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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Only Nine Meals From Mayhem .........................................................5
Empty Supermarket Shelves Quickly Bring Chaos ............................................5
Do You Have Enough Food for an Emergency?................................................6
You Need NINE Months of Non-Perishable Food Stored Away.........................7
Chapter 2: Why Food Storage Isn't Enough ........................................................8
Monoculture Famines ........................................................................................8
Superweeds.......................................................................................................9
Total Collapse of the Electrical Grid.................................................................10
Livestock Collapse...........................................................................................11
Oil Shortage.....................................................................................................12
$2 Million for a Loaf of Bread ...........................................................................12
Personal Financial Crisis..................................................................................13
Yellowstone is Overdue ...................................................................................13
Epidemics: The Aftermath Is Deadlier Than the Disease................................15
Food Storage Doesn't Last Forever .................................................................16
Chapter 3: The Problem With Storing More Than a Year's Worth of Food .....17
Dried Goods Are No Good After a Year ...........................................................17
Storage Problems ............................................................................................17
Dietary and Nutritional Issues Of Canned and Dehydrated Foods..................18
You Won't Want to Rotate 'Em.........................................................................19
A Good Idea – But Not to Be Relied Upon.......................................................19
Chapter 4: Various Alternatives for Surviving a Long-Term Food Crisis .......20
Foraging...........................................................................................................20
Hunting and Trapping ......................................................................................21
Feasting on Rats..............................................................................................22
Fishing .............................................................................................................21
Government Assistance...................................................................................22
Chickens Eggs .................................................................................................23
Forced to Eat Your Neighbor? .........................................................................24
Survival Gardening ..........................................................................................24
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Chapter 5: Don't Panic! (And Other Thoughts About Living Off the Land).....26
Sometimes Progress Involves a Few Steps Backwards ..................................27
Doomsday or Paradise: Which Will It Be?........................................................28
Chapter 6: What's Your Next Step?.....................................................................29
Priority No. 1: Store Some Food ......................................................................30
Priority No. 2: Be Ready to Grow Some Food.................................................30
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Chapter 1:
Only Nine Meals From Mayhem
ew North Americans realize how easily we
could find ourselves suffering a lifethreatening
food shortage. Unlike developing
countries where food shortages are a way of life,
we have enjoyed the illusion of perpetual security
in our ever growing "food bubble."
Thinking food will always be there – one way
or another – has made us overly complacent.
Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but
the Food Bubble is getting ready to pop. It's not a
matter of if it will pop, but when and in how many
ways. As I'll show you in chapter two, our food
supply system is exceedingly complex and very
fragile.
For example: We now live in a time where
lettuce grown in Salinas Valley California is
shipped 4,800 km (3,000 miles) to consumers in
Washington, D.C. Furthermore, 39% of our fruit
comes from other countries – including bananas,
which travel 4,339 km (2,690 miles) from Ecuador.1
There are also little or no warehouse storage areas at a local level. Modern grocers
use a "just-in-time" stocking system, replenishing shelves as they empty.
In a crisis situation – anything from civil unrest to a natural disaster to a collapse of
the electrical system – these complex supply lines would quickly breakdown and
possibly cease to exist altogether.
Our dependency on large supermarkets (instead of traditional, small, locally run
grocers) and corporate agriculture (instead of local family farms) may provide lower
prices, but it makes us exceptionally vulnerable to any kind of disruption.
Empty Supermarket Shelves Quickly Bring Chaos
If the supermarket shelves went empty for a few days, everybody would be okay. Most
people have enough food in their home to feed their family for at least three days. A few
people might be able to scrounge up enough to last seven days.
1 USDA Economic Research Service. "Import share of food disappearance for selected foods, selected
years." Web site July 2003 http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/foodconsumption/datasystem.asp
The thought that the United States,
Canada, England or any other
developed nation could suffer even a
temporary food shortage (no less a
prolonged food crisis) seems
unthinkable to most people. Of course,
that's what the government prefers. If
the population at large realized how
fragile our food supply systems are –
there would be widespread panic.
F
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But within three days, many families would be eating light – possibly even going
hungry. And while we might shed a few pounds during a food crisis, I doubt Americans
would appreciate being forced to fast.
We need look no further than the UK fuel protests of September 2000 for a modern
example of how fragile the food distribution system is. Here's how it happened…
First, truckers blockaded the oil refineries in protest of unfair taxation. This caused a
panic among consumers; massive lines formed as people tried to fill up their gas tanks
before the gas ran out.
This panic buying rapidly depleted on-hand fuel reserves. Within days there was a
fuel crisis. But the fuel crisis was only the first domino to fall.
Without fuel… food could not be delivered to supermarkets.
In the absence of regular deliveries, local food supplies began to dwindle rapidly.
Supermarket bosses warned government officials that there were just three days of food
left.
"We were, in effect, nine meals from anarchy," writes British Journalist, Andrew
Simms. "Suddenly, the apocalyptic visions of novelists and film-makers seemed less
preposterous. Civilisation's veneer may be much thinner than we like to think."2
One little protest – and British citizens were three
days from hunger. If a protest can set off a chain of
events like this, just imagine what a real fuel
shortage could do. And as I illustrate in chapter 2,
there are many other reasons why our supermarkets
shelves would go bear – fuel or no fuel.
Do You Have Enough Food for an
Emergency?
A small percentage of the population is prepared for
a long-term food shortage. They have nonperishables
stored away for such emergencies.
Some have done this on purpose; others have
accidentally prepared by making a lot of discount
bulk purchases at Costco and Sam's Club.
Either way, it's wise to have extra food on hand. Now, I'm assuming you're a smart
survivalist and have begun to stock up or have already stocked up on at least a month's
supply of food.
2 Simms, Andrew. Nine meals from anarchy. Guardian News and Media Limited. January 11, 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/11/nine-meals-anarchy-sustainable-system
3 Human Population: Urbanization. Population Reference Bureau. Washington, DC
http://www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/Urbanization.aspx
A hundred years, people knew the
future was uncertain. In 1900, 86% of
the world's population lived in rural
areas.3 Many would have a surplus of
grains, beans and other foods to get
them through hard times.
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Don't stop there.
I'll be writing more about this in my upcoming ebook, Food Crisis 1: Emergency
Food Storage Basics for the Average Joe (see www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis1).
Food storage is important. Most people know this at some level (even if they don't do it).
But there is something equally as important for survival…
That's why I decided to write Food Crisis 2: How to Prepare for a Long-Term
Food Shortage (soon to be available at www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2) because I
think there is a greater need for preparedness planning for a long-term food shortage.
I'll cover long-term preparedness strategies in just a moment. But first, I want to
emphasize the importance of short-term food storage.
