How can I avoid wasting long-term stockpile food?
どうやったら長期備蓄の無駄を防ぐことができる？
I don’t like wasting food…
If nothing bad happens, then I have to throw away food and buy new food all over again, right? That sounds like a pain…
Maybe I should just wait and get the emergency food when I need it.
Long-term emergency situations might happen only once in a blue moon. We might not even have one in our lifetime. Preparing for “the big one” is kind of like gambling, or if you prefer, like investing in the stock market.
You might have heard about food scarcity during WW2 from your grandparents or great-grandparents? They experienced it and they may have already given you some good advice on how to prepare for a crisis. My reaction to my grandparents was always,
“I am sorry you had to live through such hardship… but it’s hard for me to relate.”
I feel like I’m lightyears away from such a large-scale, unexpected crisis. Nevertheless, I am trying to prepare an emergency stockpile. But I don’t want to waste whole closetful of food…
Remember, we don’t have to be obsessed with perfection.
We will try our best to prepare our emergency stockpile without throwing anything away — without wasting any food.
What is the best way?
Just eat them! Use them! Get used to doing it!
I am sorry. I like tidying up. That’s why it is not hard for me to check the food in my long-term stockpile, all the time. But some people are not wired that way.
I set up my long-term stockpile such that my expiration dates don’t need to be checked more than every few years. (See my long-term stockpile food list in post #19.)
If you pick up food your own way, then I am not sure how long you can keep them. Choose wisely, with long shelf-lives, and you will be able to leave them alone until you need them.
The food I picked up for long-term storage has a shelf-life of at least 5 years, more in some cases.
Personally, I have the time to manage it, and I like an assembly-line system of food rotation ( check out this explanation: First In, First Out: FIFO ). In Japan, we call this “Rolling Stock.” I needed time to get used to it, but now that I’ve got the hang of it, I waste a lot less food.
Don’t forget, in this post we’re talking about the long-term stockpile.
The food has a long shelf-life, so we don’t need to check and rotate all the time.
💡
Just eat them! Use them! Get used to doing it!
How did our ancestors survive?
We have forgotten what life was like for our ancestors, how hard it was for them to survive. Our ancestors didn’t have electricity or machines or indoor plumbing to make their lives easier.
Can you imagine if you had to go back in time, 200 years in the past?
Could you survive?
I think our ancestors all became experts in stockpiling. They spent the warmer months preparing, so that when the cold winter months came around, they were ready. It was not an emergency, it was their daily life. We really have forgotten how to live off the land, and we’ve lost important skills. Modern conveniences have changed our way of life.
Checking stockpile food and rotating them every few years is actually very easy, compared to what our ancestors had to deal with. As you know, some people today live off the land, like our ancestors did. Let’s try to avoid burdening others, and let’s try to prepare as much as possible, now. When you get used to managing your emergency stockpile, you will not waste food.
Just eat them! Use them! Get used to doing it!
See you next time.
Remember, “Protect your life by yourself” （自分の命は自分で守る). You need to survive first, and then you need your emergency supply. No matter how well you prepared your emergency supplies, if you die, then all of your preparations will have been for nothing. First and foremost, keep your health up all the time. Build your stamina so that if you need to, you can evacuate as quickly as possible. Stay healthy
