FOOD STORAGE!

This is from the Glenn Beck Newsletter of tonight, 5 June 08 and is authored by a PhD so it just might have the chance of being useful and accurate----

Get Prepared: Food Storage

Family Emergency Survival - Air, Water, and Food
by: Arthur B. Robinson, PhD

During emergencies - natural and man-made - one's family and friends may find themselves without ordinary essentials that make life possible. A human can survive only a few minutes without air, a few days without water, and a few weeks without food. Each of us has a fundamental moral responsibility to make certain that those people for whom we are responsible can get to the other side of an emergency alive, regardless of inconvenience or unhappiness that may occur during the event.

A safe air supply can be lost due to chemical, biological, or nuclear fallout contamination, or, of course, through simpler means such as flood waters over one's head. These threats are best met by public civil defense preparations - preparations that U.S federal and state politicians and bureaucrats have been unwilling to make. So, concerned private citizens must either buy costly air protection systems or arrange to live in locations that are less threatened. These preparations are beyond the scope of this article. Definitive and comprehensive civil defense information is available here.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, performs exactly the function that its name indicates. FEMA "manages" emergencies. It does not prepare for emergencies. The last remaining civil defense functions - physical preparations for emergencies - of FEMA were defunded by the Clinton Administration. People deprived of safe air die within minutes. All that remains to be "managed" is their burial.

A safe supply of emergency water is relatively easy to provide. One method is to simply close the inlet and outlet valves of the home water heater in case of impending emergency. This will preserve many gallons of life-saving drinking water. Storage of additional water is also prudent. This can be done in one gallon milk containers, 50 gallon plastic drums, or most other containers of convenience. It is best to use multiple containers rather one container, the possible loss of which endangers the entire supply. As time passes, regardless of the water treatment method, stored water usually accumulates contaminants that one would ordinarily prefer to avoid, but which are acceptable during an emergency. Excellent purification systems are available from many sources, although emergency preparation funds are probably better spent in other ways.

Stored water must, however, be protected from poisonous biological contamination that can accumulate with time. The simplest way to provide this protection is by addition of chlorine compounds available as ordinary bleach. This must be done safely and correctly. These procedures are given in the book, Nuclear War Survival Skills, available on-line without cost here. This book also provides instructions for expedient water purification procedures.

A safe and sufficient supply of food is also easy to arrange, but provision of emergency food is often misunderstood.

First, most adults and children - with the exception of infants - can survive for several weeks without food. Survival food storage is required primarily for emergencies lasting for weeks, months, or even years.

Second, stored food should provide essential nutrition - not gourmet satisfaction. Storage of freeze-dried ordinary food, for example, caters to the illusion that a food-requiring emergency will be such a benign event that the participants will be very concerned about the tastiness of their food. Nothing could be further from the truth. Emergency food preparedness involves staying alive and in functional good health - not catering to one's pallet. Every food storage dollar should purchase the greatest quantity of nutritious food possible - not unneeded luxuries.

Third, a family food storage program should include as great an amount of nutritious, long-lasting food as the family can afford - not an amount estimated for the family's personal needs. The family friends and neighbors who have not stored food will need to be fed, too. Very, very few Americans would, in an emergency, eat stored food while allowing their neighbors and friends to die from starvation. Consequently, a family must realize that their food will likely last only so long as they can feed themselves and their friends and neighbors.

Fourth, stored food should last for 50 years or more in good condition.

During the 1980s at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, we developed food storage recommendations that consider these requirements. These recommendations were subsequently adopted and publicized by FEMA. Our food storage suggestions are as follows:

1. Store whole grain - not ground or otherwise processed - corn, wheat, and soybeans in a ratio by weight of 2:2:1. In other words, if one is storing 40 pound plastic, nitrogen-packed pails of grain, store 2 pails each of wheat and corn for each single pail of soybeans. Combined in these proportions, ground to flour, cooked (as in corn bread), and eaten, 2 to 3 pounds per day of this mixture will provide the nutrition required for a marine in combat - except for vitamin C and salt. An ordinary person surviving during an emergency would require perhaps half as much. Note: soybeans must be cooked before eating to avoid danger to health.