You Need NINE Months of Non-Perishable Food Stored Away
Ideally, you want enough food to feed your family for NINE MONTHS. For some parts of
the world three months might be fine. It largely depends on how long your winters last. If
disaster strikes in September, you may need to wait nine months to a year before any
new food could be grown and harvested. I go into much more detail about this in Food
Crisis 2: How to Prepare for a Long-Term Food Shortage
(www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2)
Some canned food is a good idea. It's easy to prepare and may be a good idea for
the first few days of a disaster while you get yourself together. But canned food takes up
a lot of storage space, has a lower nutritional value and is expensive.
What's better than canned food? Dried food. Items like dried beans, rice, pasta,
wheat berries, oats, raisins, dates, dried figs, protein powders, powdered milk,
powdered eggs, dried vegetables, etc. These foods are compact, nutritious and low
cost. (Not to mention, they'd be easier to transport if you had to move or go on the run.)
You may also want to store away dehydrated, freeze dried, ready made meals.
These are also compact and require less preparation. The downfall is that they tend to
cost more, taste like a strange cross between astronaut and hospital food and have less
nutritional value than basic dried ingredients (although dehydrated foods are often
healthier than canned foods).
No question, food storage is critical. I'm going to go into great detail on how to store
a one-year supply of food in your home in Food Crisis 1: Emergency Food Storage
Basics for the Average Joe (www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis1)
But food storage isn't enough – as I'll explain in chapter 2. Keep reading to find out
why…
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Chapter 2:
Why Food Storage Isn't Enough
ood storage is critical. It offers a short-term and absolutely necessary "band-aid."
But it isn't enough.
Yes, when the "wound" isn't too deep a band-aid is all you need. In many
crisis situations having a few months of food stored away may be more than sufficient. It
keeps you and your family alive until life gets back to normal (or at least gets back to
providing you with food).
But there are many situations where even a one-year supply of food is not enough.
In these situations, no amount of food storage would offer a practical solution.
I'm talking about crisis situations that last for years, decades or possibly for
centuries. In a way, you shouldn't even think of them as "disaster situations." They'll
seem like that at first. In the end, they are paradigm shifts that usher in a whole new
way of life.
Here are some examples of what I'm talking about…
Monoculture Famines
The fact there is more food growing on the planet than
ever before may come at price. Much of modern
agricultural is brilliant and lifesaving. And much of it is
very controversial. To a large degree we have sacrificed
quality for quantity.
"Back in the day" farmers would rotate a variety of
different crops in small patches. Your average farm
would grow almost everything you needed to survive.
And several different varieties of each in case one variety
fell to disease.
Modern industrial agricultural, however, uses
"monocultures" where large areas of land are used to
grow the exact same crop, year after year. This is
cheaper to produce on a large scale thanks to farm
mechanization and the ability to ship food long distances.
In effect, we've traded sustainability and security for
cost savings. Since 1900 we've lost 75% of crops'
genetic diversity.4 Many scientists predict this lack of genetic diversity will lead to out-ofcontrol
disease. Just like the world witnessed in 1845 in Ireland when 20% of their
4 Shand, Hope. Bio-meltdown (modern monoculture and factory farming sweeping away crop and
domestic livestock diversity, putting future food production at risk). New International Magazine. 1997
http://www.thefreelibrary.com
F
A typical farm, before the
industrial revolution, would grow
many varieties of fruits,
vegetables and grains. Today,
most farms (as illustrated above)
are devoted to growing only one
crop, and one crop only.
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population died because they only grew the "lumper" potato variety (which fell to the
"potato" blight disease).5
Today such a blight would more easily spread across the world. All you need is one
little spore to attach itself to a traveler's clothing. In 14 hours it could travel from the
Midwest of China to the Midwest of America and trigger a devastating global famine.
Sound like science fiction?
Today an international body of scientists is fretting over how to stop the ug99
fungus. Ug99 only attacks wheat. But it does a really good job. It's already moving
through Africa. "If this stuff gets into the Western Hemisphere, God help us," says Brian
Steffenson, a cereal disease expert at the University of Minnesota.6
If ug99 makes its way to America, the U.S. Department of Agricultural predicts an
estimated loss of 40 to 50 percent of the nation's supply of wheat (and possibly barley).7
A shocking statistic when you consider that about 22% to 33% of the world's calories
come from wheat.
If we were no longer able to grow wheat (or at least our current strain of wheat) it
could take years to switch our farms over to a new crop. This is just one example of how
mass-producing only very limited varieties of crops has put us in a very unstable
position. It's provided only a temporary and very false sense of security.
We hear about the banking bubble, the mortgage bubble, the real estate bubble…
you rarely hear about the modern agricultural bubble.
It's getting ready to pop.
Superweeds
"Ubiquitous use of the weed killer Roundup over time has
spawned herbicide-resistant superweeds," writes Clay
Dillow in an article for POPSCI, "much as heavy use of
antibiotics over past decades has bred drug-resistant
germs and bacteria."8
In other words, decades of spraying our fields with
chemicals to kill off the weeds has only made the weeds
stronger. Soon, no matter how much toxic chemicals we
dump on our food supply, the weeds may win the battle.
5 The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. Catharina Japikse, EPA Journal - Fall 1994.
www.victoryseeds.com/news/irish_famine.html
6 Koerner, Brendan. Red Menace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation. Wired
Magazine. February 22, 2010. www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_ug99_fungus
7 Plant Protection and Quarantine: Questions and Answers: Ug99—Black Stem Rust. APHIS Fact Sheet.
U.S. Department of Agricultural: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. April 2010.
8 Dillow, Clay. After Years of Herbicide Use, Roundup-Resistant Superweeds Are Evolving to Invade U.S.
Fields. POPSCI. www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/roundup-resistant-superweeds-invade-us-fields
Looks pretty, but when unwanted
plants grow amongst crops they
suck up nutrients, spread
pathogens and consume water.
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Total Collapse of the Electrical Grid
You may think electricity and food are two
totally different matters. Not in today's
world.
When someone is checking out at the
supermarket, the cashier scans the
barcode on their bag of pasta. This isn't
just to add the item to your receipt. The
store's database notes that another bag of
pasta has been sold and adds it to the
next shipping order. This results in an
entire chain of telecommunications that
essentially determines how much more
pasta is produced.
Impressive. Yes. Completely
dependent on electricity. Absolutely. And
that's only a little example. If the power
grid goes down – so do the supermarkets.
And there are many reasons the grid
could go down. One very real threat is a
solar flare storm.
In 1850 solar flares hit the earth and
knocked out telegraph lines.10 In today's
technologically dependent society, another
solar flare storm could knock out our entire
electrical grid.
