Destiny Survival

My survey question for October asked what items you’d buy if money were no object.  Forty-three percent of those of you responding said you’d buy long term storage food.  Twenty-five percent of you said you’d buy a water purification system.  Items for self defense ranked third, and the other choices got only a couple of votes.  So it seemed like a good idea to revisit the subject of food storage.

There are lots of ways to approach the topic, but I want to refer to Survival Sam’s post the other day about the account of an Argentine survivalist who lived through the economic collapse earlier this decade in Argentina.  As you might guess, the Argentine’s recommendations included buying plenty of storage food, including a little extra each time you go grocery shopping.  I’ll summarize the main points he gave in order of importance and add a comment or two in parentheses.

1) Have foods that don’t need refrigeration.  (Electricity was not dependable.)

2) Have foods with high nutrition density.

3) Have foods with a long shelf life, 1-5 years or more.  (You can buy long term storage food with shelf life up to 25 years.)

4) Have foods that don’t require water for preparation.  (He had access to water, but didn’t have adequate water purification, which is a mistake you and I don’t want to make.  Have a good water purification unit.)

5) Have foods that don’t need cooking.  (Again, utilities weren’t dependable.  This makes a Good case for having a camp stove or solar oven.)

I strongly encourage you to have long term storage food on hand.  If you’ve looked seriously at the offerings included in food storage packages designed to provide up to a year’s supply, but you don’t like some of the items, I would say two things.  First, in a survival situation, you’ll make do with what you have at hand and will likely eat things not previously appreciated.  Buy a cookbook on preparing food from your storage pantry.  Nitro-Pak has such a book available.  Second, supplement your storage food supply with items you do like from the supermarket or big box place.  One advantage of planning ahead is the ability to get foods you’re familiar with and used to eating.  Just remember shelf life on such items won’t be as long, so these items will need to be rotated out every few months, consumed  and replaced.

The Argentine survivalist suggests buying canned meats, canned tuna, canned vegetables, dried pasta, dehydrated soups, chocolate, milk powder, marmalades, soups, rice and dried beans.  Also, have a garden or healthful fruit trees for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Having a variety of foods can be good for morale in difficult situations.  Click on the logo below and take a look at the selections Nitro-Pak has to offer.  You’ll see several on their home page.  Depending on the long term storage food package you purchase, you may get items like Seafood Chowder, Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken Teriyaki, Chili Mac, Beef Stroganoff and children’s favorites like Spaghetti and super cheesy Macaroni & Cheese.

There’s sure to be a food package to meet your needs in a price range you can afford.  You may want to get a supply of freeze dried food that will last one person a year or three months for a family of four, such as Nitro-Pak’s Ultimate Pak.  Or you might want to start out with individual #10 cans of something as simple as banana slices.  Nitro-Pak offers Mountain House freeze dried food, which is very easy to prepare.  Just add water and eat.  It repeatedly ranks high in taste tests, too, even among those hard to please, like children.

Nitro-Pak says it’s wise to buy now before prices go up.  As you know, anything can happen in the economy these days, but, at the risk of stating the obvious, any financial counselor worth his salt will tell you keeping food on the table is one of your top priorities.  Make sure you budget wisely for it.

If you haven’t started putting your storage food pantry together, now is the time.  Don’t wait to live through disruptive times like those faced by those in Argentina.  The Department of Homeland Security has recommended every family in America have a backup food reserve in case of natural disaster or terrorism.  As Survival Sam often reminds me, regardless of what you or I may think of the government these days, if they’re telling us to be prepared, we’d better take their advice.