What Is The Purpose Of Food Storage?

[Stargazer]

I don't often say this. I don't care if I live. I have no one in my life that cares like a husband would.

 

So, why would I be prepared? Truth is that if we have a big earth quake and the house falls on me, I am off the hook, no more worries. But, not everyone will die in an earth quake and perhaps as they dig through the rubble, they'll find the food and that will keep them going. And, If I am prepared and a half dozen people around me aren't, we can share the food while we wait for help.

 

If you can't understand this preparedness thing, perhaps you should reach outside yourself and your own selfishness? Truth is, I don't have a lot of food put by, but I am working on it.

 

I'm coming to this thread a little late, and I wondered if someone would say what Ellen has written here, so I didn't have to.  Cool.

 

Sometimes I go down to my basement room where we keep the wheat and stuff and imagine to myself some starving person who has to scavenge to feed his or her family running across it.  What a blessing that would be!

 

This is somewhat more real to me than perhaps some others, because I have a family connection to real conditions like this.  At the end of WW2 as the Red Army devastated its way through East Germany (the true Eastern part, which is now Polish), my wife's family was first driven out of their home, and then had to try to survive with occupying Soviet forces in a strange town.  And then, with their parents taken away for forced labor (Mom returned after 3.5 years, Dad never) my wife and her four sisters (ages 4 through 10) had to survive by scavenging food from basements of destroyed houses and other buildings.  For something like 9 months, before they were put on a train to Berlin by the occupying Polish forces taking over the region.  We will be publishing a book about this probably in November 2013.  Actually, two books, one about the children's experience, and the other about the Mom's.

 

So, those who say "It hasn't been necessary for 50 years" are right, but what of it?  Just because it hasn't been necessary lately doesn't mean that it won't ever again be necessary.  And wouldn't you rather have it and not need it, than need it but not have it?  And like Ellen says, don't be selfish and think its only for you.

[Kenngo1969]

Buuuuurp!    Sorry!  I just ate all of Stargazer's food storage!  (Don't worry, though, buddy!  It'll only take a couple years for you to build it back up! ) 

Edited October 28, 2013 by Kenngo1969

[Stargazer]

I don't think there's anything wrong with being prepared for a natural disaster, but why the focus on it from the church perspective? I believe there's something more to it that were missing. Why isn't the church putting that same emphasis on other secular activities such as exercising and avoiding soda, or getting regular prostate exams and mammograms, or wearing your seat belt? I could go on and on, but I'm sure these are all having a greater negative effect on the membership than natural disasters are.

 

Temporal welfare takes a close second to spiritual welfare. You can't easily be spiritually OK, unless you have some temporal security.

 

I am a Ham radio operator.  Every Sunday in my stake we do a "net", where the other Ham radio operators in the stake fire up their radios and "check in".  Three of the six wards hold ward nets, and report as wards into the stake net.  Every year at the end of September we have a emergency communications exercise, in which home teachers make special short visits to all their people, as if there had been a disaster and we were trying to find out who needed help.  This contact information is trickled up from the home teachers to their supervisors, then to the bishopric, then reported via ham radio to the stake.  Those of us in the stake emergency communication section put up radios and antennas at the building designated as the communications center (the church building closest to the stake president's house), and we monitor the ward nets.  Ultimately we report our result to the Bishop's Storehouse fifty miles away.  All by radio, operating under the assumption that normal communications have been disrupted.

 

I've been involved in this for getting on to 10 years, and in that time we have activated the emergency net twice "for real" when we had a very bad windstorms.  The first time I drove around the stake area with my radio in my truck and checking on situations (downed trees, power outages, etc).  The second time was worse, and much of the stake area was out of power, but since my house is in a part of the county where power gets restored first (state capital and all that), I operated the emergency net at my house, and maintained communications between the wards and the stake until power came back up. 

 

The Pacific Northwest is the home of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and we expect that there will be a coastal subduction earthquake of around magnitude 9 within the next 50 years.  We better be ready in all respects.  If a megathrust earthquake does occur our coast is going to devastated by tsunamis, and the Church's advice to store food is going to look nothing other than prophetic and forward-thinking. 

 

Edited to Add: Yes, I live in Earthquake Central.  Thurston county, Washington.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Stargazer

[Kenngo1969]

 

Although having some cash on hand is recommended, you can't eat cash.  

 

 (Unless you're a goat, that is; we're all sheep here.)

