There is a general perception that stockpiling supplies is just for 'survivalist' types wishing to prepare for the worst (see bottom of page). But due to the way modern society works, there can be interuptions to the foods supply caused by much less extreme events.

For example, large supermarkets use a 'just in time' delivery system to keep their stores stocked with food, with a typical supermarket stocking only 1-2 days worth of food. That means if for some reason there is a disruption to the supply chain, for example industrial action or a 'fuel strike', the shelves can empty of food in a very short time.

This is then likely to be compounded by the media causing 'panic buying' - as soon as they report that the petrol stations are running out of fuel, everyone rushes to fill their tanks, and likewise if the media reports that strikes will leave supermarket shelves empty then people will rush to the shops to stock up on food. This 'panic buying' only increases the problem as the food runs out even faster than it would have with just the supply issue.

Of course when this happens the media often slates the public for panic buying, despite the fact that the media themselves caused the problem in the first place! But while panic buying may be bad from an overall perspective it makes perfect sense from an individual basis, and is a rather obvious and responsible thing to do. If you know that something you need to survive will be unavailable in the near future for an unknown period of time it makes sense to obtain as much as you can before stocks run out.

It is therefore better to hold some type of emergency food storage at home, containing enough food to outlast any interuption of the food supply. The government also recommends that all households keep a supply of food and bottled water 'just in case', but most households only keep a weeks worth of food at any one time. This is a fairly recent phenomenon - previous generations tended to keep larger supplies of tinned foods.

The problem with keeping large supplies of tinned goods is the relatively short shelf life, meaning you constantly have to eat your way through the stock and then buy more to replace it. This is made worse if, in normal circumstances, you tend to eat a healthy diet of fresh foods, and try to avoid jars and tinned foods which generally container lower quality food with lots of additives and preservatives.

There are therefore several benefits to using freeze dried foods in your emergency food storage:

  1) The 25 year shelf life means you can put the emergency food in a few boxes in the garage and forget about them - no need to 'refresh' or 'rotate' the stocks

  2) The freeze dried foods are made from high quality ingredients and don't have additives and preservatives - it's just fresh food freeze dried, no additives are required

  3) Freeze dried meals are lightweight, compact, and stackable making them easy to store

  4) All you need is hot water to 'make' the meal, so if normal cooking facilities are unavailable they can still be eaten

We recommend that you keep at least 1 months supply, per person, at all times. We also suggest that you stock up on toilet paper and bottled water, as these are two things you can store easily and don't want to run out of if there is a supply chain disruption.

Here is a list of possible events and scenarios that could leave you without access to food or confined to your home, these range from the quite likely (over the medium term) to the much more extreme 'end of the world as we know it' scenarios that some people plan for:

  - Disruption to food supply caused by widespread direct industrial action (eg. by truckers, or other supply chain staff)
  - Disruption to food supply caused by widespread indirect industrial action (eg. unrest in unrelated industries causing knock on effects, blockades at fuel depots etc)
  - Severe snow (eg. supplies unable to get to supermarket, *you* unable to get to supermarket)
  - Deadly plague or disease outbreak (eg. Government restricts transportation, shop workers refusing to go to work, major outbreak leading to breakdown of law and order)
  - War
  - Large scale terrorist attack (biological, chemical or nuclear dirty bomb)
  - Major fuel shortage (eg. Industrial action, blockades, multiple terrorist strikes at key fuel depots, global supply issue)
  - Comet strike, giant meteor other unexpected global disasters