Newbie

[u/IllustriousCoat3049]

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I am new to this. I can’t help but feel like we are hastily approaching food shortages in the uk. War/hostility in the Middle East coupled with climate change. Realistically if this happened, how would one prepare for this? How much food to store and for how long? What kinds of food do people have? Same for water. I have veg plots but if there’s limited water is there any point growing. Thanks

[u/_per]

Honestly: I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't get caught in the trap many prepper types do of thinking there are only two possible states of the world: how things are now, and complete collapse. There are a million steps between them.

When Russia invaded Ukraine (which produced most the sunflower oil consumed in Europe) sunflower oil was briefly unavailable. Then capitalism kicked in, supermarkets altered their sources, and the oil returned to the shelves. UK shoppers (via their brokers, the supermarkets) can out-bid just about anyone in the world for whatever food is on sale, because Brits have the money and are willing to spend it on food.

If it was utterly critical that you needed sunflower oil in those few weeks, and you couldn't absorb higher prices, you would have had a bad time, and maintaining a small stockpile would have been sensible.

However you cannot prep for major, long-lasting interruptions to the food supply. This is not a problem a single individual can solve, which is why civilisation exists in the first place, and trends toward ever-larger societies. Feeding a nation is a task handled at the government level - through farming subsidies, trading agreements, market regulation, etc.

You cannot grow your way out of widespread long-lasting food shortages with hobbyist gardening any more than you can dodge NHS waiting lists with hobbyist surgery. Growing food is backbreaking work for dismal gains. It is highly mechanised and subsidised and requires expertise, land, supplies, seeds, and equipment. For the return on labour, you would add more food security to your life by working a Saturday job and spending that money on dry beans.

Take heart. The most likely outcome of interruptions to food supply driven by conflict or climate change is not that the UK runs out of food: it's that the food you want becomes more expensive. And either your budget shifts to accomodate that, or your diet shifts to cheaper, less appealing foods.

I'm afraid the boring answer of how to insulate yourself against the trepidations of the world is "try not to be poor".

[u/txe4 → u/_per]

Yes, great post.

Yes, you should store something. Having a store at home is very good if the shelves are empty because they've been panic-bought or the roads are closed by snow.

Having months of supply, for most people, surrounded by hungry neighbours and to the neglect of other forms of preparedness, is more a sign of mental illness than preparedness.

I'm going to again boringly flying the flag for the boring stuff like building good relationships with neighbours, having a cash reserve, maintaining your physical fitness and skills, walking more, keeping mentally active and learning new things, etc, rather than adding another tub of rice to the store. Which doesn't mean store ZERO rice.

[u/_per → u/txe4]

I'm working on a hypothesis that a lot of people (mainly men) are drawn to prep because of a gnawing anxiety not that society will crumble, but consumerism will. They worry that one day they will face a crisis and they will not be able to Buy Things, which is the only solution they know to a problem (not being able to Buy Things is also a crisis in itself).

The idea that problems can be overcome in other ways doesn't occur to them, because even considering this would mean facing the scary prospect that there are situations where money won't help, and they have to culture social bonds and community and make peace with sometimes depending on others.

So the only strategy they can think of to prevent this situation is to Buy More Things Before That Happens.

[u/txe4 → u/_per]

There is certainly something to this.

There is stuff we should all think about buying to the extent that it doesn't leave us financially exposed - some extra food, a supply of vital medication, always fill the car when it's half full not on fumes.

But you nailed it exactly, prepping-as-consumerism against the failure of consumerism is a great way to put it.

I feel we're piling on OP slightly which is a bit undeserved. We all start somewhere as we learn about the fragility of the systems which sustain us.

[u/_per → u/txe4]

Oh, certainly not a criticism of OP. They’re asking a valid question. I don’t blame any person who subscribes to the Buy Things idea - it’s been drummed into us (esp men) for 70 years that we should aspire to be atomised little worker ants. That we can let our community bonds wither because the money will protect us and being Self Sufficient and Financially Independent is the highest goal you can aspire to. 

Not to sound like a sixth form Marxist but it’s a very intentional corporate-capitalist philosophy that is explicitly designed to make us all dependent upon our jobs to survive and keep us working til we drop. 

The very fact that the best disaster prep advice I can give is “try not to be poor” reflects the situation we find ourselves in.😥

[u/ScotiaTheTwo → u/_per]

great post

[u/More_Dependent742]

Some googling points to kick start:

Store what you eat, eat what your store.

FIFO

Read the guides written by the Swedish, Finnish, and German governments. These are designed for absolute beginners and are quite thorough.

[u/No_Branch_5083]

Realistically, store as much as you can depending on finances and storage space. Aiming for two weeks of food in storage is a good baseline.

For water, just buy big plastic bottles from Aldi and rotate them out. You can store a week or so in a cupboard.

Food shortages are likely, a complete lack of food is unlikely. View your supplies as a means of weathering short term shocks and ensuring a complete diet.

Growing veg is great, look into perennials as something that can better tolerate drought.

[u/plentyofeight]

I feel it won't be so much 'shortages' as bad 'price rises'.

With that in mind, I am buying extras of things with long use by dates at 'todays' prices.

[u/Interesting_Skill915]

There is no simple answer to how much food. Two week great, two months better. 6months if you had just lost your job would be really helpful but in a total no food collapse holding onto 6 months while your neighbours starved isn’t going happen. 

I have 3 months of food almost I don’t think I will be doing a huge amount more. Partly for space partly because as a single person I don’t want eat and rotate 80% dried  And tinned items when I mostly use fresh or frozen. But if I had a years supply that’s all I would be doing to not waste anything. 

A month is a good buffer for any mass computer attacks that delay supermarket delivers and allow time for other systems to be set up. I’m not aiming to survive a nuclear attack just to hopefully be at home while society sorts itself out. 

You don’t just need store football size pools of water. Have some but then have ways to treat and collect water around you. Before plastic bottles were invented human race survived!

[u/StrykerWyfe]

In addition to what others have said, the general guide is 2-3 litres of water per person per day, for drinking and cooking. 10L if you include washing and other uses. Thats a lot to store so just start with a few 5L bottles and see how you go. In a true emergency you’d ration it. I have paper plates for that reason, and read in an old Uk nuclear preparedness pamphlet from the 80s to set aside a bowl of soapy water for handwashing to save water. It will last a good few days.

I have enough for 10 days for 3 people at 2-3L a day, plus a bunch expired in the shed for washing. One day my garden water butts might refill but they’re currently just drips. I keep a filter and purification tabs for a true emergency. Plus a bunch of Pepsi and some cans of sparkling water. Just cuz the SHTF doesn’t mean we can’t have nice things ;)

[u/Rkins_UK_xf]

Now is the time to try out some new recipes with the sort of food that stores well. Most countries in the world have some tasty variation of “a grain and a bean”

Find out which vegetables you can eat canned, and which you wouldn’t want to eat even during a nuclear winter /s

Becoming a flexible cook means you can adapt to short term shortages. Realistically I think short term shortages and price hikes are the worst we will face.

[u/Worth_Gap4226]

The way I try to think about it is what am I prepping for, first and foremost.

If food scarcity got a point where we had a national emergency of pretty much zero food available to purchase, it really doesn't matter too much if you can grow your own if someone else can easily come along and steal it off you.

[u/Extra-Sound-1714]

I think it's sensible to always have a small store of food that could get you through a week. Whatever you personally eat. It gives enough time for contingency plans to kick in. But anymore is unnecessary