Survival Food – Freeze Dried & MRE

Most people find it overwhelming to take action to have a long term food storage to be prepared for disasters and economic uncertainty.

They read lots of information online that tells them they have to radically change their lifestyle to support food storage. The people who write these food storage advice articles are often already in a lifestyle suited to what they preach.

There is nothing wrong with their advice, it simply doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us urban dwelling working parents with kids who have tons of activities and school projects to do every week.

How to Get Started With Your Food Storage is one of those interview articles where the person has a lot of home time to bake bread, use milk powder, and spend tons of time cooking from scratch. This is great if you are in a lifestyle that supports it but for most of us that is not the case.

Answering the question about how often the food storage is used the person replies;

Now it’s natural. But I would say every meal. I make my own bread so at lunch we have that, at breakfast if we have cereal or something then it has the powdered milk. And then dinner would have usually milk or onions or something. I use it all the time.

Further they are asked on advice to those getting started in food storage since it is “a hard step” ;

So what I would say is just pick one thing that you’re going to start with. And one of the things I think is easiest to start with is powdered milk

Okay, so I want to be prepared and I start with powered milk. How many months or years go by before we are ready? How long before most of us just give up?

On the other hand you can order a freeze dried food storage family unit and be ready in a week when it arrives.

You will have 3 months worth of ready to eat meals for your family that costs about the same as the average American family pays now for the same meals in groceries. The food will store for 25 years so if you don’t need it this year or next, it will still be there for you whenever you need it.

Those who are supporting their families with a traditional food storage lifestyle are inspirations to us all.

Those who want to be prepared next week and buy a freeze dried food storage have also done a great thing for their family and friends.

2009 has started off with a few articles on the rising popularity of survialism, one from main stream Financial Times and another from the relatively popular Alternet (500k plus visitors per month).

The article “How to survive the world’s end” in the Financial Times talks about how survivalist websites have become much more popular in the last year. There is a quote from James Rawles of survivalblog.com saying that his visitor base has broadened considerably in the last year to include a wider swath of society and traffic has tripled.

The Alternet article “Business Is Booming for Industry Catering to Survivalists” talks about the businesses that are benefiting from the increased popularity of survivalist lifestyle goods and services. From realtors selling survival retreats, to homesteading and self-sufficiency equipment, and of course survival food.

One quote that stuck out in the article was by Richard Mitchell Jr., professor emeritus at Oregon State University and author of “Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times.”

He stated;

‘The narrative is that “there are troubles ahead, but ‘just right’ troubles, the kind survivalists have the means to confront … imagined troubles always match the means at hand — or what is for sale to solve the problem.” ‘ (bold is mine)

So if there are disaster scenarios that are not the ‘just right troubles’ that the survivalists predict, then how can you get prepared for them?

The survivalist emphasis may be a popular theme at this time with people worried about an economic depression and even the possibility of a collapse.

I am concerned though that the emphasis on preparedness has been lost.

Preparedness for disasters and difficult times is something all should engage in. If disproportionate resources are spent on living a ‘survivalist lifestyle’ and preparing for a total collapse (one scenario) then you may not be prepared as well as you think for any other disaster scenarios, many of which are far more likely.

In difficult times Thanksgiving takes on more meaning.

This year that meaning is much more stronger than it has been at any time in our lives.

Food may be at the heart of thanksgiving but the most important part really is family and community.

So to be prepared means to be prepared for your family and prepared for your community.

There is no preparedness for oneself that has meaning.

And it is meaning that sustains us, not food.

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