[thesometimesaint]

Anyone known for storing significant amounts of food (Mormons

and other practical non-Mormons) will be the biggest prey for

thieves, so self-protection may be warranted. But in the case of

peaceful inquires, I'm pretty sure that some of most of them will

share their one or two year stash with neighbours when they 

come knocking.

 

Gail

 

We don't encourage "Bunker Mentality".

[Stargazer]

I think the key part of that is the time table you mentioned of 72 hrs or a max of 7-10 days. This was determined by experts in the field who have studied past disasters and are aware of the government resources abilities. Are you aware of any instances since the directive from our prophets in which a member of the church's life has been spared after a natural disaster because they had a year supply of food storage? Do you foresee anything likely to happen in your lifetime that would require a one-year or even a three-month supply?

 

I think I may have covered this adequately in my previous three posts, but just to drive the point home, I am not storing up food for myself, but for others as well, who may be in need of it when and if the time comes.  Besides ourselves, 9 of our 12 kids with their families live within 25 miles of us -- and none of them are storing anything.  What suffices us for a year, would suffice all of us for two months, maybe. 

 

If you don't have similar hungry mouths in your family, then consider that your entire neighborhood might be brought through a week- or month-long period when food was unavailable through normal channels because of some disaster, just because you stored a year or two's worth of food in your basement.

 

Ultimately, you're not storing food for everyday foreseeables.  You are storing food for both foreseeable and  unforeseeable situations. 

[thesometimesaint]

Joining this thread late.

I have a different take on food storage than most people I know. I believe it is instruction for those of little faith. The Lord knows that many of his disciples do not have sufficient faith to trust him fully right now, so he has given us a lesser law.

In the Bible, and in the Book of Mormon, and in the D&C (three times take note) he gives us his higher law. It is that we are to take no thought for food, drink or clothing. None at all. He even goes on to explain that he feeds the birds ok, even though they don't sow or reap, or gather into barns and that we are much more important than them.

 

Personally, I believe it is morally indefensible to hoard food when many in this world are starving. The money we spend on amassing food could be given to those who provide for the starving, and would make an immediate difference. It would quite literally save lives.

Now if we can only get God to provide Mana.

 

There is nothing stopping us from doing both.

[Stargazer]

Joining this thread late.

I have a different take on food storage than most people I know. I believe it is instruction for those of little faith. The Lord knows that many of his disciples do not have sufficient faith to trust him fully right now, so he has given us a lesser law.

In the Bible, and in the Book of Mormon, and in the D&C (three times take note) he gives us his higher law. It is that we are to take no thought for food, drink or clothing. None at all. He even goes on to explain that he feeds the birds ok, even though they don't sow or reap, or gather into barns and that we are much more important than them.

 

Personally, I believe it is morally indefensible to hoard food when many in this world are starving. The money we spend on amassing food could be given to those who provide for the starving, and would make an immediate difference. It would quite literally save lives.

 

Personally, I take Jesus's advice about feeding birds to pertain to overconcern for temporal matters.  You truly think He means that we should become wandering hippies, living off the land, with no thought for the morrow.  That's where the birds are at.

 

So, in your opinion I should put my food storage in my basement into a container and ship it somewhere where people are starving?  Oh, you want us to put the money into charity and send it that way, and not amass any food storage ourselves.  I see.

 

Has it ever occurred to you that the people who are starving are doing so because they didn't take any thought for the morrow, like those birds you admire so much?

 

The truth is, I can BOTH amass food storage AND  send money to relief organizations.  And I have.  I don't have to pretend there is only a zero-sum game here.  And another fact is this, that the vast majority of people on this earth are NOT starving.  Your giving up your preparation for hard times is not wise.  Those starving people are starving for a reason, and will probably be still starving when your world goes topsy-turvy and you need saving from starvation.  They won't have anything for you, so you better prepare.

[Tacenda]

(Unless you're a goat, that is; we're all sheep here.)

Kenngo did you just get your wisdom teeth done? That laughing gas they gave you must be pretty potent. You haven't said a serious thing on here, unless I missed something, granted you are pretty funny.

So far I like the idea put forth by Stargazer, keep storage for ourselves or someone down the line. One thing I lack is a wheat grinder to go with all my wheat, I've got tons of it. I guess I hate to pay the cost upfront.

ETA: Kenngo you did say something serious about the topic, sorry.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Tacenda

[The Grimace]

I may disagree with a number of the Church's teachings, but food storage is one that I, to this day, hang on to. I will share a story from when I was 12 years old that will solidify why.

