Saturday, January 21, 2017

On The Matter of Food

Ah, food.  We love it. We crave it. We NEED it! If it were to run low, we would quickly panic.


Famines happen all over the world. They are caused by crop failure, foul weather, general political instability and oftentimes war.  According to the World Food Program, right now 1 in 9 people in this world are undernourished.  Famine isn't likely to happen in America any time soon, but food shortages are surprisingly common, even here.

Look at what happens every time a winter storm is predicted:


Bread. Milk. Eggs. Water. Always gone. Why?

People have been spoiled by generations of plenty.  Americans haven't had to provide food for themselves since the around the 1930's.  Supermarkets began springing up, providing an easy way to gather all your supplies in one trip. Gardens became much less needful. After World War II, when gardens and backyard chickens were encouraged, most shopping was done in supermarkets rather than neighborhood shops or your own backyard.  In not too many years, home delivery of staples was a thing of the past.  Having a garden or chickens became a sign of poverty, rather than a sign of prosperity.

Now people are dependent on their grocery stores.  When bad weather threatens, people panic and buy staples because they don't have them on hand already.  People who are "late" to the panic party are left with second quality food (opened packages, dented cans) or nothing at all.  When was the last time you saw someone with a full pantry of real food?


Could you feed your family for a week with ONLY the food in your house at this very moment? What about a month?  Venezuela has been struggling greatly for over three years.  There is no good news on the horizon for them. The famous Irish famine lasted seven years. Remember the Biblical account of Joseph and the famine in the Middle East? Can you imagine seven years of famine? 

Our next few discussions will center on food: what to stock, how to stock it and how to use it. 



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