After speaking to pretty much every major long-term food storage company out there over the past four or five months, the trends are crystal clear. "Prepping" is becoming much more popular in America. The stigma that was manufactured by corporate media and "intellectuals" has been lifted thanks to a series of events over the past couple of years that have made many Americans very uncertain about the future.
Uncertainty can breed one of two things: panic or preparedness. The former will start manifesting in the coming months as so many people will suddenly realize things are not going to get better and chaos is about to take hold. Those who fall in the latter category will be as ready as they can be so they can avoid government breadlines and the anarchy that comes when store shelves are empty.
See Venezuela for a glimpse into our potential future.
When my family decided to start getting prepared last year, we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. I had too much of some things and not enough of others. I didn't spend my limited funds the best way possible. Most importantly, I didn't have a proper plan in place. We've recovered, but I wanted to offer some advice based on our experience to our readers and listeners at The Late Prepper. I also strongly encourage those with insights or more experience to help out by posting comments below.
The information that I'm posting and that I discussed on the podcast is based on a few assumptions. First, this is a bug-in plan, not a bugout plan. You should DEFINITELY have a plan ready and practiced for such a situation in which you have to leave your home for extended periods of time, possibly forever. I'll cover that in the future, but for now I want to focus on bugging in.
The second assumption in this plan is that it's ONLY about food. You will need a plan for water, defense, medical, and other emergencies that will arise in a crap-hits-the-fan scenario, but for today I'm only focused on food itself.
Third, we're assuming a common living scenario. An individual who's living off-grid on 500 acres in Montana would plan very differently from a family in a middle class suburban home outside of Dallas. That type of plan, which is what I'll be describing below, is based on average levels of living and storage space, a backyard or patio of some sort, and limited ability to hunt locally for food.
The final assumption is that there will be no access to any food other than what's given out in the breadlines. In other words, this plan is geared around an economic or societal collapse. It may not be that bad, but I'd rather my family be prepared for a full collapse. If it's just a reversible downturn or temporary food shortage, great! Our plan is designed for having no access to food other than what we store. Let's begin...
Five Types of Food
Before I get into the five ways we separate out our foods, I should warn the more experienced preppers that this is a hybrid approach. I've combined different styles of prepping from multiple sources of information, so some of this will be very familiar and others may seem odd. We chose this method of separating our food based on two desires. First, we obviously want to survive. Second, we want to be able to eat fairly well. If there's one knock I have against many of the food plans in circulation today, it's that they really focus on the former and not the latter. I wouldn't sacrifice survivability for the sake of having a good variety of flavors, but it's definitely possible to have both.
With that said, here are the five types of food we are storing:
Early Stage Perishables (Short Term Food, Months 0-2)
This is what's in your pantry and refrigerator. It's the food you're eating everyday already. Most families have about two weeks worth of food. I strongly recommend bumping that up to at least two months. Obviously, you can't effectively store away two months of every perishable items since, well, they're perishable. My family's goal is to never have to open up any of the longer lasting food until the short term perishables are used up.
When the crap hits the fan, we're going to eat the most spoilable items first. Anything in the refrigerator or pantry that will go bad in days or a few weeks like milk, bread, eggs, non-frozen meats, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables will all be eaten first.
Middle Stage Perishables (Medium Term Food, Months 2-36)
This is the food that will stay edible for a while but not necessarily long-term.
Canned Soups, Sauces, Meals
Unsealed Pasta
Canned Meat
Shelf-Stable Meals
Sprouts (Short-term once they're sprouted but stable until then)
Self-Canned Foods
Oils
Frozen Foods
Dehydrated Foods That Are Vacuum-Sealed (we dehydrate and vacuum-seal fruits and vegetables every day)
Long Haul Food (Long-Term Food Beyond Month 36)
Food that can last for more than five years is perfect for long-term storage. The goal is to never really have to open up any until all of your short- and mid-term has been exhausted. These foods MUST be properly packaged and stored - oxygen absorbers in mylar bags or sealed cans.
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Freeze Dried Food
Powdered Eggs, Milk, Butter
Honey and Maple Syrup (standard storage is fine as long as it's away from the open air, moisture, high or low temperatures, light, and critters)
Some Shelf-Stable Foods Can Fall Into This Category - Know Your Dates
Sustainable Food
These are the foods that keep on giving. Cows for milk would be great, but it's not very easy to keep cows.
Garden
Grow Bags
Indoor Plants and Microgreens
Chickens
All-Stage Staples
These are the foods you can store a lot of that will be available from the beginning of crap hitting the fan all the way to the end. And by a lot, I mean A LOT. I'd like to have literally a ton of this food stored away before the crap hits the fan.
Rice
Wheat Berries (long-term) and Flour (short- to mid-term)
Beans, Peas, Lentils
Drink Mixes
Rolled Oats
Conclusion
You CAN do this. Get as much as you can over time, but don't dilly-dally. You'll be fine. Keep praying and keep working towards securing your family's food security. We don't know how long the upcoming collapse will last.
New Prepper Food Planning 101