Nitrogen packing helps to assure that insects cannot infest the food. Containers should be long-lived and rodent resistant. There are several good commercial sources of food already appropriately packaged for storage - for example, Walton Feed in Idaho.

2. Store 1 kilogram of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) for each person-year of food. This is 3 grams per day. People under stress require extra vitamin C for optimum health. For prevention of death from scurvy, however, about 1% of this amount will suffice, so storage of vitamin C in these amounts might save the lives of an entire community.

Store crystalline vitamin C - not pills. During storage, the pills may deteriorate. In a cool, dry bottle, crystalline vitamin C will last indefinitely. Vitamin C can also be obtained by simply sprouting some of the food grain before eating. In a serious emergency, however, sprouting may prove difficult. Store also, in a cool place, a supply of ordinary multivitamin pills.

3. Store lots of salt. This could be crucial to saving many lives. An inexpensive and convenient form is in bags or salt blocks obtained from a local farm feed store.

4. For infants, store dried milk available from food storage suppliers in #10 cans. Infants can live on the grain ration, but they may refuse to eat less familiar food and will do better with milk.

5. Store several 4 gallon plastic buckets each containing 25 pounds of ordinary table sugar - sucrose; 1 pound baking soda; 5 x 11 ounce containers of Lite salt - KCl &NaCl; and a teaspoon for measuring. Dehydration from burns and diseases such as cholera can be treated with proper oral administration of these items. Instructions can be found in the March 1988, Volume 1, # 12, Fighting Chance newsletter. These buckets could save many lives during a serious prolonged emergency, where ordinary medical care is not available.

In ordinary times, soy bean, corn, and wheat flour can serve as a base for delicious and nutritious corn bread - when cooked with lots of baking soda, vegetable oil, and fruit for flavor.

Prior to the current U.S. government program to burn America's food for fuel, the rations above could be purchased and stored for about $100 per person per year of food. Prices now are between $200 and $300 per person year. If Americans continue to allow repressive government regulation and taxation of their nuclear and hydrocarbon energy industries and tax-subsidized use of food for fuel, these prices will rise much higher.

It is best to store food now, while it is still available at a reasonable price.

Art Robinson is a scientist and currently a professor at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has commended and utilized Robinson work on emergency preparedness.

 

This should be a "must read" for everyone! Great post!

 

"Back When" I was a pilot in SAC and WW-3 was our daily life so in the early 70's I began preping for what I thought then and think ever more now, will be "times of danger". To that end, the first things we did was to build a safe room and stock it with dehydrated stuff and a water supply. We added a garden then in the late 1990's we added serious pantry-long term storage facilities. For Y2K we added drums of treated water--etc, etc, the point is that gradually one can get their family into a position so that if the local store is closed, out of stock, or is unsafe to visit, etc.you can have Plan B in place and not find yourself in "extremis". If you have options and prudent inventories you have choices; if not, you are going to be statistic/victim.
Overbore

 

Good thinking... for an Air Force puke!

 

Very good post mate!
this one is being printed off at the moment
cheers

 

BUMP ..... see post #1 on this thread. Excellent info

 

I went with oxygen absorbers for a few reasons.
1. they are available to me .
2.they don't require a vacuum.
3. in the event the packaging fails the 02 absorber will continue to function.
I used freezer zip lock bags and put portions of rice in pint size + one 02absorber I added those to a quart bag and another 02 absorber and those to a gallon and another 02. then to my bucket and another 02 absorber greased the O ring and sealed the bucket. In the event a stray bullet passes through the bucket the whole thing is not compromised .

 

If you live in an area with pine trees there is no need to store Vitamin C. One cup of pine needle tea has four times the "C" as a lemon, or 400mg. The RDA for an adult male is 90mg. It's free, smells great and doesn't taste bad at all.

 

@T. Riley we need a recipe!!!!!

would you post a recipe please?
How do you make it?
how many pine needles (generally please don't make me count individual needles )
how long do you boil/steep?
when should you harvest needles?

 

Here's a link with pictures....How to Make Pine Needle Tea: 7 Steps (with Pictures)


CAUTION: Pregnant women or those planning on becoming pregnant should not consume this tea....