This could make it impossible for our
complex food supply lines to operate.
A NASA funded 132-page report by the National Academy of Sciences entitled
Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts says a
9 Philips, Dr. Tony. As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather. NASA Science.
June 4, 2010. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef
10 From the Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1959: "The Superintendent of the Canadian Telegraph
Company's line telegraphs as follows in relation to the effect of the Aurora Borealis last night: '…so
completely were the wires under the influence of the Aurora Borealis, that it was found utterly impossible
to communicate between the telegraph stations, and the line had to be closed.' The same difficulty
prevailed as far South as Washington." Singular Effect of the Aurora Borealis on the Telegraph Wires.
Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1959 http://www.solarstorms.org/SS1859.html
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber," says
Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics
department, "and in the next few years we expect
to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the
same time, our technological society has
developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar
storms." 9
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solar flare storm could hit anytime (and that we are, indeed, "overdue").11 If such an
event happened, it could take up to three years to get the power grid back online.
Livestock Collapse
It started in Germany. Dr. Shiv Chopra,
former senior scientific advisor for Health
Canada, speaks of what industrial farms feed
to their livestock:
So they picked up slaughterhouse waste and
they ground it up. They picked up dogs and
cats – road kill as well – and ground it all up.
They start to feed animals back to animals
that we people eat. All the animals that
people ate were herbivores. We didn't eat
carnivore animals. We didn't eat birds that
prey on other birds.12
In other words, we are feeding our cows,
goats, pigs, chickens and other edible
barnyard pals other animals that they would
normally not eat in nature. This is an
unnatural diet that makes the animals sick and dependent on antibiotics.
Animals are also put in cramped, unsanitary living conditions. Cows are fed grains
instead of grass. They are pumped full of artificial hormones to increase milk production.
Livestock is given high doses of antibiotics to fight off infection.
To make matters worse, we are eliminating varieties of livestock just like we have
been with plants. Since 1900, Europe has less than 50 percent of its livestock breeds
remaining, with 43% of those listed as endangered.13
It's only a matter of time before it all collapses and meat, dairy and eggs will be very
hard to come by.
11 Severe Space Weather – Social and Economic Impacts. NASA. January 21, 2009.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/21jan_severespaceweather/
12 Chopra, Shiv. Looming Before Us: Corporate Threats to Your Food Supply. Mercola.com. January 23,
2010. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/23/Looming-Before-Us-Corporate-Threatsto-
Your-Food-Supply.aspx
13 Shand, Hope. Bio-meltdown (modern monoculture and factory farming sweeping away crop and
domestic livestock diversity, putting future food production at risk). New International Magazine. 1997
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Biomeltdown+%
28modern+monoculture+and+factory+farming+sweeping+away+...-a030492188
A typical pig "farm." How long can our bacon
put up with this type of cruelty?
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Oil Shortage
As oil-producing countries move away from the dollar, it
could mean a steep rise in oil prices for North Americans.14
Even if the petrodollar system continues for a few years,
we may still be looking at oil shortages and peak oil
scenarios.
This would make the mass-produced, mass-distributed
food system untenable. We use petroleum not only to ship
our food, but also to power farm machinery, and even to
make pesticides and fertilizers. It could take many years
(or decades) for Americans to put alternative energy into
widespread use.
"Many major cities in the U.S. have a limited supply of
food on hand," says Halweil author of Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a
Global Market. "That makes those cities highly vulnerable to anything that suddenly
restricts transportation, such as oil shortages..."15
$2 Million for a Loaf of Bread
The current "economics" of many governments
(especially the US) wherein they print money to prop
up their economy only decreases the value of the
currency, making food more expensive.
In December 2008, CNN reported "After the $100
million note began circulating on Thursday, the price
of a loaf of bread soared from 2 million to 35 million
Zimbabwean dollars."16
As with Zimbabwe (and Argentina, Germany and
so many other countries) the same could happen in
America, Canada, England, Australia, Japan, China...
In the last year alone, the price of vegetables in the
14 "A beginning has been made with Iran selling its oil in euros," says researcher Shebonti Ray Dadwal of
the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, "and Russia having announced in 2008 that it would be
selling some petroleum products in rubles as a prelude to switching from dollar-based oil sales. When
that happens, the implications for the US and indeed the global power balance will be immense." (The
beginning of the end of the dollar era? IDSA Comment. October 14, 2009.
http://www.idsa.in/idsastrategiccomments/Thebeginningoftheendofthedollarera_SRDadwal_141009
15 Lazaroff, Cat. Food Travels Far to Reach Your Table. Environment News Service. November 21, 2002.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-21-06.asp
16 Hyperinflation forces Zimbabwe to print $200 million notes. CNN. December 7, 2008.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/06/zimbabwe.currency/index.html
Real or faked, an oil shortage
would be detrimental to the
world's ability to feed its six
billion inhabitants.
The above banknote for 50 million
marks was common currency in
Germany between 1921 and 1923
when the country suffered
hyperinflation.
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US has gone up 56.1%. Eggs are up 33.6%. Beef is up 10.9%.17
And as we have seen with Zimbabwe, hyperinflation doesn't go away overnight. It
could take years, if not decades, to return to sound currency.
Personal Financial Crisis
39,680,000 citizens are living off food stamps,
according to the United States Department of
Agriculture (as of February 2010). That's up 22.4%
from one year ago. That means more than one out
of every eight people you meet can't make enough
money to feed themselves.
As more jobs disappear this could happen to
anybody.
If you can't afford to buy food, food storage will
not be enough. Eventually you will run out.
You may need another way to obtain food that
doesn't involve money.
The simplest way is to grow it yourself as I explain
in Food Crisis 2: How to Prepare for a Long-
Term Food Shortage (www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2)
Yellowstone is Overdue
While an earthquake or hurricane may make a
certain area unable to produce food, survivors can
always relocate or import food. But what about a
large scale disaster?
A very real possibility that could affect the
entire planet is the eruption of a super volcano.
Fortunately there only a few in the world.
Unfortunately, one of the most likely to erupt is
sitting in the middle of the United States in
Yellowstone National Park. Since 1923, magma
filling the reservoir underneath Yellowstone has
already raised the park 74 centimeters (2 ½ feet)
in the last 87 years.
When it erupts (which it will some day) it is
expected to destroy everything within a 1,000
17 U.S. Food Inflation Spiraling Out of Control. National Inflation Association. April 22, 2010.
http://www.inflation.us/foodinflationspiralingoutofcontrol.html
During the first food stamp program
orange stamps could buy any food while
blue stamps could only buy foods that
were in surplus.
