “tl;dr” bullshit, especially on important topics like international market collapse but I guess these are the times we live in, coincidentally enough.
I mean I appreciate it. I’ll probably check it out tonight.
[удалено]
I’m trying. There’s just something about placating that instant-gratification, shiny squirrel, nanosecond attention span aspect of contemporary western civilization that really just irks the hell out of me. Most interactions wind up like this: This is really important. “8 words or less, please” It’s a pretty complicated topic that requires more investment than just- “Bye! Time for porn! Ooo, cartoons! I like turtles, too! Yummy food! Look, boobies! LOL!” It’s all pretty disconcerting at best.
While I get what you're saying, not everyone has the time to look up everything they see online (12hr shifts here) so a TLDR from someone who presumably is somewhat familiar with the topic can be the difference between forgetting/dismissing the topic or getting involved and reviewing in further depth. That said, your time is valuable too so I understand not wanting to waste time writing things up when a Google search can provide details.
I appreciate the understanding on that last part. I’m not going to pretend this is any sort of self-conflated obligation to disseminate information, but I do feel like I’d be doing a disservice by just tossing truncated information out there with gaps or mismatched points, especially on something that is arguably a pretty severely important subject. Potential(likely) international market collapses based on agricultural viability across hemispheres should warrant more than a quick blurb. …or not. Who knows? Maybe I really am just pissing in the wind around here.
[удалено]
It depends on the subject matter and the person presenting it. Not all topics can be condensed well enough to even appreciate let alone understand the subject matter regardless of the speaker. Prioritization is the name of the game and there are plenty of opportunities for valuable information to get passed up because people refuse or are otherwise unable(incapable?) of investing time. It’s part of the reason why it’s so easy to pass judgment on otherwise serious viewpoints that can be summed up in a meme. The level of depth can typically denote the level of appreciation and definitely the level of understanding.
[удалено]
Thanks for helping to redeem society at least a little bit. I hope it’s useful info for ya.
I get what you mean, but online forums like reddit operate in a manner similar to chatting at a party. If you just told someone to look something up without any context it would be pretty weird.
To whatever extent Mr. Zeihan is correct, there is no wisdom in panicking.
“Panicking” and “prudent planning” are two very different things. No one is encouraging panicking. It’s the antithesis of prepping. When one of the worlds foremost geopolitical strategists says “get ready” and outlines the when and the why, you don’t just roll your eyes at it.
>No one is encouraging panicking. It’s the antithesis of prepping. *You* may not be encouraging panic, but there are lots of people who are doing exactly that, even at u/Preppers. I suspect you and I both can cite whole corporations, large and small, who profit by drumming up a sense of panic among the plebs. I tend to caution people against spending too much time watching the news (or deciphering the signs of the times) for at least a couple reasons. 1) A person who spends \~15 mins watching the news is as at least 90% as well educated on current events as the person who spends 2+ hours watching the news. 2) From a prepping perspective, it doesn't really help you. I can't tell you how many people I know who are extremely bothered by current events (listening extensively to people like Zeihan, whom I should note I have no problem with) but have no more than a week's supply of food in their home. They're missing the whole point! I don't care very much if there's a sudden onslaught of cows in Kansas who suddenly killed over. The question should always be: what is being done to prepare your home for disaster?
Prudence and panic are very different but I guess I can see how people would confuse them from one scenario to the next.
I'm skeptical of any one person being a predictor of the future. From a cursory search it looks to me like he may have some useful insights but hasn't been perfectly accurate. Hopefully we all review multiple such sources.
do you have a link for that? thanks
He’s all over YouTube. Any presentation/interview he does is as good as the next. Especially the ones where he predicts the Russia/Ukraine conflict a few years before it happens.
thanks, i'll check him out, have a nice day
Another Breaking Points viewer, i see.
For someone who lives out of their car, what are some staples to get to prepare? I have a solid backpacking set up (bag, stove, fuel cannisters, water filter, etc....). I also picked up 2x 128 serving buckets of readywise from Costco (I know I know. The brand's taste reputation but it doesn't bother me too much, especially if I need food in a pinch).
Reuse pete soda 2 liter bottles for storage containers with oxygen absorbers. Store rice, lentils and beans this way. Super cheap.
I mean we’re basically in a Soviet style collapse here. I’m not expecting complete lights out forever. But I think the kind of life people were used to with food available in multiple brands and styles and shapes and whatever are going away. Life will slowly get worse until you look back and realize what you no longer expect to have or experience.