 

Being authored by a Phd holder is not itself an assurance that the information deserves one's confidence. The claims made by that person may fall foul of the "appeal to authority fallacy"




Some of Arthur Robinson's claims seem ok, some others are not quite so sound in my estimation. Arguably, Arthur B. Kennedy can speak with some specialist authority on "Experiments on the synthesis and spectral characterization of cytochrome-related molecules" Experiments on the synthesis and spectral characterization of cytochrome-related molecules (Book, 1967) [WorldCat.org], particularly in relationship to Peptones. Peptide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, however, I am not quite so convinced of his particular authority, in the field of long term storage of survival foods. No more convinced than of Gunkid's special authority and expertise concerning tactical wheelbarrows and optimal survival weapons and cartridge calibres for surviving TEOTWAWKI..

Arthur B. Robinson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are absurd claims....5 years storage of rice, beans and flour won't mean much to chances of survival if people refuse to eat it due to food fatigue. Palatability is an important factor in researching and designing military combat ration pack menus and components. Soldiers live off packaged combat rations for weeks and months at a time. Survival rations don't have to be gourmet fare, but it must have sufficient variation and palatability to enable one to stomach it for a long period of time. Condiments, sauces , flavourings, herbs and spices are essential supplements to staple ingredients.

Robinson is correct to advise the storage of lots of salt, but again, he neglects to mention that the salt should be iodised for human consumption, and that salt should, well, be salted away for food preserving.



Via: 100 bad arguments against vaccines

 

How to Preserve Food Without Refrigeration - MOTHER EARTH NEWS - Real Food - Preserve Food Without Refrigeration

 

Air usually isnt mentioned in these types of articles. Many preppers wouldnt know one type of filter from the other, nevermind knowing how to clear and seal their mask. If you dont know, learn....

Personally, I don't worry about filter expiration. What I do worry about is its rating and if it is sealed. Find out about it before making a puchase.

FWIW, several years ago I went to the CDP training facility in Anniston, AL. This is the only place I know of that does training in the US in a live chem environment. We used M40 masks in the chamber, which was filled with Sarin gas and VX liquid (the VX was on a plate for dabbing). When those test kits read positive after years of pretend, you get nervous. Would you live long in an envirinment using a surplus mask with CS filters if this crap were released? Here, let me answer for you, NO, YOU WOULDN'T.

Learn about what you are putting back. Having a warm fuzzy with "air" taken care of in your emergency stash isn't enough if you went to the local surplus store and bought a worn out M17 mask with USED 40-year-old filters.

I recommend an M40 mask, proper rated sealed filters and a sealed NBC suit with rubber NBC gloves and boots. Duct tape, dishwashing soap and a method to dispense said combination is a must for decon.

If you are worried about only CS and CN type agents, still an M40 mask with appropriate filters minus the MOPP suit.

 

This site has alot of really great tips for beginners and long term preppers
How to Stock a Pantry like a Pro • Walkerland

 