The Yellowstone Caldera. It looks pretty.
It was formed by three super eruptions
so hot they didn't form the traditional
volcanic mountain peak but instead
flattened (melted) the land. With
pressure building for 640,000 years, you
are looking at a supervolcano that could
explode at any moment.
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miles radius. Geological records indicated past eruptions have taken place every
600,000 years.18 That's over a half-million years of pressure building. The last one
happened 640,000 years ago. We're 40,000 years overdue.
But whether it's the supervolcano in America, or the one in Indonesia, or New
Zealand or Japan, the effects would devastate the world. The ash would block out the
sun causing an extended winter period that could last a year or longer.
Sound like science fiction? It's not. The explosion of ordinary volcanoes almost
always have unpleasant side effects. For instance, the March 2010 eruption of
Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupted air travel for days. And past eruptions of Laki have
actually changed weather patterns.
Iceland's Laki volcano erupted in 1783, freeing gases that turned into smog. The
smog floated across the Jet Stream, changing weather patterns. Many died from
gas poisoning in the British Isles. Crop production fell in western Europe. Famine
spread. Some even linked the eruption, which helped fuel famine, to the French
Revolution. Painters in the 18th century illustrated fiery sunsets in their works.
The winter of 1784 was also one of the longest and coldest on record in North
America. New England reported a record stretch of below-zero temperatures and
New Jersey reported record snow accumulation. The Mississippi River also
reportedly froze in New Orleans.19
If this was the results of an ordinary volcano, just imagine what a supervolcano
might do. It would take a long time for mass food production to return. Possibly years,
decades or centuries. But with a lot of luck, a good location and some simple
preparedness techniques, you could survive the aftermath and continue producing your
own food locally.
By the way, the explosion of Yellow Stone National Park was depicted in the 2005
BBC docudrama End Day (along with four other doomsday scenarios). Curiously, the
Yellow Stone explosion was edited out when the program aired in the United Sates on
the National Geographic Channel.20
18 Newhall and Daniel Dzurisin. Historical Unrest at Large Calderas of the World: U.S. Geological Survey
Bulletin 1855. 1988,
19 Iceland volcanoes could have world consequences. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35988484/
20 End Day. Wikipedia. February 16, 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_Day
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Epidemics: The Aftermath
Is Deadlier Than the Disease
Many survivalists agree that the greatest concern during an epidemic is not surviving
exposure to the disease itself. Your greatest concern should be how to survive the
inevitable collapse of infrastructure that results when large portions of the population are
sick or have died.
During the Bubonic plague of the 14th
century, Paul Bugl, researcher at the University
of Hanford, writes: "Agriculture came to a virtual
standstill as farmers fled or died in their fields.
Consequently, food shortages compounded the
problems of society. Governments ground to a
halt as bureaucrats died. No civil authority
remained and crime was rampant… Plague
attacked merchants and peasants with equal
voracity."22
So even if you're in great health don't expect
your neighbours' immune system to be as
strong. Don't expect the police to be working at
full capacity. Don't expect farmers to be in their
fields. Don't expect that enough truckers will be
available to drive your steak dinner over three
states to your local supermarket.
The 2007 annual report of the World Health
Organization says that infectious diseases are
spreading faster than ever before – with new
varieties emerging every year.23
Many scientists believe vaccines may be contributing to the problem more than
helping (by lowering people's immune system's natural defenses).
The fact that we have 2.1 billion airline passengers each year spreading diseases
quickly to other countries doesn't help either.
21 Barry, John M. The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History. New York:
Penguin Group, 2004
22 History of Epidemics and Plagues (October 2001), Hartford University Course Notes: AUCT 140,
Epidemics and AIDS, Spring 2009. http://uhavax.hartford.edu/bugl/histepi.htm
23 Who warns of global epidemic risk. BBC News. August 23, 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6959583.stm
Influenza ward at Camp Funston, Kansas,
where the Spanish influenza began. "In the
winter of 1918," writes John M. Barry in The
Great Influenza, "history's most lethal
influenza virus erupted in an army camp in
Kansas, moved east with American troops,
then exploded… It killed more people in
twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in
twenty-four years, more in a year than the
Black Death killed in a century."21
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Food Storage Doesn't Last Forever
While nine month's worth of food storage
would be invaluable for any of the above
disaster situations – it wouldn't last long
enough.
To store away enough food to last nine
months for a family of five is an expensive,
time consuming and mammoth feat. I know. I
have a family of five.
And even then, you need to be ready to
feed more than just your immediate family. I
live in range of many relatives, including my
parents and my in-laws. In a disaster situation,
I'm not going to let them starve to death.
So to have enough food to last nine
months is difficult enough. And in any of the
scenarios that I've described in this chapter
you can see that nine months of food would
only keep us alive for just that – nine months.
All you need is for one of the above
scenarios to pan out and the way we urbanites
obtain food will cease to exist. You must remember that our way of life is nothing more
than an experiment. Mankind has only been at the industrial revolution for about a
century. For the rest of recorded history, life was very different.
Once it collapses, our current food system may never return. While food storage will
help us stay alive through the transition period – we need sustainable alternatives.
The next chapter lists the pros and cons of many such alternatives for attaining
food. Some of them I recommend you include in your long-term survival strategies.
Others I would leave as an absolute last resort.
To store away enough food to last nine
months for a family of five is an expensive,
time consuming and mammoth feat. I know. I
have a family of five.
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Chapter 3:
The Problem With Storing More
Than a Year's Worth of Food
Before I dive into alternative ways to keep your family fed, many people wonder why
they simply can't stock up on enough food for decades. Here are the reasons why I
don't think it's wise (or even possible) for most people…
Dried Goods Are No Good After a Year
Most dried foods won't last longer than a year. You
may be able to push it and keep them around for two
years.
Grains, beans, dried fruits, nuts and seeds
usually start to become a little too dry after a year
has past. You end up having to use a lot of fuel to
cook them. They'll also require a lot of pre-soaking.
Technically, of course, most dried foods have a
shelf life of anywhere from five to fifty years. In other
words, they won't rot or disintegrate. But two things
are lost: nutrition and flavor. At best you end up with
some empty calories that may do more harm than
good.
It seems God designed food to only be stored for
about one year – until the next growing season.
Storage Problems
Now, there are foods that have been dehydrated or freeze-dried that do offer a 15-year
shelf life – retaining both flavor and nutrients. But many of these dehydrated foods come
with a few caveats.
• You need to maintain a cool storage temperature, something you may not be
able to achieve in summer months without air conditioning or a cold cellar
• You also need to ensure that rodents will not get at your stores (put your pet
cat to practical use!).
• And you need to make sure you have enough room to store all of this food.
