Food security.What thoughts about our current situation re supermarkets duopolies and food quality and security.How many days supplybare stored in our big cities.Quite alarming situation iny opinion
Looking for positive solutions not just supermarket bashing.
I live in Interior Alaska. Our food is brought in daily. When ANYTHING goes wrong, like a volcano blowing in southern Alaska we run out of food within hours.
We live here anyway, nearly everyone is a hunter. (Not me, I've never been able to kill anything).
I raised my kids in a flood prone area, 3-4 weeks isolation was common enough. We can manage 4-6 weeks easily.
Fuel and electricity issues could be a problem for us, I have been through rationing of both back when we had industrial issues. No fuel, no food deliveries to shops, no power, then no refrigeration.
Its not going to feed you enough.Definitely worth doing tho
I keep my home well stocked, compared to friends, family, and others I know. If necessary, I believe I could get by for four to six weeks, and that includes medications. The one thing I worry about is electricity, but it has become less of a concern since I invested in a portable generator last year during a power outage that lasted long enough to threaten the integrity of my chest freezer contents.
I don't worry that much about food quality because I purchase from a variety of sources, fresh whenever possible, and I am a stickler for food safety at home (in fact, careless food practices are a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.) I would grow my own food, but I am notorious for having a "brown thumb." I sometimes think that I could make a plastic plant shrivel!
So I try to keep enough food available at all times to be able to survive for several weeks. That also allows me to lend a hand to friends and family with a few days worth of food if they find themselves in a bad spot.
I think that those of us with the ability to raise our own food should. Home grown is far more pure and there are no hidden additives. I think I am going to raise some fryers this summer and have them butchered and divided amongst those who tend to lend me a hand with nothing asked in return, I feel I owe them something.
Food security is at the highest point in all of human history. Back in the day nearly anything going slightly wrong meant starvation. Now with global trade, advancements in irrigation/fertilizier, more crops, long term storage of grain, etc. we don't even notice issues that would routinely kill our ancestors.
When is the last time a famine happened in any part of the western world? You have to go all the way back to the worst days and spots of world during ww2 and the great depresion to find them. All of us are the products of multiple generations of people who have not known true hunger.
Its a bit of a silly thing to me that because we depend on more people for our survival we think we are less safe. When in reality the more people we are connected to the more safe we are. Which is more likely to be able to deal with a famine in one area: one farmer in that area, or 10s of millions of farmers scattered across a globe? What is more likely to fail your personal solar-panel system or a continent spanning power supply serviced by thousands of workers?
*shrug
Paranoid people are usually right to be paranoid. Its hard to trust people when you yourself arent trustworthy. Y'all are free to stock up on your ramen, MREs, and your canned food. I am going to continue to put my trust in my fellow human beings.
You make a good case.Wish I could believe it.I am not untrustworthy if that is what you are suggesting..I worry that we struggle to imagine how many people is a million. Capetown water crisis,or the Berlin airlift afterWW2..They had a Dakota taking off and landing every three minutes to keep Berliners fed.If a plane crashed or stalled it was just dozed off runway.The logistics are stupendous.
Anyway for me there are many reasons that supermarkets are damaging society
"What will you do during the Zombie Apocalypse?"..... alternate title.
Eat zombies and you
I think growing food locally, or even personally, is the answer.
Urban Farming: How City Restaurants Can Get the Freshest Local Produce - [goo.gl]
Ikea just launched a DIY flat-pack indoor garden that can feed a whole lot of people at once [read.bi] via @businessinsider
This incredible vertical farm skyscraper could feed an entire town [businessinsider.com]
What bothers me the most is how few people actually know about food. Where it comes from, how it is grown, how to prepare it, and how it feeds the body. When something happens so many people are unable to fend for themselves. It is not just stores, it is ignorance on food. I am not a survivalist, just a realist.
Too many children think their food comes from the grocery store. When my late partner, an elementary school teacher, told them where their meat came from they often did not believe her.
Grow some food for yourself. I think that's a good place to start. Most food would be gone in stores three days after trucks stop running and that's optimistic. So, storing food and encouraging your neighbors to do the same is also a good idea.
Unfortunately home gardens are illegal in a lot of places.
@memorylikeasieve Really? I live in an HOA and even they aren't that bad.
I've not encountered a situation where growing a garden was illegal. That's ridiculous. You could always get an LED grow light and grow some potted veggies in your house.
It varies from place to place. I'd check the zoning laws and ordinances.