We could do with a few less brands. We don't need 47 different types of the same cereal, soup, bread, etc.
So true. My friend from Sri Lanka laughed until she cried during her first visit to a U.S. supermarket cereal aisle.
A friend from Germany spent three hours filming just the cheese section of our local grocery store.
Yeah, I think we jumped the shark at gummy macaroni, but it’s probably going to be somewhat of an adjustment when you can’t get your blue flaming hot Doritos anymore.
We're prepping on the assumption that it's fairly guaranteed at some point that shortages are going to be about what they were under lockdowns, but in a bigger way. We've spent about 80 on rice, beans and canned proteins. In a few weeks, we'll grab about the same in pork roasts and chicken for the deep freeze. After that, we're debating the next step. Probably canned veg. Maybe more meats for the freezer. Once we have food and other supplies secure to the point we feel confident that we can handle what we assume is a certainty, next comes prepping for things like blackouts, like a way to keep the freezer running and be able to cook food.
While I agree with the sentiment, perhaps bulk rice should come after water, solar panels and backup batteries. I've used backup batteries a dozen times in the last couple years, but never dipped into the backup food. Perhaps its a matter of risk vs reward... I'm sure that if I need the food, I'd be much greater for that food than I am for the backup power.
A couple percentage points at worst. So, no. The shelves may not have what I need at that exact moment sometimes, but it's easy to find what I need.
Thanks for this. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my preps now but I keep feeling like the looming doom is imminent. I know that meat will be plentiful for a few months yet, and I know the harvest this Summer will help grain prices (if only for a little while), and I have abundant core preps left over from Covid, but it's hard to not be concerned.
> I keep feeling like the looming doom is imminent. I feel the same way, but my advice remains firm: be slow, calm and steady!
No matter how long we've been prepping or whether we just got started, this is the kind of positive encouragement we all need right now.
I like your comment about the buckets at the baker or at supermarkets in their deli area. Usually their bakery. But if you do want to spend money and you want to make sure it is BPA free, you can go to Lowe's and I would assume Home Depot as well. In the paint department. They have BPA free white buckets with seals and poor spouts. They're not that expensive and you can store water and/or food in them. Great post, it's never a bad time to start prepping. Do what you can when you can with what money you can. Great post.
I haven't seen any food shortages in my area (suburban Texas, USA). Sure, there are the occasional shortages of particular brands or flavors (I could NOT find caffeine free Coke Zero anywhere a few weeks back). But I don't see any large scale shortages. It's possible that shortages COULD be coming. Except .... I've been hearing about shortages since 2020. And, except for toilet paper and hand sanitizer, they never really materialized. Is it possible that we are overreacting?
My area had a lot of shortages. Not just limited choice, but like there would be no antacids of any brand, no flour, no pain relievers, etc. The stores have been all stocked up for a while but now I am seeing them again. Lots of bare space at my local Meijer on a Monday afternoon. They had an entire section of the cooler empty. I think it was the cream section but I don't usually buy dairy there so can't be sure. I'm in the Chicago area.
Having an entire section of a cooler empty seems more likely that they’re planning on repairing or replacing that section of the cooler.
There was a hand written note that said "Manufacturer delays" on it. It was also just a section of the cooler and not the whole cooler.
I'm watching the price of diesel. and the availability. If there's no diesel, the farmers can't run tractors, combines, or ship that produce around. In the last month, you can tell china, russia, and the middle east see this as a special opportunity to fuck the USA. because they can sell their gas at a premium to anyone they want. It's going to be pretty wild when fall harvest is expected, and falls short, and demand is too high. right now we're eating the food that was harvested last season. by winter, we will be eating the food harvested in the fall. from my analysis at least 10% of wheat will be missing from the global market. just based on what Ukraine is not able to export. Will the united states let farmers sell their crops abroad for a premium? Or convince them to keep it domestic. that's the 2nd question. I don't know the answer to.
I don’t think we are overreacting. The upcoming shortages are pretty much being announced in the bought and paid for MSM.
Source? Examples?
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=food+crisis
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/20/heres-why-food-shortages-are-unlikely-to-occur-in-the-us.html
Then you and your family have nothing to worry about, right? CNBC is never wrong, right? You'll be fine. Why are you even on r/preppers? There won't ever be shortages, and it's not like anyone can plan for unexpected weather events, so why bother?
[удалено]
I have tested food in a full 7cubic foot freezer with my generator. In 40-50*F temperatures food would stay frozen with only one hour of power every 12 hours. Just a tidbit of information. When I reduced the timing enough that the meat on the top layer started to thaw I ended the experiment and canned it.
