by Cody Lundin
—Famine survivor Mrs. Liu recounting the winter of 1959.
Of the 300 people who lived in Mrs. Liu's village, only 80 survived
Biafra (now Nigeria), Africa, 1967–1969
Civil war—caused famine kills 1 million people, leaving another 3.5 million to suffer from extreme malnutrition.
North Korea, 1994–1998
A combination of reduced Chinese and Russian food subsidies, along with the effects of collective farming, flooding, drought, and government corruption, caused an estimated 2 to 3 million people to die of starvation, disease, and cannibalism. Defectors reported the elderly routinely walked out into fields to die, thereby reducing the burden of having to be fed.
Weeds, of whatever kind, were boiled up and swallowed in the form of soup. The soup was so bitter that we could barely keep it down. Our neighbors collected grass and tree bark—usually pine or various shrubs. They grated the bark and boiled it up before eating it. And much good it did them: their faces swelled from day to day until they finally perished. The poorest children lived on nothing but grass, and during class their stomachs rumbled. After a few weeks their faces began to swell, making them look well nourished. Then their faces went on growing until they looked as though they had been inflated. Their cheeks were so puffy that they couldn't see the blackboard. Some of them were covered with impetigo and flaking skin. My friends and I caught frogs and cooked them skewered on bicycle spokes. We also ate grasshoppers, which are delicious fried, as are dragonflies. Grilled, the flesh of fat dragonflies tastes a bit like pork; but you can eat them raw, once the head and wings have been removed. Sparrows and quails ended up in the pot. We caught them with nets set in wooden frames. Other birds, like crows, we fried on a brazier.
—Excerpted from Hyok Kang's book This is Paradise!
Depressed? Don't be! Focus on the positive and get off your butt and make sure your family has the food they need for potential emergencies. After all, stored food is a life insurance policy you can really sink your teeth into.
Food Storage Options
Now that you're good and hungry, let's discuss the many options that you have concerning what form your stored food might take. Canned, dried, or dehydrated meals, whole grains packed in buckets, freeze-dried food, and MREs (meals ready to eat) are the more common types of food-storage strategies on the market. All have their advantages and disadvantages. All will, sooner or later, need to be rotated to prevent your stock from going bad and/or losing much of its nutritional value. There are extremely comprehensive books on long-term food storage. The Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) are the kings and queens of doing their homework regarding this and much can be learned from their generations of experience. Check out a Mormon bookstore in your area or search online for other food storage information.
Keep in mind that the focus of many of these books is a long-term storage plan for food that will last one year or more. The task of storing food for such an extended amount of time can seem so complex and daunting that many families throw up their hands in frustration and blow off storing any food altogether. Slow down and breathe. How much food your family should have on hand depends on your family's supposed emergency. Most households, excluding destitute college students, already have an ample supply of food on hand that should last for several days in a pinch. Maybe this is all you'll need for your perceived emergency, or all the room you have to store food in the first place. Knowing you're in an emergency situation will allow you to ration what food you do have, thus making meager rations last even longer. If you want specific lists of stuff to buy for a comprehensive, long-term food storage strategy, research other books whose focus is on providing you with that information.
The Simple Bare-Minimum Food Storage Plan
The average person eats one ton of food each year. If you're not into storing large amounts of food, have on hand at least the bare minimum to get you through a crisis and to remain independent from the bureaucratic and logistical nightmare that will envelop those who failed to have reserve food supplies available. At minimum, your family should have a two- to four-week supply of food on hand at all times. This food should require little or no cooking and meet all of your nutritional needs. It should be easy to access, portable in a pinch, and require the bare minimum of preparation and fuss. To implement this type of food storage program, simply buy more food from the store than you normally would, and when you get down to the emergency two- to four-week supply, make a trip to the store. In your mind, your home should be "out of food" when you reach your two- to four-week stock. If you bite into this stock from laziness or whatever, replace it as soon as possible. This extra food should not sit in the closet for months. It should be a part of your regular meal plan and ROTATED normally. In truth, it is not "stored" food at all, simply extra food that you have on hand as part of your regular fare in the kitchen.
I can't emphasize enough that you keep this extra food as simple as possible concerning its preparation. On my outdoor courses, I state in writing that clients should bring simple foods that require NO COOKING. Regardless of this, many still do. Because they didn't pay attention to the instructions, we are at times forced to create a heat source to cook their dinner. This heat source usually takes the form of a campfire, which requires a safe area to build the fire, dry fuel, an ignition source, knowledge of how to make a fire, the constant adding and adjustment of the fuel, hassling with rocks or berms of dirt to suspend a fireproof cooking container that someone happened to pack, water, and lots of time. While the rest of us have eaten our bagels and trail mix or tuna with crackers, the food cookers are still trying to get their water to boil. Don't underestimate how tedious cooking over a campfire can be (assuming you have the materials and know-how to do so), especially under the physical, mental, and emotional strain of an emergency. There are many down and dirty foods that are ready to eat on the spot. For most families, canned foods will be the cat's meow as they are widely available, durable and portable, cheap, store well for up to two years, and are easy to open and eat, in the can with a stick if necessary, with zero preparation.
