Practical Food Storage - It's Not An Option, It's An Essential Part of Living

Nearby Forest Fires - 2011

When we decided to leave the city for country living, there was no doubt we were in for some big changes. Our home is located in a county with less than 30,000 people; it is possible to drive from our home into town, several miles, without seeing another car on the roadway. I often joke a traffic jam here is a couple pickup trucks stopped in the roadway while a cattle herd is being moved from a pasture on one side of the roadway to the other.

 

The county road to our home is unpaved and during periods of heavy rainfall and/or high winds, it is common place to find the road washed out to the point it is impassable or to find huge downed trees blocking the roadway. So, making a trip into town for supplies is not always an available option; even evacuation under extreme circumstances may be impossible. The electrical lines do not run alongside the public roadways; instead they run across private property and oftentimes through heavily forested areas. When storms come through,  especially those that cause ice to form and break tree limbs or storms with particularly high winds, it is not uncommon for the electricity to go out anywhere from a few hours to several days. A side effect of lost electricity is loss of easy access to fresh water since as with most rural properties’ our drinking water source is a water well powered by an electrical pump.

 

I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast; I have lived through many storms, including Hurricane Carla, which wreaked more than $325 million in damages - 43 people died in that storm. Anyone living in or near southeast Texas on September 24, 2005, should remember Hurricane Rita; I know I won’t forget it.  My husband was stationed overseas at the time; I was on the ranch watching the chaos on TV of the mass exodus from Houston in anticipation of Rita’s landfall. Entire families were either ordered to evacuate from areas in and around Houston or they had panicked and decided to self-evacuate. People were stranded on roadways for days with no food, water, diapers or formula for their children; people died not from the storm but from the evacuation! Post-storm there were families in East Texas without electricity – and well water – for many weeks!

 

Natural disasters make themselves known regularly, both in our country and around the World – hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fires, blizzards, epidemics, and droughts. Then there are the “man-made” disasters – domestic and foreign terrorism, civil unrest, failing infrastructure, and the ever present threat of war as more and more countries have acquired weapons of mass destruction.

 

They say history repeats itself - the influenza pandemic of 1918 infected more than 500 million people world-wide; it is estimated 675,000 people died in the U.S. alone before coming to an end in 1919. In more modern times, we have seen the rise of many infectious diseases, for example, H1N1 and SARS; scientists predict it is just a matter of time before another world-wide pandemic occurs.

 

Our country has a population now of over 356 million people. It has been estimated U. S. grocery store shelves hold about a 3-day supply of food and bottled water; the population far surpasses the supply. The U.S. has cities with

A City in Recovery

populations in the millions. Ever been through a grocery store – anywhere - after a hurricane has passed through the area, or the threat of a blizzard? I have and I can only compare the scene to what fields of crops must look like after a plague of locusts finish with it. I have listened to people  relating tales of trying to buy food immediately prior to a hurricane making landfall lamenting they were lucky to find a can of peanut butter and a box of crackers to sustain them for several days! Seriously??? This from someone who grew up in “hurricane alley”?!

 

People living on farms and ranches can, and are, as strongly affected by natural or man-made disaster-related events as people residing in the cities, maybe more so in some respects.



Power outages, communications disruptions, flooded roads and highways, fencing destroyed by falling trees and storm surges, burned by fires, or buried under snow drifts. Livestock scattered or injured by flying debris or stranded with limited or no access to food or safe drinking water for days to weeks. Crops failing and pastures made useless by 

The Face of Drought

drought. Folks, I have witnessed all these things happen  – these are not times to be worrying about whether or not you have enough food and water to sustain you and your family until things can return to some semblance of normality. Due to location and geography, it can be much more difficult and more protracted in terms of time to restore power, communications, and transportation pathways to and from rural areas.

 

The reality is all these things I have mentioned are part of life; I don’t dwell on them, I just recognize they exist and may influence the health and well-being of myself and my family at some point; common sense tells me to be prepared to “weather these storms”. There are many things in this World we cannot control, but we can prepare to mitigate the extent of personal damage many of these natural or man-made disasters can visit upon us, if we choose to do so.

 

Even websites for government agencies involved in emergency management encourage Americans to assess their personal risk during various types of emergencies and take responsibility for having a plan in place to deal with these emergencies. I recall during the Cold War’s Cuban Crisis our government was urging people to be prepared for a nuclear disaster by stockpiling food, water, medicine and constructing fall-out shelters. The message is loud and clear, be prepared to care for yourself and your family!!!

 

For centuries people in every country raised and/or grew their own food; they stored part of this food in preparation for hard times, whether it was to prepare for the long, cold months of winter or as a buffer against loss of income due to failing crops and famine in years to come. They recognized the value of “food storage” and practiced it as an essential part of life.

 

Modern society sometimes labels people who think like this as – Preppers, Survivalists, Alarmists, nut jobs, whatever, because the idea of doing things that our ancestors considered part and parcel of everyday life is foreign to many in our country today, especially those living in the big cities.   After all they don’t need to learn to hunt or fish - to grow, can or dry food - to store water - everything they need is available via the nearest Walmart or a twist of a faucet handle. And in a pinch, the government will save them! Right?!

 

Webster’s Dictionary defines a “disaster” as:

1)  A sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; or,

2)  A sudden or great misfortune or failure.

 

It is does not take a hurricane, a blizzard, or a foreign country detonating an electromagnetic weapon in the atmosphere over the United States to create a disaster. The word “disaster” can have different meanings to different people at different times in their lives – a disaster might be a single Mother with a couple of children who was just informed her car’s transmission needs replacement and it will cost a significant portion of her paycheck for the next month to repair it. A disaster might be someone who becomes house-bound for several weeks due to illness. Or how about going to the ATM for some cash and discovering some identify thief drained your bank account?

 

In my mind, personal disaster planning and preparation is not an option, it is not a joke - it is a requirement to ensure the safety and well-being of you, your family – and your animals - in an ever changing and unpredictable World.

 

Having a well thought out disaster plan, which includes water and food storage, can be empowering; it can reduce both emotional and financial stress when practiced regularly. It can act as a buffer in times of emergencies or disasters, of all shapes and sizes, allowing you to focus on those anomalies for which you cannot prepare!

 

Practicing food storage is not rocket science, it just takes some thought, organization – most of all commitment to do it! With any new process or skill, mistakes can be made; mistakes that slow or hinder reaching your goals and/or waste funds. In my next article, “Practical Food Storage, Part 2 – Common Mistakes”, I will review common errors to assist in reducing your learning curve with respect to food storage.

 

If you have been considering food storage, folks, it is past time to get busy!