Is 3 Days Food Enough?

[411man]

This is from squirrel ville courteousy of poster Albert.

There has always been lots of talk about how our just in time delivery of food and other goods has resulted in a local buffer of only about 3 days of food in any location. While this is something we can comprehend on an intellectual level, there is nothing like seeing it in person to drive home the point.

As most you know, this last week Colorado was hit with a major blizzard, the State (and nature) shutdown all major highways into and out of Colorado for several days.. Yesterday, we were finally able to dig out and headed to town to pickup a few items for Christmas dinner. We went to all 3 of the main food store and in every case the shelves for milk, bread, deli, fresh meat were all but bare - it's the type of thing you have to see do drive home the point of how little of a food buffer there is!

Now I come from the East coast and have seen the bare shelves plenty of times prior to a hurricane - that's a bit different - that is mass panic buying this case was simply the food running out because no supplies could get into the state for several days.

Now just think how bad it would be if we had a major disaster / attack you would have panic buying along with the small buffer - stores would most likely be empty in a day and no resupply.

You just cannot depend on picking up last minute supplies in a disaster - time to stock up now.

BTW – we did not “need” to head to town – had a nice wood fire going and 99% of what we needed for Christmas dinner ( all purchased prior to the storm hitting, that East coast training.

[Carters Cavalry]

Writing from the East Coast and having been through several Hurricanes, last one Isabel. Short answer, 3 days is not enough.

We made it through Isabel on our farm thanks to having over 3 months of food on hand, a 20KW Caterpillar generator (0.8gph @ 1/2 load)and 1,200 gal of diesel.

As every storm approaches, the lines at the store start forming up when its about 2-3 days out. Within hours, the stores are empty. So, yes and yes, calculate what you need and buy it well before you need it.

I personally watched fist-fights between yuppies (can't we just CALL someone to take care of this?) over 10lbs bags of ice brought in VIA tractor trailer by the National Guard. More fights over gasoline (at stations w/ no power whose pumps did not work). Stores were closed as the perishibles were unsellable after 1 day.

We practiced black out security at night. No light, no generator, "dead" house as not to attract attention. The violence did not get any closer than 5 miles from us. However, I did quietly start loading up magazines for the long guns and put a loaded Mossberg 590 next to the bed at night.

The best plan is one Steve Quayle (http://www.stevequayle.com/index1.html)often reinforces: "Be where everyone else is not." Good advice.

Like you, we did not have not have to "head to town." We stayed right here, 10 miles out of town watching the violence on TV.

If the SHTF in a big way, we'd ration our generator use to a couple hours a day and plan to do any heavy work during that time. Aslo, I want to modify the radiator feed to be able to direct hot water into auxiliary hot water baseboard heat into the house during cold days v/s dumping it outside.

[Jonas Parker]

I agree that three days of food are probably not enough, but please consider the following. First, all of us can go one day without food. If you're stocking MREs (the real ones) each MRE has approximately 2,000 calories. So if you have a case (12 MREs) for every two people, and you eat them at a rate of one meal (shared) every day, you now have 13 days of food with a calorie intake which will allow you to survive (fasting the first day). Needless to say, you'll probably want to eat out of the freezer and refrigerator first, then the pantry stock of canned goods, then finally use the MREs. If you can make your food on hand last one week before starting on the MREs, then so much the better.

[Beat Trash]

Greetings,

I'm new to this forum, but not to the idea of being prepared.

I would offer that three days is no where near enough. Look at the issues with the snow in Colorado, or the Gulf coast area after hurricane Katrina.

Most famlies who have ever shopped at a Sam's club or a Costco probably have a week or more without trying to do so.

I feel more comfortable with 3 months worth vs. 3 days worth. Buy buying just a few extra cans, ect. every time you go to the store, it doesn't take long.

I try to keep 2 weeks worth of MRE's and 2 weeks worth of Mountain House foil pouches on hand, along with 2 weeks worth of water. This in addition to the normal food I keep on hand, about 4 months worth of caned foods, pasta's, ect.