FOr a one person, off the shelf food storage plan -

Quantity Calories Cost Item (Number In Parenthesis = Total Calories per One Bag, Jar, or Can)
70 Pounds 105,000 $ 42 Long Grain White Rice in 10 or 20 pound Bags (very long shelf life) (15,000 Calories per 10 lbs.)
70 Pounds 105,000 $ 24 Whole Wheat Berries or Flour (not self-rising) (7,500 Calories per 5 lbs.)
30 Pounds 48,240 $ 14 5 lb. Bag Corn Meal (8,040 Calories per 5 lb. Bag)
4 Boxes 12,800 $ 10 32 oz. Box Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Complete Pancake/Waffle Mix (3,200)
4 Boxes 18,000 $ 13 42 oz. Box Quaker Quick 1 Minute Oats (4,500)
4 Boxes 31,720 $ 8 5 lb. Box Quaker Quick Grits (7,930)
36 Boxes 60,480 $ 36 16 oz. Box Spaghetti Noodles (Angel hair or thin cooks faster) (1,680 Calories)
24 Cans 11,520 $ 24 15 oz. Can Chef Boyardee Brand Macaroni and Cheese (480)
24 Cans 12,000 $ 24 15 oz. Can Chef Boyardee Brand Pasta (lasagna, ravioli, spaghetti with meatballs, etc.) (500)
24 Cans 8,640 $ 36 18.8 oz. Can Campbell’s Chunky Soup (buy the soups with chicken) (360)
48 Cans 9,000 $ 66 5 oz. Can Bumble Bee Brand Tuna in Oil (water pack has fewer calories) (187)
12 Cans 9,600 $ 42 16 oz. Can Dak Brand Canned Ham (no refrigeration required) (800)
24 Cans 24,480 $ 59 12 oz. Can Spam (1,020)
24 Cans 9,000 $ 11 5 oz. Can Vienna Sausage (375)
24 Cans 9,000 $ 75 12 oz. Can Roast Beef (375)
24 Cans 18,720 $ 48 15 oz. Can Hormel Roast Beef Hash (or Corned Beef Hash) (beef and potatoes) (780)
48 Cans 30,240 $ 109 24 oz. Can Armour Brand Beef Stew (with potatoes & carrots) (630)
48 Cans 33,600 $ 56 15 oz. Can Chili with Beans (700)
96 Cans 35,520 $ 63 15 oz. Can Beans (assorted different varieties) (370)
180 Cans 25,200 $ 121 15 oz. Can Mixed Vegetables (note: green beans have very few calories) (140)
12 Boxes 41,280 $ 30 32 oz. Box Instant Potatoes (add water only preferred) (3,440)
48 Cans 15,120 $ 47 15 oz. Can Fruit Cocktail (or peaches, pears, pineapple, etc.) (315)
24 Cans 3,000 $ 10 6 oz. Can Tomato Paste (125)
36 Cans 15,120 $ 42 26.5 oz. Can Del Monte Spaghetti Sauce (Do not buy the Hunt’s Brand) (420)
12 Cans 480 $ 9 4 oz. Can Sliced Mushrooms (not pieces) (40)
12 Cans 3,600 $ 14 10.75 oz. Can Cream of Chicken Soup (or Chicken Noodle) (to eat if you get sick) (300)
12 Boxes 76,800 $ 188 64 oz. Box Powdered Instant Non-fat Dry Milk (long shelf life) (6,400)
24 Cans 11,520 $ 24 12 oz. Can Evaporated Milk (480)
3 Boxes 7,680 $ 18 32 oz. Box Velvetta Brand Cheese (short shelf life) (2,560)
12 Boxes 38,400 $ 36 1 lb. Box Butter (short shelf life unless frozen) (no margarine) (3,200)
5 Jars 60,000 $ 71 50.7 oz. Jar Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (indefinite shelf life) (12,000)
2 Cans 24,860 $ 10 3 lb. Can Crisco Shortening (very short shelf life) (12,430)
12 Cans 10,800 $ 36 8 oz. Container Hershey’s Cocoa Powder (900)
8 Cans 9,600 $ 13 16 oz. Can Hershey’s Cocoa Syrup (1,200)
25 Pounds 42,500 $ 14 5 lb. Bag White Granulated Sugar (indefinite shelf life) (8,500)
12 Pounds 10,200 $ 13 1 lb. Box Light Brown or Dark Brown Sugar (indefinite shelf life) (1,700)
12 Pounds 10,800 $ 13 1 lb. Box Confectioners Sugar (indefinite shelf life) (1,800)
12 Boxes 26,400 $ 18 20 oz. Box Brownie Mix (or Cake Mix) (2,200)
6 Jars 11,520 $ 9 16 oz. Jar Light Corn Syrup (indefinite shelf life) (1,920)
6 Jars 7,200 $ 37 12.5 oz. Jar 100% Pure Maple Syrup (indefinite shelf life) (1,200)
9 Jars 10,240 $ 50 16 oz. Jar “Sue Bee Brand” Clover Honey (indefinite shelf life) (1,280)
12 Jars 36,480 $ 22 18 oz. Jar Peanut Butter (3,040)
12 Jars 15,600 $ 18 16 oz. Jar Jelly or Preserves (very long shelf life) (1,300)
48 Each 960 $ 11 Beef Bouillon Large Cubes (20 per large cube) (1 large cube = 4 small cubes)
48 Each 960 $ 11 Chicken Bouillon Large Cubes (20 per large cube) (1 large cube = 4 small cubes)
12 Boxes 20,160 $ 12 16 oz. Box Corn Starch (indefinite shelf life) (1,680)
24 Boxes 0 $ 17 16 oz. Box Baking Soda (indefinite shelf life)
12 Jars 0 $ 65 2.62 oz. Cream of Tartar (indefinite shelf life)
24 Pkgs. 0 $ 12 5/16 oz. Package Hodgson Mill Brand Yeast (store in Ziplock bag in the freezer)
6 Bottles 0 $ 22 2 oz. Bottle Vanilla Extract (indefinite shelf life)
24 Pounds 0 $ 8 4 lb. Box Pure Salt (Morton Brand Canning and Pickling Salt) (indefinite shelf life)
12 Jars 0 $ 12 2.6 oz. Ground Black Pepper (or Whole Peppercorns have an indefinite shelf life) (Walmart)
12 Jars 0 $ 6 5.5 oz. Seasoned Meat Tenderizer (Walmart)
12 Jars 0 $ 6 3.12 oz. Onion Powder (Walmart)
2 Jars 0 $ 1 0.9 oz. Oregano (Walmart)
2 Jars 0 $ 1 2.5 oz. Garlic Powder (or Garlic Salt) (Walmart)
2 Jars 0 $ 1 2.37 oz. Cinnamon (Walmart)
1 Jar 0 $ 5 1.75 oz. Cayenne Red Pepper
2 Bottles 0 $ 4 15 oz. Bottle Lemon Juice (short shelf life)
1 Jug 0 $ 3 1 Gallon Jug Apple Cider Vinegar (indefinite shelf life if stored in glass jar at 40°F-70°F in the dark)
—— —— —— ——
Totals = 1,129,040 $1,820 One-Year Emergency Food Supply for One Adult