Many companies offer to store your orders for you in their temperaturecontrolled
warehouses. This is fine for some disaster situations. It's just hard
to guarantee that if the world collapses there'll be a courier service to send
you your food when you need it.
Most naturally dried foods won't
maintain their nutrition or flavor much
longer than a year.
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Dietary and Nutritional Issues
Of Canned and Dehydrated Foods
The U.S. Army apparently has proven that canned
food won't taste much different, and is still safe to
eat, after 46 years on the shelf. The USDA,
however, says you only have 2-5 years before
canned food becomes nutritionally empty.24
According to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA): "The heating process during
canning destroys from one-third to one-half of
vitamins A and C, riboflavin, and thiamin. For
every year the food is stored, canned food loses
an additional 5 to 20% of these vitamins."
Upon examining the ingredients of many
suppliers who claim to be offering super nutritious
ready to eat meals you'll find many questionable
ingredients (including MSG) and preservatives that
you may not want to spend the next 15 years of
your life eating.
Because meat spoils easily, most ready-mademeals
are made with textured vegetable protein
(TVP), a derivative of the soy bean industry. It's
been observed that wild animals will not touch
TVP even when faced with starvation. And if wild
animals won't touch it, should you? Many health
complications have already been reported from
eating TVP. Just imagine how harmful it would be
to eat it three times a day.
Also, you rarely have much control over what
type of foods go into these meals-ready-to-eat
(MREs). If you have any allergies – say, to potatoes or milk – you may not be able to
eat them three times a day.
Lastly, most of these long-term food stuffs have been precooked – unlike when you
rely on dried foods, which are stored raw. (Not that I have anything against cooked food
– it just seems like common sense that you don't want to be eating five-year-old
leftovers on a daily basis.)
Cooked or not, I simply can't believe that food can stay "alive" for that long and
contain any quality or nutrition. Of course, it's better than nothing. I just think there are
better alternatives. We were meant to eat fresh food.
24 Shelf Life of Canned Foods, Master Food Preservers & Safety Advisors, Washington State University,
March 1997 http://whatcom.wsu.edu/family/facts/shelflif.htm
Meals, ready to eat (MRE) are
lightweight just-add-water food rations
that have replaced canned food in the
U.S. military. MREs have earned the
following nicknames from troops: "Meal
Rejected by Everyone," "Meal Ready to
Excrete" and (thanks to their
constipating effect) "Meal Requiring
Enemas."
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You Won't Want to Rotate 'Em
Fifthly, you probably don't want to rotate these
dehydrated meals. By rotation, I refer to where
you eat and replenish your supply during good
times, so you don't have paid goods sitting in
your cellar – never knowing if they'll ever get
eaten. (Rotation is easy enough with regular
dried goods like rice, flour, beans, etc.)
Even the higher quality dehydrated foods
taste like a cross between hospital food, an
airline entrée and something served on a NASA
shuttle craft. Not so yummy. Do you really want to
be rotating these meals – eating them each day
for the rest of your life while you wait for a
disaster that may never come?
So whatever dehydrated foods you purchase
are going to be an extra expense. Per person cost, a one year's worth of dehydrated
meals is about $1,500. (And the serving sizes are pretty small!)
So for a family of five you'd only have to put out $7,500 every fifteen years to have a
one-year supply of dehydrated foods. I'm not against this at all if you can afford it or
prefer it. (Or you may just want to have some ready to hand out to people who come
knocking on your door.)
But would you want to buy a 15-year supply? Fifteen years of eating microwave
dinners (without the microwave) would certainly be a doomsday situation.
The bottom line: Canned and dehydrated foods offer an interim solution at best.
A Good Idea – But Not to Be Relied Upon
Now, I'm not trying to steer you away from purchasing dehydrated foods. I think having
some on hand (even a few $1500 caseloads) is a good idea. You should mix up your
food storage supplies. Some "real" food like beans, rice and dried fruits and vegetables.
Some canned food. And some dehydrated food. I go into great detail about how to do all
of this in Food Crisis 1: Emergency Food Storage Basics for the Average Joe
(www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis1).
But it's not a long-term solution for a long-term crisis.
In the next chapter I'll list the pros and cons of various alternatives to food storage
to keep you alive during a long-term food crisis.
Unless you enjoy eating this type of food
– you really won't want to rotate your
dehydrated food stores.
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Chapter 4:
Various Alternatives for
Surviving a Long-Term Food Crisis
o food storage alone may not be enough. I think I've driven that point home in the
last two chapters. So what are you alternatives? In this chapter I list quite a
number. Many of which I recommend. A few I recommend only as a last resort.
Foraging
If you know what you're doing (a big IF) you can
probably find plenty of sustenance in the woods
and country around your town or city. Of course, if
you live in the middle of a thriving metropolis this
becomes more difficult. And whatever you do find
may be polluted with heavy metals and chemicals.
Pine cones can provide you with pine nuts. And
the pine needles can be boiled and made into a tea.
Various barks of trees are edible (though slightly
laxative). Dandelions make good additions to
salads. You can chew grass to extract the juices
(just make sure to spit out the fiber).
It would not be a bad idea to purchase books or
courses on wild edible plants. You can have outings
with your family and start identifying and collecting
what there is to eat in your area. Do it for fun now
and later it may help keep you alive.
But, obviously, this isn't going to provide a feast. There will either be far too much
competition or too little available. Plus, most wild edibles don't provide a lot of calories,
just valuable vitamins and minerals, which means you may still be hungry and
undernourished.
In spite of their vitamin and mineral content, wild edibles are no guarantee of health.
The citizens of Greece during and after Nazi occupation were very knowledgeable
about wild edible plants. They consumed large amounts of wild cabbage, grapes,
acorns and various greens. Yet the population still suffered widespread vitamin
deficiency. Nine out of ten babies died at birth.26
25 Survivorman 3: Best of Compilation. Discovery Channel Website.
http://www.yourdiscovery.com/video/shows/survivorman/?cc=US
26 Tomkinson, John L. Athens Under the Nazis: The Occupation (1941-1944). Anagnosis Books.
http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?la=eng&pageID=225
S
Les Stroud, in his reality TV series
Survivorman, manages to find many
nutrient-rich edibles by foraging about
in nature. But, as he admits in one
episode, "I've been grazing like a horse
and I'm starting to get very lethargic. I
sit down and I don't want to get back up
again."25
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So while wild plants offer food, you do not want to rely upon them. It would also
involve a lot of traveling and possibly a nomadic lifestyle. In times of crisis and civil
unrest you generally want to stay close to home, to protect your belongings and your
family.
Hunting and Trapping
Now even if you have taken vows at your local tofu shack
never to eat a living creature you may be very interested in
learning to trap.
