An Answer to a Reader's Question and More Info

First, a question from a reader... MP recently wrote in asking the question "I've tried to stock what we eat and eat what we stock. I'm wondering...in a "bad" situation, when we are actually dependent and eating our stockpile, should we plan for less than 3 meals a day per person?" The short answer, it depends. For localized disasters, assuming you have a six month to one year stockpile of food, you will probably be able to continue on as usual. Even the stores in the places worst hit by Katrina were restocked within six months. For catastrophic disasters that would impact the entire country or worse, the world, then definitely cutting back on the quantity of food that you eat each day would be prudent as supply chains would most likely be disrupted for more than a year. The good news is that, based on obesity statistics, the average American can easily skip a meal or two each day and be none the worse for wear. In fact, in this were to happen and people really did have to live on one or two simple meals a day they would probably be better off physically than they are now--calorie restrictive diets not only curb the obesity problem but also help with problems such as diabetes and high cholesterol, and do, in fact, make you live longer. On a side note, should a major disaster strike, you obviously want to have a good stockpile of food in place at your home, but also, immediately afterwards, it would be a good idea to go out and forage anything else edible that you can find (fish, animals, road kill, wild fruit and vegies, etc...I draw the line at looting but depending on the situation and your abilities this may go by the wayside) since in a lengthy shut down of the food supply chain, every morsel of food that you can get your hands on will be important to your survival. And More Info...

• Speaking of food, I was working away last night with the TV on in the background as usual. Many times the shows that are on are just background noise although I may look up if something interesting is happening on CNN or someone presents something unique on Antiques Roadshow. Last night, however, a show called Extreme Couponing came on and I stopped working for an entire hour to watch. What caught my attention was the actual "storehouses" of food that people who were very good at using grocery store coupons were able to amass for nearly nothing. I don't think that I will go out of my way at this time to accumulate a hundred bottles of shampoo or a thousand boxes of cereal (traveling greatly limits this sort of thing) but for those who may not be able to afford to stockpile a huge amount of food and other items for use during a disaster due to limited funds, this is definitely one way to do soon the cheap (or super cheap...most were able to purchase a thousand dollars worth of groceries for less than a hundred dollars). Check out the link here.


• The government is still debating the budget with the possible consequence of a government shutdown beginning tomorrow evening. If you rely on a government paycheck (federal workers; military, retirees, and those on Social Security will continue to get paid) are you prepared for this? Here are some potential consequences of the shutdown.


• I have received a couple of comments on the blog (with no email address for me to reply to) asking if it was OK for people to use content posted on this blog. My answer is that yes, you are free to use/print/repost the information presented here, with a link back to the source of course.


• Can you solve a mystery? CNI readers are pretty clever so it wouldn't surprise me if some from here was able to break this code and help the FBI solve a murder.