Preservation and storage of foods

The human body requires over 40 essential nutrients to function perfectly.

We need to eat a variety of foods to provide these fundamentals that are vital to wellbeing. As the majority of the essential nutrients are not stored in the body, good health does depend on taking these nutrients in our foods, daily. We need to plan and execute a well-balanced diet under usual conditions, however, it could be more difficult if emergencies occur and foods are limited.

Under normal conditions, kitchen appliances, including the refrigerator and freezer, provide the solution to both short and long-term storage. Our reliance on these appliances and the convenience they represent can be realistically visualised by thinking and what might happen during a blackout of 48 hours or power failure for a week and or months. With a disruption of electricity to shops and homes, within a few days foods would spoil and many people would be relying on canned foods. Serious emergencies could bring a breakdown in transportation of foods. Groceries and fresh produce may become very scarce. Prices of food will then skyrocket and the suffering would be beyond our perception. Only those people sufficiently provident to prepare for such emergencies would be securely stocked.

Food stacked in a kitchen cupboard would provide a margin of safety for a few days and would carry most people through brief blackouts. A month’s supply of food, carefully stored away, would provide time for adjustment. In circumstances of major dilemmas, a year’s stored food would give enough time for readjustment or a complete transition.

In the bounty of our country of Australia, fresh food has been readily available at fairly reasonable prices. Our land has not experienced many calamities of climate, elements, or war on our shores, to cause food shortage. The problem of storage of food for an emergency is not a new one for people in so many areas of the world. In cold and temperate climates storing food for long winters has been essential to life. In all climatic zones, part of the harvest is stored and saved. However, the systematic storage of foods to provide essential nutrients for ‘the duration’ has only been set up by a minority of alert people. When speaking to these people, I often find that they have previously suffered extreme hardship from war or catastrophic weather conditions. Due to these experiences they have put in place sufficient storage for unforseen circumstances.

… … omitted text, please see How can I be prepared with Self-Sufficiency and Survival Foods? for full text.