Why? Because learning how to trap has a two-fold benefit: It
provides an extra source of protein and helps you protect
your valuable garden.
Just think how life could be like in an urban situation after a
food collapse. All the raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and rodents
who live off human trash will suddenly be without. Plus, most
people will probably let their dogs and cats go wild. So being
able to protect your garden (even if you don't want to eat the critters) maybe a high
priority.
Hunting on the other hand may be more difficult. Much like seeking out wild plants for
food, seeking out wild animals may be even more challenging. A lot, also, depends on
where you live. If you live out in the country, this may offer a good source of food. If you
live in a city, what little game there is will have serious competition.
Hunting is also not something you learn overnight. Personally, I have no experience
in the matter – though have considered buying a rifle and getting some practice.
But it could take several years to become adept enough at hunting that it would
provide a reliable way to feed your family. You may even need to consider getting a bow
and arrow, in case bullets become hard to come by.
Trapping is most likely an easier art to master, but you need to get the equipment
and the training now, not later. There are many simple traps and snares you can set up
in your backyard to catch birds, squirrels, dogs, cats and, yes, even… rats.
Fishing
If you live close to enough of water, fish could become a staple in
your diet – as it has been for many cultures. Of course, it is a skill
that is not acquired overnight.
And a diet solely of fish would present problems. You need
essential minerals and vitamins, found in fruits and vegetables, to
maintain a healthy lifestyle. Fish alone won't cut it.
The main concern I would have with fish is the amount of
heavy metal poisoning – namely mercury – most fish suffer from.
Unless you live in Northern Quebec or Alaska, I can't help but
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think the fish would be too contaminated to eat on a daily basis.
But adding some fish to you diet – at least a few times a week – will probably give
some welcome variety and extra security.
Feasting on Rats
Hunting skills or not, most people can catch rats.
Simply lay rat traps around your home and collect
your dinner in the morning. Peel off the skin and
remove the guts. Then put a stick through the
furless corpse and roast until it's quite, quite done.
As repulsive as eating rats may sound, they
are quite safe (if cooked thoroughly) and are
actually a staple amongst many peoples in
Southeast Asia. African slaves in the American
South supplemented their meager rations with rats
they hunted in the woods.28 It was even a much
enjoyed dish of the traditional people of the Hawaii
Islands.
Nonetheless, whether you're a vegetarian or not, I
think most folk living in North America and Europe
will agree that catching, skinning, roasting and
eating rats is an absolute last resort.
Government Assistance
I'd rather rely on rat meat and pine needles than government assistance. Despite FEMA
being aware of the potential threat Hurricane Katrina posed to New Orleans, it took days
for them to deliver basic supplies like… water.
And I can only imagine that whatever food rations arrive during a crisis are of the
lowest quality – full of preservatives, chemical flavoring and sugar.
Sure, it's better than nothing. At least I think it is. Some studies have shown people
would live longer just drinking water for breakfast than consuming the ingredients of
some popular breakfast cereals. So who knows if it is better than nothing?
Furthermore, most shelters would be located in some central location. You would
not have time to return to your home each day. You would live there. Probably in very
open areas, with no privacy, sleeping on the floor.
27 Penh, Phnom. Rat meat in demand as inflation bites. Reuters. August 27, 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBKK27922820080828
28 Otto, John Solomon; Augustus Marion Burns III. Black Folks, and Poor Buckras: Archeological
Evidence of Slave and Overseer Living Conditions on an Antebellum Plantation. Journal of Black Studies,
December 1983. Vol. 14, No. 2. pp. 185-200
In 2008 the price of rat meat went up
400% in Cambodia as inflation made
regular meat too expensive for the
poorer population. Made into spicy
dishes with garlic, rat sold for
approximately $1.28/kg.27
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It might also be required that you and your
family are injected with mercury-containing
vaccines.
Between the low-quality food, the
overcrowding, the forced vaccinations and the lack
of proper sanitation, you can understand why I'd
rather find some other way to keep my family fed.
Of course, the "superdome" situation wouldn't
last forever. You'd eventually be upgraded to a
tent-city setup – with the same low quality food.
"People were shocked at the scale of social
breakdown when Hurricane Katrina revealed a
long-term, creeping erosion of civic resilience,"
writes Andrew Simms of Guardian.co.uk, "Are we
just waking up to the fact that several wrong turns
have left our essential supplies much more
vulnerable than they need to be?"29
Chickens Eggs
Chicken eggs are a great way to get a daily source
of protein for you and your family.
And if the grid collapses you don't need to
worry about refrigerating them. Despite the fact
that Americans store their eggs in refrigerators, it
is totally unnecessary. The shells keep the yolk
quite airtight. They won't go bad. In Europe, for
example, eggs are commonly sold off the shelf –
not out of a fridge.
In fact, cooling eggs only masks foul odors
(not prevents) when they go bad. Room
temperature is the ideal storing temperature for
eggs.
Relatively easy to raise, chickens will eat just
about anything. Though, they do best with some
grain included in their diets, they benefit from feasting off weeds and parts of foods that
are not edible by humans (e.g. water melon rind).
29 Simms, Andrew. Nine meals from anarchy. Guardian News and Media Limited. January 11, 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/11/nine-meals-anarchy-sustainable-system
30 Urban Chickens. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4cT1sTsaZo&NR=1
No, this is not a third-world country. It's
the type of "living" conditions the people
of New Orleans endured while taking
shelter in the city's Superdome. Is this
the type of government assistance you
want to put up with if you can't supply
your own food?
You could easily meet a third of your
family's daily protein needs with a few
hens at your service. According to one
chicken cage vendor in England,
Londoners buy an average of 1,000
chicken cages for urban use a year.30
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Raising chickens in my own backyard is something I've always wanted to do (crisis
or not). Not only do you get a great source of protein (I mean, really, how many beans
can you eat, day after day?) but chicken manure provides excellent fertilizer for the
garden.
Unfortunately, most cities have bylaws against people raising chickens in their
backyards. Of course, in a post-disaster situation, such laws would likely not be
enforced.
Of course, you can always seek out the eggs of wild birds in nests. Up until the
people of the island of St. Killda were evacuated by the Scottish government in 1930,
they would climb the 1,200 foot crags to harvest the eggs of gannets.31 Apparently, all
bird eggs are safe to eat (though I recommend you cook them).
Forced to Eat Your Neighbor?
In 1846, a group of pioneers, known as the Donner Party,
set out by wagon train for California. A series of mishaps
delayed their journey. They ended up spending the
winter snowbound in the Sierra Nevada.