Food Storage Rules of Thumb
There is no perfect food storage plan for every family as there are far too many variables to contend with, from personal dietary preferences and restrictions to global climates affecting storage. Many people waste much of their food storage supply by failing to obey a few simple rules of thumb regarding purchasing and storing food in bulk. Almost everyone interested in the storage of food will agree upon the following rules.
1 Store only what your family will eat. This sounds straightforward yet many families buy food, especially bulk items, based solely on price rather than what the family actually eats. It doesn't matter if you get a good deal on lima beans if your family hates them or has never had them. They will surely eat them if they get hungry enough, but why go through the hassle and the dirty looks? In addition, an emergency is not the time to find out that someone in your family is allergic to the new food you just introduced them to.
2 Faithfully ROTATE what you store. Depending on what you store and how it's stored, you must continually rotate your food stock. Seasoned food storage junkies frequently refer to the concept of "first in, first out," abbreviated as FIFO. If not already possessing dates from the factory, all containers should be dated as to when they were purchased to easily distinguish the can of corn that's two weeks old from the one that's two years old.
3 Keep foods stored in the best possible conditions for maximum shelf life. Heat, light, moisture, and excess oxygen are not friendly toward stored food. A following section will delve more deeply into details. Keep all stored food off the ground. Concrete floors can "sweat" moisture during temperature fluctuations when in direct contact with storage containers so put containers on thin wooden slates instead.
4 Foods stored in moisture (canned or bottled) should not be stored longer than two years. After this time these foods will rapidly lose their nutritional value
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5 Use only food-grade storage containers. Food-grade containers won't transfer potentially toxic substances from the container itself into the food. If a container does not specifically state that it is FDA approved for storing food, you should contact the manufacturer, especially if the container is plastic. Specify the characteristics of the food you're storing, whether it's alkaline, acidic, wet or dry, etc., as these qualities may affect the container. Ideally these containers will protect the contents from light, moisture, insects, rodents, excess heat, and air infiltration. Check wholesale food companies for containers such as food-grade plastic buckets, Mylar bags, or metal containers such as #10 cans with lids. I have picked up several used three- to five-gallon plastic food containers from restaurants or school cafeterias for free, so be creative. Grocery stores carry a variety of plastic containers designed to store food. Glass jars with tight-fitting lids may also be used.
6 Keep it simple! Human beings can complicate anything. Looking at food storage plans in books, on the Internet, and elsewhere will prove that people are bound and determined to have just as many culinary choices after a disaster as they enjoy now. Feel free to indulge your quest for variety as you see fit, but the main intention of variety in your emergency diet should be the assurance of necessary balanced nutrition for optimal health, not to titillate your taste buds. The more elaborate and complicated your meal plan is, the more time, money, and effort you'll need to spend to satiate your self-created complexities. If you insist on having steak at every dinner, you will need to plan ahead more than the average Joe or Jane in order to make that happen during an emergency. To combat the ramifications of a major catastrophe, I stressed at the beginning of this chapter the importance of treating your stored food as survival rations instead of regular meals. After reading earlier in this chapter of what people have eaten in times of famine, you might just decide that having beans every night for a month could be acceptable, appetite fatigue or not. If that's not going to work for your family, that's fine, but don't let your wants interfere with your needs. If you reject the idea of storing food at all because it's too time consuming, expensive, or (add your excuse here)__________, your whining and whimsy are destroying your priorities for survival! In times of hunger, you will gladly trade your wishfully thought of blackened salmon with baby peas for my bought, stored, and very real plain rice.
Making a List and Checking it Twice
Ideally, your family will make a list of foods that they eat over a specific period of time. This time period is dependent upon your family's opinion of how much food they wish to store. If you think you should have a six-month supply on hand, know how much, and what, your family consumes in that time frame. You can simplify this by keeping track of all food expenditures for one month and multiplying by six, but you will lose some details of your family's food plan by doing so. While the quantities of food consumed might be similar, the variety in your family's diet may suffer by looking at only the small picture. Personally, I don't care if I eat oatmeal every morning for six months, but your tribe might.
How to Store Food for the Longest Shelf Life
Nothing beats the nutritional value and freshness of foods that have just been harvested. My family has grown a garden for years and there is no comparison between a freshly picked tomato to one that has made the long journey to the grocery store and sits lingering in the produce bin. For the majority of families, fresh food will not be an option after a crisis, thus you will need to know how to properly store the food that you purchase for your storage program. If you don't want to mess with a formal storage program, at least don't let your cupboard go bare before resupplying it at the grocery store. Murphy's Law is alive and well and you don't want the grocery store shelves to be stripped due to an emergency the day before you were going to go shopping. The following rules will directly affect how long your stored food will last. The more rules you can check off in your favor, the better your emergency food will keep and deliver prized nutrition and taste during troubled times. Not all households will be able to conform to all the rules but do the best you can for your home environment.
