Ten years ago, only a small percentage of Americans had taken the time and effort to assemble a survival food stockpile. That percentage has grown significantly since then.
The past couple of years have served as the poster child for preparedness. A global pandemic and highly destructive weather. Food supply-chain disruptions, wildfires and power outages. Civil unrest here and now war in Europe.
They’ve all combined to make stockpiling a supply of survival food a no-brainer. We do what we can to keep ourselves, our families and our property safe, right? Including locking car doors and house doors. And we try to stay healthy.
There’s another important part of keeping yourself and your family safe. It’s acquiring and storing a significant amount of survival food to access in an emergency.
Aim for at least 4 weeks
Today I want to remind you of the wide variety of reasons why it’s a good idea to have plenty of survival food on hand.
At an absolute minimum, we should each have 72 hours’ worth of food we can consume following a crisis.
Anything is better than nothing. But many emergencies last longer than three days. The American Red Cross says a two-week supply is the way to go. In reality, we should be aiming for at least 4 weeks’ worth.
Following a disaster, there’s no telling how long the food supply chain could be negatively affected. It’s far better to be safe than sorry.
COVID-19 emptied shelves
Ever since early 2020, many of us have seen empty or nearly empty shelves in our supermarkets at various times.
COVID-19 sickened many food workers around the country. Especially in meat-packing plants. This slowed deliveries and caused shortages.
Many stores started rationing a variety of items. But even with a one-per-customer limit for some items, they were gone when we went to reach for them.
And even when more supplies started coming in, some of us were hesitant to venture out to crowded stores. Those who had survival food in their pantries didn’t have to worry.
Extreme weather destroyed crops
The last two years have also seen more than their share of extreme weather events. Including record-breaking numbers of hurricanes.
Also causing problems were tornadoes and flooding. Plus wildfires, snowstorms and even a derecho. Many people lost electrical power or had to evacuate as a result.
Some of those weather events destroyed crops. Others made driving to grocery stores impossible. Many people were caught out on roads when the weather turned bad.
Those who had made it a point to stockpile survival food to keep at home and in their cars were able to deal with the issues much more easily than others.
Wildfires closed roads to stores
In the western United States, 2020 and 2021 were also record-breaking years for wildfires. The number of burned acres has increased by six times since the 1970s.
An area larger than the landmasses of Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island combined burned across the West in 2020. In California alone there were nearly 10,000 fires, burning more than 4.3 million acres of land.
In 2021, severe drought and high temperatures made wildfires an even greater concern. More than 50,000 fires were recorded in the U.S., with more than 6.5 million acres burned.
In many cases these fires knocked out power and made roads impassable. Those who had survival food ready and waiting for them were able to stay nourished until the danger passed.
Preparing for the future
We can all hope that 2022 will end up being a better year than what we’ve experienced recently. But we certainly have no assurance of that.
Medical experts believe we’re going to be dealing with the coronavirus for a long time. Weather experts tell us storms will become both more frequent and more destructive.
Environmentalists predict that wildfires will occur more frequently. And scorch larger areas of land.
Not to mention cyber and physical threats from our enemies that could disrupt our power and food supply chains.
The future may not look pretty. But to a certain extent, we can control our own fate. Preparing for problems with survival food is one of the best ways to keep ourselves free, self-reliant and safe. No matter what happens.
Check out the Food Kit I’d recommend having on hand here
