people advocate having a 50lb bag of rice on hand as a backup. but think about it this way... 1 cup of rice is 200 calories. 1 lb of rice is 2.5 cups. so that 50lb bag of rice is only 25k calories. if you're solo, and you drop to only 1500 daily calories in a food shortage, you're still only at around 16 days worth of food for a single person.
another thing to up the calorie density is olive oil or avocado oil. a single tablespoon (half oz) is 110-125 calories. you can get a 5L jug at a bunch of places, which is ~176 oz. so now you're talking roughly 40k calories in a 5L jug. now you've extended for a bit over 26 more days per person.
so if you're rationing to 1500 calories per day, a 50lb bag of rice and 5L olive oil per person will last you roughly 42 days.
you probably have some other stuff sitting around you can add to your diet from your pantry, but if shit hits the fan, you're going to burn through that all pretty fast. when actual food shortages start, if you don't know how to grow food, you're so fucked.
people are getting those hydroponic auto-growers, but many of them can't handle any real volume, and they're always for vegetables and vine fruits... caloric density is way too low in a SHTF scenario. the variety is nice, but you can replace them entirely with a multivitamin.
wheat takes 4-8 months to grow, and that's assuming you do it right the first time. and this isn't even factoring where you live, whether food is actually growable there.
the only consolation is that most americans are overweight or obese though, so with a multivitamin and water alone, most americans can literally go 4+ weeks with no actual food. if you're not a fatass, this doesn't help you.
then you have to factor in the simple fact that if shit actually hit the fan, you're going to have to fend off people in your outer circle who didn't prep, and choose carefully who is in your inner circle. if shit hits the fan, you WILL need other people, because if you're solo, all you've really done is stockpile food for the gangs/cartels that will emerge.
my stash:
100+ lbs of dry uncooked rice
15L+ of olive oil
1+ year of adult daily multivitamins
20+ lbs of unflavored whey protein isolate
portable water filtration system with extra o-rings and extra filters
small stove with tons of solid fuel
as ridiculous as this sounds, that's roughly only 4 months on ration for a single person, plus anything still in the pantry, plus any carried body fat. for the rice, olive oil, and protein, i eat those on the regular, so any time i get lower than those limits, i open the oldest one and get another.
Just to add a tiny bit here, olive oil does have a shelf life, keep using and replenish your supply to keep it fresh. Opening a bottle of rancid oil when you are counting on it will be a serious setback
this.
people advocate having a 50lb bag of rice on hand as a backup. but think about it this way... 1 cup of rice is 200 calories. 1 lb of rice is 2.5 cups. so that 50lb bag of rice is only 25k calories. if you're solo, and you drop to only 1500 daily calories in a food shortage, you're still only at around 16 days worth of food for a single person.
another thing to up the calorie density is olive oil or avocado oil. a single tablespoon (half oz) is 110-125 calories. you can get a 5L jug at a bunch of places, which is ~176 oz. so now you're talking roughly 40k calories in a 5L jug. now you've extended for a bit over 26 more days per person.
so if you're rationing to 1500 calories per day, a 50lb bag of rice and 5L olive oil per person will last you roughly 42 days.
you probably have some other stuff sitting around you can add to your diet from your pantry, but if shit hits the fan, you're going to burn through that all pretty fast. when actual food shortages start, if you don't know how to grow food, you're so fucked.
people are getting those hydroponic auto-growers, but many of them can't handle any real volume, and they're always for vegetables and vine fruits... caloric density is way too low in a SHTF scenario. the variety is nice, but you can replace them entirely with a multivitamin.
wheat takes 4-8 months to grow, and that's assuming you do it right the first time. and this isn't even factoring where you live, whether food is actually growable there.
the only consolation is that most americans are overweight or obese though, so with a multivitamin and water alone, most americans can literally go 4+ weeks with no actual food. if you're not a fatass, this doesn't help you.
then you have to factor in the simple fact that if shit actually hit the fan, you're going to have to fend off people in your outer circle who didn't prep, and choose carefully who is in your inner circle. if shit hits the fan, you WILL need other people, because if you're solo, all you've really done is stockpile food for the gangs/cartels that will emerge.
my stash:
as ridiculous as this sounds, that's roughly only 4 months on ration for a single person, plus anything still in the pantry, plus any carried body fat. for the rice, olive oil, and protein, i eat those on the regular, so any time i get lower than those limits, i open the oldest one and get another.
Just to add a tiny bit here, olive oil does have a shelf life, keep using and replenish your supply to keep it fresh. Opening a bottle of rancid oil when you are counting on it will be a serious setback