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I agree, keeping 'food insurance' is far from crazy. You can buy MREs that last five to ten years. They won't solve all problems but they will certainly give

I agree, keeping 'food insurance' is far from crazy. You can buy MREs that last five to ten years. They won't solve all problems but they will certainly give you time to react appropriately e.g. escaping an area or growing food for the following year. Does anybody remember James Burke's Connections? The very first episode on how to live in a global downturn?

_delirium 10y ago
I agree, but that doesn't really require being part of the whole "prepper" subculture, which seems to focus more on scenarios where you're surviving a complete breakdown of society for decades in a bunker. In countries where infrastructure has historically been prone to interruptions, it's fairly common for people to store a good amount of preserved food, but they aren't seen as preppers, just people with a storehouse (which is basically an oversized pantry). My Greek grandparents always had a fairly large supply of food, for example. I do think many Americans are too far to the unprepared extreme, where a two-day interruption of normal services caused by e.g. a tropical storm sends everyone panicking, because they in some cases literally don't even have one day's worth of food in their house.
- internaut 10y ago
  Yeah I think that Hollywood has done a number on some people. Surviving isn't that glamorous in real life. I think for most people having 1 to 3 months of food is ample but if you're in a political troublespot you should triple or quintuple that. It's all about using your wits while not going over the top.
ersii 10y ago
> Does anybody remember James Burke's Connections? The very first episode on how to live in a global downturn? If you don't remember it or want to see it again, look here [1] with the HN discussion here [2]. [1] https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Series%3A+Connections+%281978%29%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Series%3A+... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075430 Edit: Changed [1] to the current link, old link that [2] refers to doesn't work

_delirium 10y ago

I agree, but that doesn't really require being part of the whole "prepper" subculture, which seems to focus more on scenarios where you're surviving a complete breakdown of society for decades in a bunker. In countries where infrastructure has historically been prone to interruptions, it's fairly common for people to store a good amount of preserved food, but they aren't seen as preppers, just people with a storehouse (which is basically an oversized pantry). My Greek grandparents always had a fairly large supply of food, for example. I do think many Americans are too far to the unprepared extreme, where a two-day interruption of normal services caused by e.g. a tropical storm sends everyone panicking, because they in some cases literally don't even have one day's worth of food in their house.

internaut 10y ago
Yeah I think that Hollywood has done a number on some people. Surviving isn't that glamorous in real life. I think for most people having 1 to 3 months of food is ample but if you're in a political troublespot you should triple or quintuple that. It's all about using your wits while not going over the top.

ersii 10y ago

> Does anybody remember James Burke's Connections? The very first episode on how to live in a global downturn? If you don't remember it or want to see it again, look here [1] with the HN discussion here [2]. [1] https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Series%3A+Connections+%281978%29%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Series%3A+... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075430 Edit: Changed [1] to the current link, old link that [2] refers to doesn't work