Red State Green

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few months, you know that food supply has become an issue, and along with that there’s a lot of what one person called ‘free-floating panic’ out there.

On Sharon Astyk’s Sustainable Food Storage list (which I highly recommend, btw), a woman posed a question that I think a lot of people share (I’ve removed any identifying data):

i’m feeling vaguely panicked just now. i feel like i don’t know where to start. i do not have 2 weeks’ of food or water stored, and i know that’s what was suggested as a first goal, but that still seems like a big deal! so now i’m trying to figure out exactly what to do/buy first with limited funds. i feel like i’m starting from zero.

my current urge is to do water storage first, because it worries me that if anything happened to the municipal water system, we’d be out of luck. BUT i was doing some research both in the archives here and online, and i might be able to swing one 5 gallon glass jar, or one 15 gallon poly barrel, or two 5 gallon poly containers (the kind approved by the UN).

but then i think about food. then i think about seeds. then i think about preservation equipment. then i think about gamma seals. then it spirals out of control and they all seem equally important! argh!

how do you reconcile what to do first/next? where did you start?

You start where you are.

Look at what you have right now to store water in. Glass jars, two-liter soda bottles, ponds, toilet tanks (the back part ), bathtubs, hot-water tanks, and ice chests are all fine short-term water storage containers, which a lot of people use when a storm is coming anyway.

Look at what you have in your house to eat right now. How long would it last if you couldn’t go to the store? The average person has about a week of food, so you’re likely to be at least halfway there already. Go actually look.

(doing something makes panic go away, in most cases)

Now, what can you get for free or very cheaply? Look at thrift stores or yard sales for extra blankets, or a canner, or extra candles. Dollar stores often have good deals on things that can be useful, such as gloves or flashlights.

The thing about ‘stocking up‘ on food, is first, that you don’t have to buy bulk, and second, you don’t have to buy everything. All you need is more of what you already eat. (If people rushing to buy bags of rice (and getting in fistfights over the last bag) that don’t eat rice wasn’t so sad I would laugh.)

So this is what I would suggest.

Each time you go to the store, buy one item above what you would normally buy (non-perishables, unless it’s something you can freeze). If you buy a jar of peanut butter, buy two. If you buy one loaf of bread a week, buy two, then freeze the extra one. Bread thaws out in a few hours; usually what I do is get the new one out when the old one is almost gone.

If you know how to garden or want to try then get one packet of seeds, too.

(Edited to remove stupid lack of brain being turned on statement. )

Now, if you have the money to get more than that, by all means do so. But panicking will not do you any good. So take a deep breath, relax, and see what it is you need to do.