Some of the Donner Party resorted to eating the
bodies of those who had already succumbed to
starvation or sickness. One of the survivors, only four
years old at the time, remembers the day they had
"cooked the arm of Samuel Shoemaker" (a 25-year old
member of their party).
I hope, if this option ever makes it on your list – it is
way at the bottom. Of course, if you have no other means
of attaining food, and people around you are dying
(please don't kill them), it can be a very real and horrific
survival possibility.
I leave cannibalism near the end of this chapter in
hopes that it will propel you to action. Prepare your family
now so that if a food shortage comes you can adopt
simple and reliable survival methods. Stick to solutions
that will not only feed your family, but will also relieve
hunger in your community.
I can think of nothing better to turn a doomsday
situation into a paradise than…
Survival Gardening How to perpetually feed you and your family, even if the food system collapses
completely with no hope of return in our lifetime?
31 Warren, Lynne. "Edge of the World" National Geographic. January 2010: 74-75
In his anthology The Snow
Walker Farley Mowat tells tales
of Inuit parents instructing
relatives to cannibalize their own
bodies (after draining their blood)
in order to feed their children.
(Yep, time to grow a garden,
folks.)
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1. Get seeds.
2. Plant a garden.
Sounds simple. It is. Or at least… it was. It
still can be simple, but you have to know how
to avoid the pitfalls of modern agricultural
which have made living off the land rather
difficult.
You need to make sure you use what are
called heirloom non-hybrid seeds. These are
the only type of seeds that will produce fruits
and vegetables with new seeds that can be
planted again the next year. In other words,
heirloom seeds will produce generations of
crops year after year after year.
Even if you're not a gardener (yet), make
sure you own plenty of open-pollinated (or
heirloom) seeds. This way, if the food system
collapses, you're set to start producing your
own edibles. Prepare your family so that if
survival gardening becomes necessary, you'll
be ready to go while others haven't a clue
what to do. You'll be able to grow plenty of
hearty vegetables, grains and legumes that
you can store throughout the winter months.
This is the way people lived for all of
recorded history. Our modern system of
agricultural and food distribution is only a
century old. It was an experiment.
86% of Americans lived or worked on
farms up until the 20th century. In India and much of South and Central America people
still live this way. If the infrastructure collapsed – life wouldn't change much for them.
Sure, your own crisis garden won't produce aisles and aisles of chocolate chip
cookies and endless supplies of McBurgers. But it will produce tasty, nutritious food that
will keep you and your family alive and well.
Each year's harvest will not only give you food, it will also produce seeds that you
can replant the following year. And each generation of seeds will produce plants better
adapted to your soil, pests, weeds, climate and water situation. Each year, you will grow
stronger plants with greater ease. (And your gardening skills will improve with each
passing year, too.) Check out Food Crisis 2: How to Prepare for a Long-Term Food
Shortage (www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2) for more details.
In Food Crisis 2: How to Prepare for a
Long-Term Food Shortage I explain
everything I think you need to know to
prepare for a survival gardening situation. I
show how to find non-hybrid seeds and which
fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains you
can most easily grow in your own backyard. I
also show you how to store the seeds. Go to
www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2 to find out
more.
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Chapter 5:
Don't Panic! (And Other Thoughts
About Living Off the Land)
he first half of this book gave me the chills.
Researching and describing very real and
probable disaster situations is not fun work.
We know these situations are going to happen. It's
just a matter of time. Maybe it'll be "the end of the
world"; or maybe it'll just be a change in the way
we live; or maybe we'll bounce back to our same
mode of living after a few years of chaos.
But let's assume the "worst" happens. A total
collapse of our food system. Billions of people
starve. Oil disappears. Electricity is limited to a few
generators and windmills guarded behind barbed
fences. We regress to a strange combination of
19th century farm life with a lot of 21st century
technology that we can't use anymore.
CDs might be used to reflect sunlight and
keep birds away from your crops. We might be
gutting our SUVs and having a dog team pull
them. Cell phones may become a useless piece of plastic while we revert to ham
radios, telegraphs and smoke signals.
Whatever happens, don't panic. Especially if you are prepared. Store food. Store
seeds. If you do those two things you'll be ahead of the pack.
For most of recorded history the majority of people on this planet lived in rural, selfsustaining
communities. Sure, there were periods with lords, serfdom, raids and
pillaging. Hopefully we won't revert back to the Dark Ages. Let's pray for "Little House
on the Prairie" time. It wasn't all that bad.
In fact, a lot of people suffer from the delusion that our current mode of living is
superior to how we lived before. Obviously, there are advantages. But in many ways we
are losing a bit of our humanity. Never before have cancer rates been so high. Obesity
is off the charts. Adult-onset type 2 diabetes is hitting children as young as twelve.
Families are breaking apart. We are addicted to buying stuff we don't need and can't
afford. People get more upset about their favorite sports team losing than the collapse
32 Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. 1: Crisis of the Old Order. Paperback ed. New
York: Mariner Books, 2003. (Originally published 1957.)
During the previous boom years of the
1920s many North Americans bought
vehicles which they soon found they
could not afford to operate. During the
Great Depression they pulled the
engines out and had their automobiles
pulled by horses. In Canada they were
called Bennett Buggies, named after
Prime Minister Richard Bennett (1930-
1935) who Canadians blamed for the
nation's poverty. In America, we called
them Hoover Wagons after President
Herbert Hoover.32
T
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of the economy. People average about six hours a day watching TV and only manage
to read 1.5 books a year.
And despite our industrial accomplishments we are still working long hours with
barely time to cook a proper meal.
Taxes are up. Despite living in an age of telecommunication marvels, we have less,
not more, control over the actions of political representatives.
Sometimes Progress Involves a
Few Steps Backwards
Returning to local economies, local government
and local food may be progress – even if we have
to take a few steps backwards technologically.
As of this writing, I live in the suburbs of
Denver. It's an upper middle-class neighborhood.
A lot of soccer moms ferrying their kids around all
day (in between shopping, "laying out" and
watching TV). Everybody seems to be "keeping
up with the Joneses" – trying to outdo each other
in the acquiring of status symbols.
Sadly, the modest neighborhoods that made
America great only exist in small towns and memories. We've turned over our shops,
stores, and supermarkets to international corporations to the point that every city in the
States looks almost identical (with its Starbucks, McDonalds, Wal-Marts and Home
Depots).
While a lot of good things might disappear in a long-term survival situation –
emergency medical care, the Internet, telecommunication – many negative things would
also disappear.
Our current way of life is not sustainable. You can't export jobs to third world
countries and expect the economy to support itself. You can't slash food quality for price
savings and expect people to stay healthy.
