Famines and Food Storage

This is the Current Horn of Africa Famine 2011

FAMINES!! I want to talk about famines today. I have a deep abiding passion for food storage . and many people think that I am kind of crazy about it. In fact I have been called worse than that, haha. And, unfortunately, anyone reading this article is likely right there with me, you probably aren't the ones that need to read it, but if you are, I hope it will open your eyes to the scary reality of famines.

If you follow this link List of Famines and I think you all should, you will be shocked at the amount of famines that have happened in history. Also take note of the causes listed for most of the famines – war and drought. This list takes us from 400 BC right up to 2011 and the current famine in the Horn of Africa. It is quite extensive and if you want to take a look at more information on the various famines, just follow the links.

So what are the major causes of famines?? Drought, or poor weather is the usual cause of famine, or at least it used to be. Now you mix in there war and civil unrest with no crops and you have the perfect storm to cause a famine. Check out some of these pictures of drought that have caused famine. A few of them are even from this year pretty close to home.

Texas drought and wheat crop damage 2011

On this website Kohm news you can find several articles that talk about severe drought issues now ocuring in the United States. Huffington post here is another article that is worth the read.

Okay so the internet and newspapers are full of these kinds of articles. Check some of them out below. But what I want to point out here is that there is a cycle that is associated with famines. Crop failures – which include drought or wet conditions, grasshoppers, or whatever the reason – for three to seven years in a row will often lead to a famine. Also throw in there a few natural disasters like hurricanes, wild fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes, and you again have a perfect storm for what??? Right, a famine of huge proportions. Are these things happening close to home right now? Yep, they are!! Have they been happening close to home for a few years now? Yep, they have!! Are they increasing in intensity? Yep, they are!! Do we have political issues? Yep, we do!! Do we have economic issues? Yep, we do again!! So my BIG question to you is............If this continues for a couple or a few more years, can we see what we are headed for? It is history repeating itself over and over! The warning signs are all there. We are lining ourselves up for a serious crisis and most of us don't even see it coming. Put all of the factors together and see if you can see what I see, serious trouble ahead.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/extreme-exhausting-tornadoes-drought-flooding-hurricane-124800998.html

http://feww.wordpress.com/category/canada-flooding/

http://www.worldbank.org/foodcrisis/

http://www.wfp.org/global-food-crisis-in-depth

I have come across so many quotes from prophets, and so many scriptures that talk directly about famine in our day. I have decided not to post them at this point, just because some of my readers are not LDS. But even so, look at the facts around us, watch this perfect storm come into play, and if you are LDS, then start doing some research because it will awaken your spiritual reality to this whole storm as well.

So if we can see serious trouble ahead, what should we do about it? We should dang well be preparing in any way we possibly can, while we still can. Food storage, medical supplies, water treatment supplies and storage, survival skills, and so on. But the big one I want to emphasize today is food storage.

The LDS church says that we should have:

· 72 hour kits for every person in our family – in case of emergency evacuation, emergency sheltering in place, and unforeseen events

· 3 month supply of food – if you check on many government websites, church websites, and preparedness sites, you will find that they all recommend having a 3 month supply of easy to prepare, familiar foods for your family. This will be beneficial in case of sickness, short term crisis, pandemic quarantine or shelter in place. These items will be things that even your kids could prepare if mom or dad were sick. EASY to prepare and FAMILIAR to your family.

· Long Term Supply of Food – We should have a one year supply of longer term, life sustaining foods on hand for our entire family. These items will have a long shelf life and will sustain life for a long period of time.

· Water – we should have on hand at least a 2 week supply of water for each person. We should also store water purification supplies and water filters.

Here at the following links you will find more information on what the church says about it.

Family Resources at Provident Living

http://providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html

Now I have noticed that the church has come down to them saying that for one person, long term storage should include 25 lbs of grains, such as wheat, and 5 lbs of beans or legumes. Now I don’t know about you, but that is strictly survival and if that is all you have got, well have fun chewing that wheat and those beans. The church used to ask us to have a seven year supply of food. If you check out this post Food Storage Timeline you will find a timeline that shows how food storage has changed over the years. I personally think that right now, they just want us to survive, and if we don’t have it as of yet, we had just better get something before it is too late.

Here at this post I have stated why I believe is the minimum we should all have.

Basic Long Term Storage

And here are a couple of blogs that show what that basic amount would look like and what you could do with it – one loaf of bread per day and 1/3 cup of beans per day per person. Not very appealing to me.

http://modernmollymormon.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-does-basic-1-year-food-storage-for.html

http://schoolofgoodenough.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-years-food-storage-looks-like.html

Here is a food storage calculator that you can download and use to figure out just how much your family should have.

Food Storage Calculator

Be proactive. I thought I might actually show some pictures of people in famine, but I will only show one, because they are just way too graphic and disturbing, but if you want to see more, feel free to look here. Famine Pictures

I never want my own family to ever have to go through anything like that. I never want to have to tell my grandchildren that Grandma doesn’t have any food for them today. I don’t think I could bear that. I am preparing daily. I have lots and lots of food storage, but still feel like it isn’t enough and there is always more that I can do. I don’t believe I will ever be done, until there is simply no more food left to store.