How to set up the long-term stockpile? 長期備蓄の仕方は？
“What is the difference between the short-term and the long-term?”
“Long-term means we store a lot of food for a long time, right?”
“Can I manage both the short-term stockpile and the long-term stockpile?”
You might wonder why we need to set up short and long-term emergency stockpiles separately, but please keep in mind: Each has its own purpose.
★ The long-term stockpile → You can survive a major disaster, even if it’s only for one more day.
長期備蓄の目標は、「１日でも長く生きる」
★The short-term stockpile → You can stay healthy and maintain your quality of life, ongoing, as long as possible.
短期備蓄の目標は、「可能な限り生活レベルの維持と健康維持」
You can guess the long-term stockpile is for seriously dire situations. We need to set up the long-term stockpile first, and then we can set up our short-term stockpile with our remaining storage space.
I recommend you to get “rich foods” and “high-calorie foods” for the long-term stockpile.
長期備蓄には、高カロリーでお腹が膨らむ食品を
I explained how long-term emergency situations play out (post #15). I will share the process again.
Disaster happens
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Food distribution system will be normal for few days. We can get food from the store.
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The nation’s food reserves will be OK for few weeks.
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Each family will start to use their own stockpile.
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There is no food in the store. People start to barter, trade, steal crops, and a riot against the government.
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When it comes to this, the long-term stockpile will start to be used.
When you are in the last stage of this process, which food would you prefer: Canned tomatoes? Or pasta?
My answer is PASTA.
A prolonged crisis (e.g., war) makes people’s lives harder. You won’t have the luxury of worrying about healthy food when your very existence is threatened. You’ll really need to fill your stomach and get as much energy as possible, to survive. In such situations, which one is more helpful for you? Of course it will be heavy, rich food. The pasta provides higher calories and keeps your stomach full longer.
Therefore, I recommend you to get “rich foods” and “high-calorie foods” for the long-term stockpile. For example, canned meat, rice, beans, energy bars, nuts, etc. 長期備蓄には、高カロリーで腹持ちが良い食品を。例えば、肉缶、米、豆類、エナジーバー、ナッツなど
If you are really worried about a healthy balance and nutrition, you could stock up on multivitamins and mineral supplements to make up the difference, and they don’t take up much space. If you really, really miss sweet snacks or other foods, you could just go see someone who has that and trade with your high-calorie foods. In desperate situations, high-calorie foods will be very easy to trade for other foods, because everybody will need high-calorie food. Do you really need a lot of clothes or jewelry? Would you choose fashionable clothes over food? In wartime or after a major disaster, canned food will be worth more than clothes.
I am a tidy up worker, and I can say “it’s time to check your old clothes and make a space for your canned goods.”
See you next time.