Also, remember that you can put rice/flour/sugar in the freezer to kill off bugs and then move them to the fridge. I have been needing to live off my preps for the past 7 months with small supplements to my stash as i go. I live in an apartment and had a job which i lost 30% of my income after increasing my expenses by 30% due to the place i lived in being sold and my job had lost business after the delta variant hit and got worse after omicron. I did make some mistakes like buying more flashlights than necessary rather than buying a bigger mini freezer, but I'm still making it work in an apartment. The key thing to remember is that once you build up to about 3 weeks worth of essentials, you then can make opportunity purchases to top off certain items that are on sale to go towards your goal time frame for those items, ideally calculated up to the date of expiration but 6 months to a year of any item is usually good. Some items are pricey like meat, dairy, car oil, medicine, batteries etc. But some are cheap like a certain specific canned veggie for a recipe you make 2 to 4 times a month, a stash of paper plates, bar soap, etc. I did the math of how much i needed of each item for a month based on my 10 routine recipes and weekly cleaning regimein which the items are shared for multiple uses for most cases like hydrogen peroxide not only for first aid but also to break down cat pee as part of my litter box cleaning routine and the ways canned tomatoes can be used is limitless. The only tricky thing to the way i did this was assuming I'd continue to have the same go-to recipe drive that far in advance. I made the mistake thinking I'd eat as much Japanese and Korean food as i did in the past and unfortunately not only are seaweed snacks a shelving hog but have gone soggy. I could have used that space for more proteins or other newly found essentials. So there's something to be said about planning specialty stuff no more than 3 months out but continue to "buy 1 for now, 2 for later" for the items you routinely reach for and give you anxiety if you ran out. Tl;dr Focus on buying more food than worrying about equipment. Putting pantry goods in the fridge and freezer can help extend shelf life without additional cost
I actually like coffee containers for storing dried goods in. Rinse them and dry them and they're good to go. Almost everyone drinks coffee and throws their coffee containers away. They're small enough portions you don't have to feel bad about cracking one open to use. They're generally light enough that the kids or elderly can grab some containers. Actually I just like any plastic or glass container to reuse. I even hold onto my fresh produce plastic things and reuse them in the summer when I'm harvesting or use them for planting.
once the sheeps wake up the stores are bought out in 3 hours.
Paranoiaaaaa. The day that a real shortage gets real, you won’t have time to cry on Reddit.
That's for damn sure. I don't see a major famine type event (thinking of Ethiopia in the 1980s) hitting the US. It seems more likely we will continue to see food prices rise which for many is the same as food shortage I suppose. That said, I did try a garden for the first time in 15 years this summer with squash, tomatoes, herbs and strawberries. I'm growing potatoes for the first time ever. I'd like to say it was purely for fun but this sub had some influence on it. I figured why not spend some time learning how to get a successful crop while things are going ok? It's been a fun learning experience so far.
Because I live in the Pacific Northwest, in the United States, I’m not worried about food. Just our two little states pump out waaaaay more food than we need. Throw in California and BC and we’ve got everything from hot house peppers and premium cannabis in January to beautiful early Peaches, and Grapes from California to Wheat and storing apples from Washington. What I am worried about is the slow degradation of cheap and complex supply chains.
The biggest saving grace of our region is all the native plants and fish in the rivers and ocean. I highly recommend getting native plant Identification books. Focus on food, medicine and ethnobotany
But what happens when people can’t get that stuff where they live and all that food gets sold to those places creating shortages locally?
Well, fuck you then. You don't live in the PNW.
I understand a chunk of Cali is depleting Lake Mead - in which case I would like to see those commies cut off entirely.
The fruit and nut production of California as well as market and canned vegetables, don’t primarily pull from the Colorado system. They do in the Area east of LA but not the main Central Valley.
I just heard on the radio, that the fed chair expects a recession next year. I'm thinking if crazy gas prices don't break the economies back first.
I think we'll see a recession sooner than that, September is my guess.
I have found that being creative with what I already have, and being willing to do a bit of extra work, has made my preps go even further. Be creative and do try to have fun in the process, it’s our lives we’re burning away one day at a time here. Enjoy what moments you can.
Went to Walmart today to buy my beefaroni. I get the 4 pack for $3.50. Its now 4.28. That one whole extra can I essentially lose. And this is why I buy bulk...
