Food storage "out of the closet"?

[DuppyDo]

I think by being in the publics face ,Glenn Beck will get alot of people thinking. Some will start preparing, but most folks will just forget about it and go on with their daily affairs.Some will feel they haven't the money now to stock up.Some will think, this is silly, food prices may go up some, but i'll be able to get what i need.No matter how you slice it, alot of people are going to be caught off guard.Like my neighbor like to say...
" By the time you relize whats going on, its usaully already to late." I hope my opinion is wrong, but i don't think so..
If you started preparing for some time now, thats good.Those just getting started are going to find it harder now to prepare, because of price increases and demand...

 

[FarmerChick]

Glenn Beck did a long segment on his TV show today regarding food storage (please, no flaming comments about him being a lunatic, etc)...as far as I know, he's the only well-known figure even talking about this. He talked alot about the price of corn going up, so by extension the price of LOTS of other things will as well. (As well as the price of clothes going up because of cotton prices.) Do you think food storage/emergency prep will finally/eventually go "mainstream"? Or will the vast majority of people continue to keep their heads in the sand?

Personally I don't know a single person prepping (but then, most of us keep our plans to ourselves).

Also, his studio audience was 95% women; don't know if that was by design, members of a group, a coincidence, or whatever. I have noticed that it appears the majority of the members of this forum are women.

This kinda has 2 parts in original post to me.

food prep/emergency prep are not the same as being a true prepper in my lingo lol

many people have big pantries. many have candles, backup flashlights, water storage cause they live in disaster type areas prone to floods, tornado, blizzards, etc etc

a real prepper to me is the type that has guns, ammo, a bomb shelter, medical supplies (and not just aspirin lol) gas storage, etc etc....they are the ones that prepare for the end kinda.

I think the word prepper is throwing the post off

Are more people going to prep for food and emergencies...yes I think many living in areas of high disaster problems do this already.

Are more people going to prep for food and emergencies in non-disaster areas cause of higher prices....well kinda. When on sale they are going to stock their pantries more I would think.

Mild prep will only get you so far and you might still not have any skills to truly get thru a monster disaster. Big prep like the survivialist, well, they can survive for long periods of time.

heck I don't know now, I see it from a few angles haha

most americans will not get on board with stocking foods to the level of survival---most will hit sales and stock up a pantry to save some money sure

the minute you let someone else provide for you, is the minute you gave your life for others to control. So being a farmer like me, I don't have to worry about food truly in a sense of prices. I got the skills to plant, animal husbandry, etc etc......

 

[i_am2bz]

food prep/emergency prep are not the same as being a true prepper in my lingo lol

many people have big pantries. many have candles, backup flashlights, water storage cause they live in disaster type areas prone to floods, tornado, blizzards, etc etc

a real prepper to me is the type that has guns, ammo, a bomb shelter, medical supplies (and not just aspirin lol) gas storage, etc etc....they are the ones that prepare for the end kinda.

I think the word prepper is throwing the post off

I can't recall for sure, but I don't think Glenn used the word "prep" himself, he was specifically urging people to "be prepared" (whatever your own definition of that is) but first of all to have long-term food storage.

It sounds like I myself might be somewhere in the middle of a lot of ya'll. I do have a lot of canned goods, rice, flour, butter, etc. as well as lanterns, batteries, rain barrels, medical supplies, emergency radio, butane stove, on & on...but I am nowhere NEAR being SS...I do have 4 chickens, & did manage a small garden this summer, but that's not anything close to managing in a SS way. I only have 3/4 of an acre, I do intend to greatly increase my gardening next year. Being SS, or something close to it, is a dream/goal of mine that I work toward incrementally.

So...if we limit the definition of "prepping" to just having a year's supply of food...how many people will actually do it? Very, very few, I'm thinking. (It takes a HUGE amount of space, if nothing else!)

 

[FarmerChick]

a years supply of food

well depending on what you want to eat everyday, lol, that can be easily achieved....bread and water hahaha

heck people in some countries live on milk from any of their livestock and a flat bread ya know made from whatever is around, like cactus or some other pulp type edible tree etc.

I think alot of regular old people's pantries are full with supplies, a year, probably not.