 

Please turn away now if you have a delicate stomach; this story isn't for the faint of heart.

 

My grand-dad had a cabin in the far north, and he agreed that our scout troop could bunk up there for winter camp. This was February, if I remember, but could have been early March. Anyway, to get into the camp, we drove to a lake, and then used snowmobiles to go the rest of the way in, probably about 3-4 hours trip across the snow. It was far in, but it as a great adventure.

 

On the last night of the camp, we got hit badly by a snowstorm. A bunch of the trees got weighed down with snow and ice, and fell and damaged two of the snowmobiles, leaving only one undamaged. One wouldn't be enough to get the five boys plus grand-dad, and our two leaders out, plus our gear (we had sleds that hooked up to the snowmobiles). And we were low on supplies - maybe enough for a day.

 

So, one of the leaders decided to drive out, and get help, while the rest of us waited. About three hours later, he returned, on foot, and said that the snowmobile had broken down. So grand-dad got on the radio, looking for help, but the batteries were dying, and we had no electricity (we were far from any civilization).

 

Well, to make a long story short, we spent about 3 days up there, bunked in, but trapped. It was snowing most of the time, and windy, making a foot escape dangerous. By the second day, we were done our food, with a little reserve for the leader who would go out on foot. We figured it would be a good eight hours to trek to the nearest road, and then a couple of hours to find help.

 

On the 4th day the weather cleared, and one of the leaders left for the road. We were starving. Grand-dad tried to find some rabbits, but no luck.

 

On the 5th day, we hadn't seen any help come, and so grand-dad made a decision. We'd brought grand-dad's mutt, Spark, along with us. Spark was a good 60 pounds, part husky part german shepherd. A good dog, suited for the north. You have to understand, there were seven of is left - 5 boys, a leader, and grand-dad. And grand-dad was worried that our other leader hadn't gotten to the road. 

 

And, so, grand-dad decided that we'd need to sacrifice Spark so we could survive. I won't get into the details, but grand-dad took Spark a distance away, and came back with meat. The seven of us were able to live off Spark for the next two days, when help finally came.

 

So, I'm here to tell you that food storage is very important. Because we didn't bring enough food, we had to eat a beloved pet. I'll never forget that day. But I did learn a lesson - along with food storage, don't forget that pets are just animals, and sometimes they have to serve a purpose other than companionship.

[Kenngo1969]

The needle on my BS-meter just went to max.  (I doubt anyone got anything constructive out of your contribution to this thread.  If you got anything you consider constructive or worthwhile out of it, I'm afraid to ask what that might say about you.  Thanks fer, uhhhhh ... playin', since I'm quite sure that's what you were doing, or trying to do.)

Edited October 28, 2013 by Kenngo1969

[The Grimace]

Kenngo,thanks for crapping all over my experience. Sorry if I don't write well enough for you.

[Kenngo1969]

Kenngo,thanks for crapping all over my experience. Sorry if I don't write well enough for you.

Whatever, Dude!

[Calm]

 

 

The truth is, I can BOTH amass food storage AND  send money to relief organizations. 

And if you do food storage the right way, you will save money and thus have more to send.

[The Grimace]

Whatever, Dude!

I'm unsure if this is an apology or if you are continuing to make fun of me.

[Mola Ram Suda Ram]

  In the United States and most of the world's wealthy countries the government will provide assistance in case of a natural disaster.  

Funny you should mention this. I think we should have food storage for 2 years because we are going to need to feed all of our progressive friends that think the government will always be there for them in times of an emergency. What happens when the government fails or falls?

[Hestia]

The needle on my BS-meter just went to max.  (

 

Kennego do not make personal assumption and question someone's veracity..

 

 

[rongo]

Hestia, are you honestly saying you think The Grimace was serious when (s)he posted this?:

 

My grand-dad had a cabin in the far north, and he agreed that our scout troop could bunk up there for winter camp. This was February, if I remember, but could have been early March. Anyway, to get into the camp, we drove to a lake, and then used snowmobiles to go the rest of the way in, probably about 3-4 hours trip across the snow. It was far in, but it as a great adventure.

 

On the last night of the camp, we got hit badly by a snowstorm. A bunch of the trees got weighed down with snow and ice, and fell and damaged two of the snowmobiles, leaving only one undamaged. One wouldn't be enough to get the five boys plus grand-dad, and our two leaders out, plus our gear (we had sleds that hooked up to the snowmobiles). And we were low on supplies - maybe enough for a day.