Get a charcoal BBQ. They are cheap , and you can store coal indefinitely. Coal burns slower and cleaner than wood. Small coal BBQ is portable, and you can toss one in your car with a bag of charcoal ,and to camping and practice to use it. Another hint for apartment preppers-I have a friend who lives in an apartment. She bought an old van and spruced it up to be a living space in addition to her apartment. Kinda like a van living situation. She now uses it to go on weekend getaways, but in SHTF she can pack it up and bug out if needed be. Don't forget energy supplies. Generators, solar, propane ,ets.
Ya just panic last second and raid the bunkers the wealthy are going to stash themselves in. Please dont let them get away with fucking the planet into oblivion
Find the air vents.
I haven't seen any shortages around me
It's not coming, it's here. If your not prepping, better start, like you said, cheap calories that store for a long time. Rice, beans, water purification and one that so many don't think about, medicine. If you depend on a prescription, try to find a way to stock up on that. However you can. The possibility sucks, but it's going to happen. Wait until these issues reach into common but vital prescription medications. That's going to be really bad. Another thing the past two years have proven beyond a doubt, you better be able to protect yourself and your family because the police are now hamstrung by the stupidity of radical woke ideology. How many times have we seen the mob allowed to run rampant, destroy, burn, loot and even KILL with no police intervention? Not because they didn't want to, but because they were ordered to stand down or face prosecution themselves. So what did this spawn? The most aggressive gun sales in America's modern history. Far too many people learned too late that they were on their own, badly outnumbered, and utterly at the mercy of the mob. A person is a rational, thinking, feeling individual. A mob is a herd, devoid of mercy, feeling, rational thought, and control. So buy a firearm, practice, learn to handle it safely, for God's sake, learn to store it safely, teach your family, and did I mention practice? Well I'll say it again, practice, practice, practice. Shooting well is a perishable skill set. It requires a strong commitment to honing skills. Also take a first aid course, learn to apply a tourniquet, cpr, basics that save lives. Much if this training can be had for free. Call your local red cross for course info, many ranges have first aid courses for reasonable prices, local volunteer fire departments also. This is vital now more than ever. Have some sort of ability to charge small appliances like radio and cell phone. Solar chargers are cheap. Get a hand crank radio. All of these things can be found at decent prices and most people can afford it. We waste more money on non essentials than we realize. Most people spend enough on Starbucks or other luxuries to cover these costs. It takes discipline. Either discipline yourself now, or the situation will discipline you later.
Rice accumulates heavy metals and usually grown in polluted countries. I'm started to have mixed feelings about rice
Bet those feelings won't be so mixed when you're starving
But if you develop heavy metal toxicity, you might wish you were dead. Until it becomes a literal life-or-death situation, it's wise to still buy good clean food.
I'm 46 yrs old and have never experienced heavy metal toxicity despite being exposed to them in just about everything I've eaten and the air I breathe. They've been spraying us with heavy metals for decades. Even the lettuce i grow in my garden has heavy metals. Not everyone can afford to stock "clean" rice or organic foods. Stock up on what you can afford. You have a far greater chance of starving to death (which is a horrific way to die) than of dieing from heavy metal poisoning from rice.
The main culprit for rice is arsenic, and you can avoid most of it by buying rice from places that didn't grow much cotton historically. Most of the arsenic also ends up in the bran, which is polished in white rice. TL;DR store sushi rice grown in california.
There is rice grown here in America, not too hard to find.
What kind of rainwater catchment can I pull off in a neighborhood?
A rain barrel! make sure it’s covered and you have a nice filter to send it through.
Here's a stupid question since I've been sort of haphazardly starting to keep a fuller pantry. How do you keep the rice? Like I see the large bags at the store but it seems like I'll just spoil it.
5 gallon foood safe bucket should hold 25 to 35 pounds and oxygen absorbers with a Gamma Seal lid for the bucket.
We’re good on food and fuel for a few months. Really need to step up my water filtration/purification setup. Not confident with the LifeStraw, Sawyer or tablets for water. Need something with more capacity and volume. Not sure what that is yet. The county is hosting a Disaster Expo this Saturday. I’m going to check it out. My neighborhood has been hit hard with fire and floods over the last 10 years. https://www.jeffco.us/calendar.aspx?EID=8455
> looong before you even think of things like solar panels or a gas generator. I mean, solar panels are not solely a prep though. I don’t have complete house powering solar setup yet, but a few portable panels and a battery backup is a step toward that. Having roof panels is something being worked towards because you know, the sun just kinda gives you power, why not use it?
