What do I need to know before buying emergency food?
防災備蓄食品を買う前に？
What kind of food is best for emergencies?
I know rice, flour, beans…..but which brands are good?
I don’t want to waste food.
Before I buy food, what do I need to know?
There are important points we need to consider before setting out to buy emergency food.
First, what kind of emergency situation are you preparing for?
One that will last a short time or a long time?
⚠️
You need to consider short periods and long periods separately when setting up an emergency stockpile.
防災備蓄は短期備蓄と長期備蓄を別々なものとして考えて
This is an important question, and the answer will determine how you set up your emergency stockpile. What kind of food will you buy? It depends on the duration of the emergency.
Short period of time → OK for foods to have a short shelf-life → Multi-items (greater variety). 多種多様でOK
Long period of time → Not OK for foods have a short shelf-life → Limited-items (less variety). 限定的に
You need to consider short periods and long periods separately when setting up an emergency stockpile.
Examples of short period emergencies are hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornados. Usually, for emergencies on this scale, we can get support from city, state, or federal government right away.
The long period emergencies will be wars, major climate disasters, nuclear winters, giant meteorites, food crises, etc. If these events happen, we should not expect immediate support from government, and we have to survive by ourselves. We might feel that there’s no end in sight.
These 2 types of emergencies call for different strategies.
Short period → Multi-items with a well balanced food stockpile. 栄養バランスが維持できるもの
Long period → Limited items with a high calorie food stockpile. 高カロリーが摂れるもの
This is a very important point. For now, we need to focus on buying high calorie food for a longer emergency.
Longer emergencies go through this process.
Disaster happens
↓
Food distribution system will be normal for few days. We can get food from the store.
↓
The nation’s food reserves will be OK for few weeks.
↓
Each family will start to use their own stockpile.
↓
There is no food in the store. People start to barter, trade, steal crops, and a riot against the government.
↓
When it comes to this, the long-term stockpile will start to be used.
Clearly, we need to set up the long-term stockpile first. The long-term stockpile will be useful in more situations than the short-term stockpile.
We must begin setting up our emergency stockpile with a focus on food for the long-term emergency.
This point gives us a clear objective as we begin to set up our stockpile, right?
Now you have a goal, and you know which foods you need to get. I will talk more about the long-term stockpile in my next post.
I learned this from Takeshi Takaoka‘s website. Thank you for teaching me.
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.
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