We've put ourselves in our current situation out of greed. Sure you can blame big
corporations who export our jobs to third world sweat shops. But we are the ones
buying their DVRs. We may complain that they've driven out small local farms… but we
are the ones trying to save $50/week on groceries (so we can buy that cheap DVR from
China).
We got greedy. We wanted more for less. We exchanged security and sustainability
for transient price savings.
So if a new world is to be rebuilt, hopefully we'll learn from our mistakes. Stick to
sharing more in smaller communities where we connect as human beings face-to-face
(not merely as Facebook Friends).
Little House on the Prairie was one of the
most popular and longest running (203
episodes) dramatic family TV shows. Just
goes to show we all long for simpler days.
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Doomsday or Paradise: Which Will It Be?
The collapse of the food system can either be a "survival situation" or it can be a "new
way of life." It can be doomsday or it can be paradise.
Most people today voluntarily eat garbage. It's not even food. It's denatured, overprocessed,
preservative-filled, genetically modified substances that had some original
link to a plant in the ground. Just think how much healthier and stronger people will be
eating food grown or caught locally. They'd feel better not just from eating the food, but
from the exercise it takes to grow or catch it. Plus, there are all the health benefits that
come from exposure to sunlight, fresh air and contact with the earth.
These days may or may not come. But it's very likely some variation of them will.
You need to be prepared. Our grandparents lived by the motto "Prepare for the worst,
hope for the best." I hope this book has encouraged you to do the same.
The average Joe will do nothing. I'm hoping you're not an "average Joe." I'd wager
you're a survival Joe (or Jane). Read the next chapter for suggestions on what steps to
take next…
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Chapter 6:
What's Your Next Step?
think one of the reasons people do so little to prepare
for the possibility of a food shortage (even when it's
almost a certainty) is because they have been trained
by the government, the media and corporate
advertising to feel like helpless victims.
As they squander their salary each week on things
they don't need, they wonder how they could possibly be
preparing for an international food shortage.
But I can't stress how even a little bit of preparedness
and foresight could mean the difference between life and
death.
You need to just take things one step at time. Do
whatever you can. Trust in God to take care of the rest.
He's pretty good at taking care of 75% of our problems if we take responsibility for at
least 25%.
You can only do your best. That thought should be a major de-stresser. Just don't
waste your time and money on things that give you a little fun now but leave you in
jeopardy later. This is only creates more subconscious stress because you know you're
making your situation worse by exchanging a little temporary pleasure for possible longterm
agony.
Anyway, once you get moving with preparedness it's actually quite fun. It brings an
added sense of purpose to your life. You feel good about yourself knowing you are
taking greater responsibility for your family and your community.
Just create a to-do list. Put things in priority. Put aside a ½ hour each day to read up
or take action. Or make Saturday morning time to prepare. If you're unemployed, you
may be better off than most – as you have more time. Time is often more valuable than
money.
And more valuable than time and money is mental preparedness. When crisis
situations happen most people die not because they didn't have food stores or hunting
knowledge. They perished because they didn't see what was coming and it put them in
a state of inanimate shock. So, yes, even if all you do is read more about preparing for
the collapse of the food bubble, you're chances of survival are higher than the average
Joe.
Here's my very short if-you-do-nothing-else priority list for surviving the coming food
shortage…
While the grid is still up I'm
working away trying to get as
much information to you as
possible.
I
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Priority No. 1: Store Some Food
Number one priority should be storing food for an emergency. Food Crisis 1:
Emergency Food Storage Basics for the Average Joe will help you immensely with
that. Make sure you are a subscriber so that you'll be notified as soon as it is available.
For the moment just store a balanced diet of foods that won't spoil. Or just buy more of
what you're already buying. If it would only take three days to empty your home of
edibles, you're living life on the razor's edge.
Priority No. 2:
Be Ready to Grow Some Food
Second priority, I believe, is to at least be prepared to begin
survival gardening. That means you need to have a basic
plan and the right kind of seeds. That's where Food Crisis
2: How to Prepare for a Long-Term Food Shortage can
be a life-saving resource.
I released this second Food Crisis volume first simply
because I think there is a greater need for people to be
ready to prepare for a long-term food crisis. Even if all you
do for the moment is get enough of the right kind of seeds
and store them safely away from rot and thieves.
While there a lot of tricks, short cuts and money-saving
tips when it comes to food storage – any fool can buy some
non-perishable food and store it and under the bed. But
stored food will only keep you fed so long. A survival seeds can keep you and your
family fed for a lifetime. So I strongly encourage you to head over
www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis2 right now and find out more about Food Crisis 2: How
to Prepare for a Long-Term Food Shortage.
About the Author
Survival Joe (Jacobs) is a suburban father of three, living in
Colorado, who has taken a special interest in family preparedness.
"I'm just a regular dad," says Joe Jacobs, "who can't ignore the fact
that a disaster is bound to happen." It could be a natural disaster. It
could be economical collapse. It could be war. Doesn't matter. You
have three choices: You don't think about it. You get scared. Or you
get prepared." Read more about Survival Joe and his views on family preparedness at
www.survivaljoe.net/about.
Please COPY – You Have Permission to
Distribute This Ebook at No Charge
I openly encourage you to send copies of this ebook to as many people as you can. If
you have a website you can post the PDF file on your site or give it away to email
subscribers. You can also send interested people to www.survivaljoe.net/foodcrisis
where they can download a copy from my website.
All Content Copyright © 2010 Gambit LLC Publications
With the exception of cited photos and quotations all work contained in these pages is
the intellectual property of Gambit LLC Publications. You are free to use small excerpts
for purposes of review or for reference as long as the source is properly cited.
Disclaimer
All content contained in this publication is for information purposes only. You will not
hold Joe Jacobs or Gambit LLC responsible if any harm comes to you as a result of
information contained in this guide. All commentary is protected by free speech.
Contact Information
Joe Jacobs, c/o Gambit LLC, 23223 Chapel Hill Pl., Parker, CO 80138, USA, (720) 344-
7788, joe@www.survivaljoe.net
Cover Photo Credits
1. Food storage Image. Bishop, Kellene. Preparedness Pro.
www.preparednesspro.wordpress.com. 2. Survival garden image. Dervaes' home.
Homegrown Revolution (Video). Path to Freedom. www.pathtofreedom.org. 3. Foraging
image. Stroud, Les. Survivorman 3: Best of Compilation. Discovery Channel Website.
www.yourdiscovery.com/video/shows/survivorman/?cc=US 4. Backyard chickens
image. Matthew. Chicken Diction Blog. www.chickendiction.wordpress.com. 5. Hunting
and trapping image. Primitive Trapping DVD. Kota Earth School.
www.kotaearthschool.com.
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