Keep it cool! Although impossible to obtain in most homes, the optimal temperature for storing most foods is 40 degrees F (4 degrees C). The lower the temperature you can achieve, the lower the rate of chemical deterioration of your food. However, if you let foods stored in liquid, such as canned goods or those bottled in glass jars, freeze they can burst or break. For every 18-degree F (10-degree C) increase in temperature, you will lose half of your food's storage life. This means that if you store food in your 72-degree F (22-degree C) closet instead of your 54-degree F (12-degree C) basement, it will last only half as long. If you don't have a basement, north-facing rooms or attached colder porches are another option. Try to avoid locations that have radical spikes in temperature variation. Unless you know your garage has a year-round cool spot, avoid it. Most garages turn into flaming infernos during the summer months.
Keep it dry! Moisture is a huge enemy of stored food. Those who live in high-humidity climates will have a challenge on their hands. The optimal atmospheric humidity level for storing food is 15 to 10 percent or less. At 10 percent humidity, most bugs can't hatch, but you'll be hard pressed to find such an environment unless you live in the desert. That said, even Arizona has times of high humidity, the most notable being the summer monsoon season. Factor your changing climactic and weather conditions into your food storage equation and avoid packing emergency foods for the long haul before, during, or after a rain. If your basement is cool but has mold crawling up the wall due to inherent dampness, find another food storage locale. Beware also of steam or moisture created from water heaters or other out-of-the-way, basement-dwelling appliances. Whenever possible utilize food storage containers that are moisture-proof and keep them off the ground and away from walls. Using wooden slats underneath and keeping containers from touching interior walls helps prevent the "sweating" that may occur due to temperature differences from the container and the surface it's sitting on or touching.
Keep it dark! Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and light in general will degrade the nutritional value of food over time, especially fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K. Your food storage containers should be opaque, or made that way with nontoxic paint, or wrapped in newspaper, paper bags, black plastic, or put into cardboard boxes with lids to keep things dark. Your storage area as well should be kept as dark as possible. If your stored food shares the closet that you use twice daily, block off the part holding the vittles from light with sheets of cardboard or some other method.
Keep it free of oxygen! Oxygen oxidizes away the nutritional value from your food. Even seemingly moisture-proof containers such as plastic buckets will eventually breathe and allow oxygen and potential moisture molecules to permeate through to the food. Some food companies deal with the excess oxygen by packaging their product using nitrogen, carbon dioxide (dry ice), freeze drying and vacuum sealing, canning, or moisture-absorbing packets (desiccants).
Keep it ROTATED! Frankly, a solid rotational plan will forgive you from many mistakes in storing your food as you will use it up in the order it was purchased—first in, first out—so that it never stays stored for very long. Some companies offer freeze-dried fare and food preserved by other methods that will keep for many years without much thought on your part, but you will pay dearly for the thought they have put into their product. Unfortunately, I have opened more than one "nitrogen-packed in a foil pouch with an added desiccant packet sealed in a number 10 can" survival cuisine product only to have it be rancid after less than two years of storage. If the company guarantees their product can be stored safely for ten years, how do you really know unless you open their hermetically sealed assumption? Storing what you use and faithfully rotating what you purchase is the simplest and safest guarantee that your grub will be good when you pop the top.
What about Eating "Old" Food?
Foods should be thought of in
two distinct ways regarding its eventual spoilage. Fresh food has both palatability and nutritional value. While technically all food starts to lose trace amounts of its nutritional value soon after the harvest, it might remain palatable or edible long after most of its nutrition is gone. How much nutrition is lost in foods is dictated by how much nutrition the food had in the first place, how the food was processed, and how it was stored before going home with you from the store. As explained in the junk food section, empty calories are just that. Food devoid of nutrition will leave the body starving for nutrients and you will still feel hungry after eating large amounts of nutritionally empty food. The end result is that a six-month supply of food that's old will not last six months, as you will eat more of it to remain healthy and "full."
When the grid goes down, your refrigerator will undoubtedly contain at least some perishable food. Eat the food in the refrigerator first, and then eat from the freezer. Save stored foods until all perishables are eaten. In a well-stocked, well-insulated freezer, foods will usually still have ice crystals in their centers—meaning they are safe to eat—for up to two days. However, use caution. After the 2003 blackout in New York City that left 9 million people without power for up to two days, an increase in diarrhea was linked to the consumption of meat and seafood from homeowners' unpowered refrigerators.
Nutritional loss aside, most foods will eventually break down until they look, smell, and taste like hell. While it's impossible for the layman to know how much nutrition a food has lost, even little Johnny is capable of spitting out something that tastes disgusting. Luckily for us and Johnny, food that has lost its palatability is a great clue that it doesn't contain squat for nutrition either.