 

[i_am2bz]

Maybe the larger question is, what would it take for more people to start preparing...? Maybe the price of food doubling, or just disappearing off the shelves completely? Would the president (whoever it happens to be at the time) going on national TV & making an FDR/fireside chat kind of statement about it? Or the message getting out in the schools - you know, when the little ones bring home an assignment, "how many cans of soup does mom & dad have in their cupboard?" kind of thing...(I'm not promoting any of those things, BTW, just wondering aloud)

 

[TanksHill]

I don't watch Beck, and to be honest I don't really know who he is.

We store what we eat and eat what we store. I buy in bulk because it's cheaper.

Most of my SS and homestead skills come form living in a single salary household. I do everything I can to cut the cost so I can be home with my kids.

When times got tough all the skills, and storage were already there. And came in really handy.

Being completely SS would involve a lot more animals and land than I currently have.

I guess I am not a "Prepper", Just a frugal SAHM with homestead hobbies.

By the way if my kid came home and had to write a report on how much soup was in my pantry it would be awful short. I don't buy canned soup. I make it from scratch. Its less expensive.

Karen your right about the year's supply. It would definitely depend on what your eating. I suppose if we had to we could stretch a regular pantry a long way.

 

[FarmerChick]

well the situations are so varied that I don't think we can start a "national prepare for the worst" day truly

people in cities can not grow their own foods (well other than balcony tomatoes lol)
and people in cities usually do not have storage space for freezers to the level of total yearly food supplies

for many, their current living is not going to accept preparing for the future....these are the ones that surely will perish eventually.


food isn't going to run out in the next year
people's living arrangements and lifestyles aren't going to change unless abruptly altered, and if that happens, then yea, we will be living in a whole new light....until then....most will never "prepare for 10 years ahead, let alone 1"

I think people are financially becoming more aware. Stop buying, use what is in your face, buy smart, etc. Your dollars can change history certainly.

 

[i_am2bz]

By the way if my kid came home and had to write a report on how much soup was in my pantry it would be awful short. I don't buy canned soup. I make it from scratch. Its less expensive.

I guess I was referring to the "social conscience" homework that public schools give to kids now'days...you know, whether the family has a exit plan for escaping a fire, whether they're using energy efficient lightbulbs...don't the schools there do that? Anyway, I can foresee an "emergency preparedness" assignment from the schools, maybe a competition to see which household has the most canned goods...

 

[FarmerChick]

I am just going to hit 49 in a few weeks
and YES I sure see the future heading for a change
I seen TONS of changes since I was a kid
It has too---like decades before has changed

life is change and it will happen

more will become more independent of the "system" cause that is the way life is being pushed....slow changes surely do happen

 

[Bettacreek]

Ya know, I think I may be in the same mind frame that everyone is concerned about. I'm truely not concerned about some disaster happening. I guess basically I just have the "hoarding instinct" from my dad's side of the family, where I get into a panic-like mode when I start to run out of something, even if I can just drive five minutes down the road and restock as soon as I ran out. I just feel a lot less stress if I have at least a month worth of said ingredient, right in my pantry or in the basement, within my grasp that I can have and use within ten seconds if I want it. The more I have, the better I feel. My parents HATE it. They see it as extra junk laying around. It might also have something to do with when I was pregnant with my first son, and was broke and literally lived off of ramen noodles for two weeks while pregnant, because that was all that we had, and they were "donated" by a neighbor. Either way, I just feel safe to have extra food and supplies on hand. Not because I think the world is going to fall apart though. I mean, it's been in a steady decline since people evolved and started changing the world. I don't think the world is just randomly going to fall apart some day. I'm not worried about bomb shelters or anything of that nature. I respect and appreciate the self-sufficient lifestyle, and would love to obtain such a lifestyle completely someday, but I'm not in a panic mode about stores collapsing and such. For me, I think most of it is really about keeping in my personal "safe zone" of not fearing living off of ramen noodles, saving money and eating healthier. I know that with a decent storage, if something happens and I can't afford anything, I know that there will be food to hold us over until I can either get another job or figure something else out (foraging, hunting, producing my own food, etc). I'm slowly starting to make progress on making my own stuff, simply because of the health factor. Everything else has so many damn chemicals in it that it's sickening to think about. Right now I purchase my ingredients from the store, but want to start foraging for some of my own, and hope to barter for some more until I can produce my own. All of this helps me save money as well. Buying ingredients instead of products and buying them in bulk saves a ton of money.
So, anyways, that's my reason for being here.