3 Step Diversified Food Security Plan
When it comes to preparing for any disaster or long term emergency, food is understandably one of the most important assets a person can have. Food means the difference between life and death and can mean the difference between freedom and slavery. Unfortunately, most people have unsustainable and simplistic approaches to food security. A true food security plan should use the “3 legged stool” approach. Lets take a look at these 3 legs of the “food security stool”.
Long Term Storable Food Stockpile
Having a reserve or stockpile of shelf stable food is vital to any food security preparedness effort. Having a year’s supply of this kind of food gives you an instant layer of protection. Sometimes people make the mistake of skimping on this aspect of the plan because they plan to grow most of their food in a post SHTF situation. This is not a very smart because food production takes time, experience and the right kind of weather. Even if the end of world as we know it happens in the spring of the year, you need time to work the soil, plant the seeds, and allow the crops to mature. Buckets of dehydrated or freeze dried food and dry goods such as beans, rice and wheat help bridge that gap.
Resources
Building a Long Term Food Storage Stockpile on a Limited Budget
“Prepper’s Market” ~ A Good Source for High Quality, Non GMO, Food
Mountain House Freeze Dried Food
Do It Yourself Food Production
Storing a year’s supply of food will only offer security for one year. When the supply is gone, you are no further ahead than anyone else. This is why having a real world food production plan in place is vital. Producing food is much harder and much more complicated than average prepper thinks. The best way to learn these skills is by practicing them. Don’t have some unrealistic plan of leaving the suburbs at the last minute, heading to your bug out location with a “survival seed bank” and a garden hoe, and growing an acre of food. I guarantee that it’s more difficult than you think. In reality, the best way to have a successful survival garden is to be living where the garden is and actually building up the soil and learning how to garden now. The same holds true for livestock. Too many people have “the bugout mentality”. Really folks, the collapse has been happening in slow motion for at least the last 20 years. The time to move to your homestead was 5 years ago, not some time in the future. Get out of the cities and suburbs and learn to grow food and build food growing infrastructure NOW.
Another aspect of food production that is extremely important is that of preservation. If you don’t have a plan for preserving and storing your harvest, you will be in big trouble. Canning, drying, and root cellaring need to be learned and practiced now.
Resources
Post Apocalyptic Gardening… A Few Things You Should Know
The Prepper’s Canning Guide
The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach
The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times
Community and Barter Relationships
The fact of the matter is this, most people won’t be able to grow all their own food. Some people will be able to grow one type of crop better than their neighbor and might be unable to grow another crop. Some people will have the ability and land base to raise livestock and some won’t. Truth is, even in the early pioneer days of America most people didn’t produce everything they needed to survive. Community and the ability to barter and trade, even when neighbors were many miles apart, was central to their survival and will be to yours as well.
Summary
We all know that food is the most important asset in times of unrest and upheaval. If you develop a food security plan built on these 3 pillars, your chances of survival will be greatly increased.
Scott M Terry
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