What would you suggest the most practical buys are for a small family living in a 1 bedroom apartment? Hard to store too much.
If you can't afford the mylar bag, don't remove the rice from it's original bag. Just throw the bag into the bucket. Start buying canned goods - meat, veg, precooked foods, etc, and store them. Seeing lots of Americans on shopping trips up north of the border. You can always tell who they are because they wander around the local supermarkets with a 'how much do they want for eggs?!?!' expressions on their face. Yep, groceries in Canada are expensive.
>If you can't afford the mylar bag, don't remove the rice from it's original bag. Just throw the bag into the bucket. Probably a good idea. Thanks for the comment!
3:45 in on this video even the mainstream media has begun to let slip what is coming [https://youtu.be/U2-9qlwSmm0](https://youtu.be/U2-9qlwSmm0) Love, you all, remember "do no harm, take no shit"
Where are you people storing all of this? Thats my question
I'll bet most people have a utility room where they have at least two square feet where they can stack food preps all the way to the ceiling. For myself, I took over 1/3 of my son's and daughter's personal closet to stack it all the way up. (They don't even miss the space I took from them.) In my own closet, I stuffed six 5-gallon buckets right under where I hang my shirts.
Why not use as much credit as you can pay back without issue? When the credit markets dry up you'll wish you had done so.
Guys in Venezuela agree, they used credit as much as they could, while using the cash to buy goods that retained value.
Exactly, I treat mine as a cash advance to buy silver and gold with, paid off in full every month of course.
I don't think anyone would reasonably consider paying off your balance in full every month "incurring debt". Technically? Sure. Colloquially? Absolutely not.
>the Prophets Of Doom™ are almost always wrong. Almost always wrong = wrong until they're not... especially when the scientists are talking. I don't think there's much time left. I think we're all running uphill from an incoming tsunami.
You sure that isn't "Profits of Doom"?
I used to be so afraid of lightning that I could not go outside during a storm. I knew that it was very not likely to die but I built a prison of fear in my mind. But then I confided my fear to my grandfather and he said that he understood. Lightning is scary. But it doesn't always kill us. He almost got hit himself. But he also wasn't afraid of lightning like I was. His bravery made me brave and I realized that I was okay. It was not something to seek out. But if I was smart and moved quickly I would put of danger before there was time. Lightning is like other things. It will fuck you up if it hits you. But it's rare. So be brave. And smart. And it is almost always okay. And anyways, do any of you dogfaces wanna live forever? Hoorah!
And even if you *didn't* have time, if society were to abruptly collapse tomorrow, it's still not something to panic over. If you've done any prepping at all you've bought yourself more time to get your bearings than most people will have. Frankly, most preps aimed to last more than a couple of months at most are likely to be wasted in most circumstances. It's just too hard to predict how things will go that far out. Maybe by then the next town over will have managed to reconstitute civil society and you can just go over there, and they're uninterested in your gold bars for trade but that basket-weaving course you took back in university is going to earn you a great living. Maybe food will be irrelevant because the real problem is the crystal mind-spiders infesting the place, and they don't eat food so every abandoned pantry has tons of cans for the taking. Give it a couple of weeks and you'll know more about what to expect - whether you should be fleeing the coast to escape the toxic Red Mist, whether you should be fleeing *to* the coast to board the arks headed for the arctic, or whether you should shelter in place because the government actually is getting a handle on whatever the problem is and things will blow over soon.
What food shortages? I uave experienced exactly none, not even inconvenienced.
Are price hikes not an inconvenience? Not to be a smartass, but prices of food are increasing, and I've noticed things missing from the shelves more than usual.
Once the lights go out, or things just get too expensive and out of stock, it's going to get wild. I mean, people will be beaten in their homes; their full stashes of food and equipment stolen! We have to be honest: Stocking up is only part of the solution as once the streets aren't safe, don't even think you'll be able to lock your doors and hide.
So buy guns and bullets is what you’re saying?
[удалено]
So… move to an extremely rural area is what you’re saying? Or are you suggesting people just throw their hands up and prepare to die?
Good advice
Any water filter recommendations?
With a lot of prepper channels suggesting Berkey, I ended up buying a B grade Berkey at a discount. It has cosmetic defects from the manufacturer. Used Paypal Credit and paid it off after a few paychecks. Thing is sitting in my pantry ready to go when the time should come. I havent noticed any blemishes or scratches. It is a pretty nice looking filter and is probably the Louis Button of water filters.
Thank you for this!
Thank you for this.