 

So, one of the leaders decided to drive out, and get help, while the rest of us waited. About three hours later, he returned, on foot, and said that the snowmobile had broken down. So grand-dad got on the radio, looking for help, but the batteries were dying, and we had no electricity (we were far from any civilization).

 

Well, to make a long story short, we spent about 3 days up there, bunked in, but trapped. It was snowing most of the time, and windy, making a foot escape dangerous. By the second day, we were done our food, with a little reserve for the leader who would go out on foot. We figured it would be a good eight hours to trek to the nearest road, and then a couple of hours to find help.

 

On the 4th day the weather cleared, and one of the leaders left for the road. We were starving. Grand-dad tried to find some rabbits, but no luck.

 

On the 5th day, we hadn't seen any help come, and so grand-dad made a decision. We'd brought grand-dad's mutt, Spark, along with us. Spark was a good 60 pounds, part husky part german shepherd. A good dog, suited for the north. You have to understand, there were seven of is left - 5 boys, a leader, and grand-dad. And grand-dad was worried that our other leader hadn't gotten to the road. 

 

And, so, grand-dad decided that we'd need to sacrifice Spark so we could survive. I won't get into the details, but grand-dad took Spark a distance away, and came back with meat. The seven of us were able to live off Spark for the next two days, when help finally came.

 

So, I'm here to tell you that food storage is very important. Because we didn't bring enough food, we had to eat a beloved pet. I'll never forget that day. But I did learn a lesson - along with food storage, don't forget that pets are just animals, and sometimes they have to serve a purpose other than companionship.

[Kenngo1969]

I'm unsure if this is an apology or if you are continuing to make fun of me.

Whatever, Dude!  Trolls gonna troll, troll playas gonna play with trolls!

 

(In case you were wondering precisely what I mean, I'll draw it out for you:

 

Grimace ==> Troll

 

Ken ==> Troll Playa.)

 

 

P.S.:  And Hestia, please feel free to ban me from the thread for so callously, maliciously wounding "The Grimace's" tender feewings!  Tootle-loo!

Edited October 29, 2013 by Kenngo1969

[Tacenda]

Whatever, Dude! Trolls gonna troll, troll playas gonna play with trolls!

(In case you were wondering precisely what I mean, I'll draw it out for you:

Grimace ==> Troll

Ken ==> Troll Playa.)

P.S.: And Hestia, please feel free to ban me from the thread for so callously, maliciously wounding "The Grimace's" tender feewings! Tootle-loo!

Laughing gas I tell ya! I admit, I fell for Grimace's story. How about you CFR their post, you might get some evidence. I'd laugh if it were a true story!

[Kenngo1969]

Laughing gas I tell ya! I admit, I fell for Grimace's story. How about you CFR their post, you might get some evidence. I'd laugh if it were a true story!

I PM-ed you, so as to spare "The Grimace's" already-deeply-wounded tender feelings.

[The Grimace]

Whatever, Dude!  Trolls gonna troll, troll playas gonna play with trolls!

 

(In case you were wondering precisely what I mean, I'll draw it out for you:

 

Grimace ==> Troll

 

Ken ==> Troll Playa.)

 

 

P.S.:  And Hestia, please feel free to ban me from the thread for so callously, maliciously wounding "The Grimace's" tender feewings!  Tootle-loo!

I'm dumbfounded. Why do you think my story is made up?

[rongo]

Because of your posting history, and the tone and details of that specific post.

 

It was a ham-handed mockery of testimonies, food storage, food storage, you name it. People wouldn't be "starving" enough to eat a pet after only four days. Etc., etc.

[Tacenda]

Because of your posting history, and the tone and details of that specific post.

It was a ham-handed mockery of testimonies, food storage, food storage, you name it. People wouldn't be "starving" enough to eat a pet after only four days. Etc., etc.

Yeah, how could grand-dad allow that? (wish I was on my computer so I could use that crossed eyed emoticon) Unless he was willing to pay for several boys therapy sessions.

[Kenngo1969]

I'm dumbfounded. Why do you think my story is made up?

"The Grimace," I apologize profusely and repent sincerely for doubting your honesty and sincerity.  I hope I haven't irreparably damaged our relationship (please see my signature line).

 

P.S.:  And if I doubted your honesty and sincerity (of course, I don't, but if I did) I would posit that there's a parallel thread over at The Great And Spacious Trailer Park deriding us Mormons for our credulity and gullibility.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Kenngo1969