My grandmother had a basement that would flood two feet deep when it rained. She kept two wooden chairs that she would use like movable stepping-stones to leap frog her way across the basement pond to her canning shelves.
It was worth the trip!
Rows and rows of mason jars with canned meats, and veggies, and fruits, and jellies. Enough to last her family a whole year -- until the next harvest!
Ours is the first generation in all of recorded history that does not do this. We have gotten used to an historical anomaly - plentiful food all the time, usually flown in from the other side of the planet! In February we have fresh strawberries from California and blueberries from Argentina.
This abundance is so taken for granted, that we have lost most of our local sources of food. Put out of business by Big Food. Sure is a good thing nothing can ever disrupt those long supply lines!
Anyhow, we should probably focus on how much smarter we are today than our ancestors. Here are some of the worst reasons I can think of for storing food:
Bad Reasons to Store Food:
- If the trucks stop rolling for any reason, (truckers strike, Arab oil embargo, Spanish Flu pandemic, civil unrest due to a World Cup loss, etc.) every grocery store has only 3 days worth of food in stock.
- In every crisis I've seen in my lifetime, grocery store shelves go bare immediately.
- It could be up to 15 months before I can plant and harvest a garden – if I had any seeds, and a prepared garden with good soil and my crops don’t fail the first time due to gross incompetence. Hmmm, make that three years.
- If civilization ends, I’ll live a year longer than everybody else!
- If most people did it, the upcoming Scenario of Post 010 could not happen. We would be helping instead of killing each other.
Of course, to be "fair and balanced" I'll also provide:
Good Reasons to Store Food:
- My money next year will buy 10% less food than this year. Put it in the bank and earn 1%, put it in the pantry and earn 10% - or whatever the annual rate of inflation becomes.
- If the price of something spikes, I can skip buying it this time and draw from my larder instead.
- When something goes on sale, I can stock up the larder. Net lower average acquisition costs.
- I never need to make a special trip into town to pick up something for dinner. I have my own convenience store right in my home.
- I buy fire insurance, car insurance, life insurance… why not food insurance?
What makes something a good or bad reason?
Peer pressure.
The bad reasons require one to admit that our ancestors were smarter than us or that we are paranoid that bad things can and do happen.
The good reasons, make us look shrewd, savvy, and smart.
Whatever.