[NineseveN]

I agree that three days of food are probably not enough, but please consider the following. First, all of us can go one day without food. If you're stocking MREs (the real ones) each MRE has approximately 2,000 calories. So if you have a case (12 MREs) for every two people, and you eat them at a rate of one meal (shared) every day, you now have 13 days of food with a calorie intake which will allow you to survive (fasting the first day). Needless to say, you'll probably want to eat out of the freezer and refrigerator first, then the pantry stock of canned goods, then finally use the MREs. If you can make your food on hand last one week before starting on the MREs, then so much the better.

The human body can go much longer than 1 day without food, so if you have to, you can. Water is more important than anything, but having the extra food is always nice to help keep your sanity. Now, if you have children or elderly, their health is a bit more fragile and having food is very important to their morale (more so than a reasonable adult).

3 days of food is enough for your pack, but with your pantry you have bigger and better options, so hold as much as you can store...just get the water handled first.

[jdlong]

After having gone through several big snow storms in CO, as well as growing up in the upper midwest, the only thing we were short on was milk. Both chain stores that we shop at were out of almost all of the high-turn items. Sam's had plenty in stock, though. Talked with several coworkers, though, I was amazed at the mentality of some people. One fellow, with a 3-yr old at home, ran out of milk, meat, and bread. They shop 4-5 times a week, and have NO backstock on anything. No room in their house for storage. Even with the weather forcasts, they did nothing. Just can't quite understand the mind set.

[therealsteamer]

Those with Children at home need to take special care to have provisions at home for them. IF you have an infant on formula, do you have at least one extra can. If your child is on "diet" specific formula then you have an even bigger issue.

[skeeterbay]

I have been seeing some post around that say to use up your freezer food first. I also notice a lot of posts on other sites about food storage.

For what its worth: You can save the food in the freezer a number of ways. We have two very large chest freezers, the lagest I could find. We also can a lot of meat and veg. I always keep a couple of hundred empty canning jars, lids and rings handy. If you loose power and it ain't coming back. You can take the meat and veg's from the freezer and can them at that time. You may lose some taste/food quality but it beats the heck out of having food rot. You may have to do the canning on the wood stove but you can do it and not lose your frozen foods. We have two old Kitchen wood stoves, one at the camp and one at the house. They work as good as your kitchen range for canning with a little practice.

Also if like me you live in the north country. Take a couple of steel boxes and place them on the house or barn roof. Pack around them with snow tightly. The steel will keep the birds and small animals out of them. Packed tight enough and provided you live like I do in the Coooooooold it will be frooze for months. I say place them on a roof to keep any big animals out of them. If you have heavy enough steel you could place it on the ground and pack it. Just make sure you keep the small rodents and water out of it! Just use steel as sooner or later some squirrels will chew thru the plastic coolers.

Something else to consider. We used to keep milk and other parishables in a spring house during the summer. Cold spring water in a dark spring house will keep food like milk, meat and the like just as good as the fridge. This was a common practice done all over many years ago. Back when one had no electricity and could not afford one of the gas refrideragtors. I grew up very very poor. When I was a youung kid we carried water from a spring house. We had no indoor plumbing and all our food was canned, meat, fruit, veg you name it, as we had no freezer. Don't forget you can do well with a root celler and smoking meat and fish also.

There are lots of ways to put up food and keep it. Some are time tested and work well. Heck a couple of barrels of sand in a cool dry basement and you can store your potato's, carrots and the like all winter long.

I am sure some of you already do some of these things. Just my two cents worth.

Skeeter!

[whatsinthepackjack]

Dehydrated foods offer carbs, fat and protein for the body to survive... and they weigh very little to carry...

One meal's worth of Mountain House or Backpacker's Pantry dehydrated foods only weighs a few grams. You need water to re-constitute the food... BUT... you need water to eat anyways... if you are short on water, you need to not eat... because... the body requires water to digest food...

I'm going from memory here... and I might need to get out my food-stuffs, re-weigh the stuff, and re-do some measurements... but the dehydrated foods measure out to something like this (if I remember right)

An 11-inch by 11-inch square of highly compressed dehydrated food can sustain one person for two or three weeks... don't forget you need to spot out a water source...