Note - this assumes that the food is used and by use, it gets rotated as some items have shorter storage 'lives'.

I've several of these. Having a deep pantry isn't hard. Rotating the food is....

 

Affordable One-Year Emergency Food Supply by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. - Grandpappy

An Affordable One-Year Emergency Food Supply for One Adult (2,000 Calories per Day) -
Summary Totals = 732,206 Calories
507.75 Pounds
13.075 Cubic Feet
2016 price - $ 771

To store the food for the food listed in the link above - you will require approximately 13.075 cubic feet of space. This is the theoretical minimum amount of space and it does not include space loss between packages or between stacks. If you allow an additional 10% for lost space between packages of different sizes then this would be approximately 14.38 cubic feet of storage space. This means you could store the food in an area that was approximately 2 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and 3.6 feet tall (or 1.8 meters by 1.8 meters by 3.3 meters).

The site also has recipes, an alternate - lower cost - plan for 1800/day It is an interesting read, if nothing else...

 

that is dried goods only isn't it? Don't see a water supply

 

You are correct on both lists I posted. I see many posts on a lot of different 'survival' sites that overlook/ ignore the tangential (a college word for 'related') items that are necessary for any kind of disaster response "food storage" plan.

These are - at a minimum: :
water - and in copious amounts Not to mention collection, storage, purification and so on
cleaning and hygiene supplies
cooking fuel - alcohol, propane, white gas, wax, Streno - what ever. Sadly, most people have absolutely no clue about how much fuel is needed for cooking/heating what little food that they may have stored.

HVAC - heating to keep you alive, let alone comfortable.

The list can be as long as you arm - I posted a 12 chapter monograph on this to the board some time back.

That as well as a short term <1 week food/fuel list where I introduced the idea of a "Fuel unit". A fuel unit being the amount of fuel "your stove" will burn to produced 2 cups of boiling water. This is a minimal amount and mostly aimed at folks with dry rations that require cooking or at least heating of their food. IOW - it will work for Minute rice, caned soup, etc but not for dry beans/dry rice which require additional cooking time. I plan on using my Thermos for most of this kind of cooking, but it requires practice.. regular practice.

The idea of the post was to get folks to take a hard look at their preps and plan for both water and fuel to match what they have put away for Chow. Most don't.