I can't remember the exact weight of that size of a package... but at one time, I did do all these measurements, etc...

For instance... one meal's worth of this food stuff can be compressed in a Ziploc bag to a size of one and three-quaters inch square

Shelf life is another thing all together...

I am talking about food in the pack, and you're moving, on your feet, bugging the hell out of somewhere ...

If you want shelf life, then dehydrated food has more to offer... some brands deliver 5 years of shelf life... and even more...

The benefit over a standard MIL-SPEC M.R.E. is that you can carry more meals on your back at one time than in an MRE... plus, the MRE contains water... water is heavy... water can be gotten from rivers and streams, and purified through a pump filter, etc...

Canned goods are just too damn heavy to be practical for packing around... but have OK shelf life... some places sell those great big # 10 cans full of veggies, meats, and all types of fodd stuffs... but with that kind of groceries, you need a vehicle to get it from point A to point B...

Might have to utilize horses...

Pack horses can carry a shiteload of stuff... plus, they are pretty much ATV's (all-terrain-vehicles)... depending on the scenario...

In the case of Hurricane Katrina... vehicles had no use... BUT... horses can swim... and are excellent swimmers... even when burdened with riders on their backs...

Vehicles need fuel and maintenance... and a road... or at least most need a road... or a flat field anyways... horses can climb over rocks that would leave that Ford Taurus stranded at the bottom of the hill...

These folks: http://www.seallinegear.com/

"Seal Line"

Make completely water-tight stuff sacks that can be used by folks who are into kayacking and white-water rafting... they come in all sizes... all the way up to pretty large duffle bags... and they are very durable...

I like another manufacturer of this kind of stuff, too... "Outdoor Research"

http://www.orgear.com/home/page/home

they make a line of stuff sacks that are completely water-tight also... then they make some stuff for a few dollars less that have less features... they also make some very good compression bags...

I can fit my complete 3-man nylon tent... into a 6-inch by 12-inch cylinder (including rainfly and all the ecoutrements...) with one of the Outdoor Research compression bags...\

Since both companies make completely water-tight bags, carrying dehydrated foods just became a reality on any journey...

more later...

I dig the outdoors, and survival... and I have every intention to pack in my friendly little ol' M4 if and when the need should arise... my pack has tool straps that work perfect for lashing a 16" barreled beauty to my back....



whatsinthepackjack.......

[Bawana Jim]

Is three days food enough? Yep for three days:D

Three minutes without air three days without water or three weeks without food and you die. Figure out what you need to live for how long you want to live then figure how you will supply the need.

Simple isn't it:D

jim

[skeeterbay]

Bawana Jim Wrote:

"Is three days food enough? Yep for three days

Three minutes without air three days without water or three weeks without food and you die. Figure out what you need to live for how long you want to live then figure how you will supply the need.

Simple isn't it"


Well since you put it like that, yes it is that simple :D


Repectfully Skeeter!

[MdlMkr 7.62]

3 days ain't enough. 3 weeks is better and 3 months better yet. Mormons keep food for 1 year. Maybe we can learn something from our LDS neighbors?

[kah63]

3 days are you joking?
who do think is going to feed you after 3 days ?
even if we are talking a isolated natural disaster
you will at the mercy of others
and even that aside what if you lost your job tomorrow?
wouldnt it be nice to know you are at least going to eat for
a few weeks or longer

[MdlMkr 7.62]

3 days food isn't enough. Whatcha gonna do after 3 days? 3 weeks is a better plan.

Whole Foods sells Soy milk in sealed 1 liter containers. $1.46 for the vanilla flavor and 5% off if you buy 12 or more. Shelf life is 1 yr. They also have a wide selection of protien bars - same deal - buy the box of 12 and get 5% off.

[Jonas Parker]

3 days food isn't enough. Whatcha gonna do after 3 days? 3 weeks is a better plan...

One year is the way to go IMHO.