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how long does it take to starve to death? :-) a couple of months. not even 1% of the population has a year's supply of food cached (or ever will). crop failures (for large regions at a time) are commonplace, too. So, no, it wont be so slow to kill off huge numbers of people. Once there's no power for running tractors or providing transport of product, no accepted currency, no water for irrigation or prepping food, starvation will be so swift that people won't be able to believe that it's actually happening to them.
rule of three. 3 weeks without food, three days without water and 4 minutes without air. But I think Americans might beat on average the three weeks without food, based on our obesity rates!!
But also, keep in mind, the average American family has almost a month of food available if they rationed. http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-ip.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/we....html?sq=&_r=0
Add in the vacant homes and stores from the people who ran and hid or who died in the initial panic, bump that up maybe a week?
Also, lots of people garden, even if it adds 300 calories per week per person, it could allow a stretching of the food stores.
And as more people die, sickness, disease, violence or accidents this will also free up more stores of food.
Some people will start hunting or gardening.
Also, you will have homes that are vacant with gardens or fruit trees.
When I was in afgan, I was surprised at how much food people were traveling with and my buddies who did tours in Iraq often talked of the number of empty homes with food and other valuable stuff left in them.
sure, there will be looting and robbing, there will be revenge killings, rapes, arson, all sorts of mayhem. Plenty of people will shoot others on sight, just because they've always wanted to do so and shtf gives them a good change of getting away with it. The livestock, stores of grain, dogs and cats will stretch things out by a month, along with known edible food and fish, but in3 months after shtf, starvation will be rampant. Weakened by malnutrition, millions will die of diseases and infections from minor wounds. ( no health care). yes, dirty water will kill/weaken many, but many know enough to use bleach in it, or boil it, so water might not be as much of a killer as you think.
No, i do not overrate the USs economic importance in the world. google for an almanac and check how many countries are totally dependent upon us. Then check how many are totally dependent upon those countries, and go down the line. there is nothing left at the end of that line.
Americans have a months worth of food in the house do they? I hope they do for their sake. British people do not, 3-4 DAYS a week at most is the norm, with access to supermarkets 12 hours a day if not 24, 7 days a week, very few people keep any kind of food stores, they don't need to, the stores and the food will always be there, right? yes until the time they aren't. and when they do stock food is it the right sort to survive on, many people exist on a diet of pizzas and "convenience" food, no cooking skills required just bung it in the microwave, that'll be no good once the power goes off.
Americans have a months worth of food in the house do they? I hope they do for their sake. British people do not, 3-4 DAYS a week at most is the norm, with access to supermarkets 12 hours a day if not 24, 7 days a week, very few people keep any kind of food stores, they don't need to, the stores and the food will always be there, right? yes until the time they aren't. and when they do stock food is it the right sort to survive on, many people exist on a diet of pizzas and "convenience" food, no cooking skills required just bung it in the microwave, that'll be no good once the power goes off.
A month's worth of food isn't much to have. People who simply stock up when items are on sale or buy in case lots to save money are bound to have more than a month's supply. I believe water is a far greater concern. People who don't keep a stock of bottled water aren't likely to have any water stored for disasters of any length. The people reading these threads aren't average people. Most bottled water is inexpensive and easy to store under a bed or in some other convenient place. But just as food storage isn't usually purposeful it seems reasonable to say the same about water. The vast majority of those who drink water from the tap will rely on the tap and nothing else.
When I was a boy we lived in area with water full of iron and sulphur. My parents had a water cooler in the kitchen and had tweny-four five gallon bottles delivered at a time to get a discount. But when a delivery came we were usually down to the last three or four bottles, not very much at all. The pantry was always full of food, but water could have been a problem even though my father had constructed a fallout shelter of sorts. There's water in canned foods, but alcoholic beverages as well as some juices and soft drinks are diuretic.
I'm surprised that your supermarkets close. I live about twenty-five miles from a city of 9k with perhaps 15k more within fifty miles. Walmart is always open. We have swarms of tourists in summer but scarcely any the rest of the year.
I'm surprised that your supermarkets close. I live about twenty-five miles from a city of 9k with perhaps 15k more within fifty miles. Walmart is always open. We have swarms of tourists in summer but scarcely any the rest of the year.
All the supermarkets in my area (rural) are small stores and open 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, reduced hours on Sundays. these are anything up to 25 miles away. nearest "city" (pop 136,000) is 30 miles away, another(pop 250,000) is 40+ miles away, nearest Large city is hundreds of miles away and takes 5 or 6 hours to get there.
British people just don't have food stores or "larders" as my parents called them, for one most British houses don't have the storage space especially the new ones, British houses are getting smaller and smaller as there is no longer any minimum standards. with supermarkets in most if not all towns and cities these days shopping habits have changed, the supermarket is used as the larder and people just pop in on the way home from work and buy a few bits for that day or a couple of days at most, gone are the days of the "big shop"...unless its Christmas or a bank holiday.
I think yall might be missing something. When you buy flour, do you buy a tiny bag/box? Or one that is few pounds or kilos?? In the US most store bought flour comes in a 5lb bag or larger.
a 5lb bag of flower is approx 8000 calories. which all by itself can keep a family of four fed over three days in survival mode.
Add in everything in that fridge/pantry. Rice, ketchup, mustard, noodles, cooking oils, butter ect ect ect.
What about that 60lb bag of dog food?
Cans of cat food?
Most western folk have far more food laying around than they think.
In my JR collage, our nutrion teacher had us go home and Kcal count everything in our house. Elmers glue, chap stick, pet foods you name it. In our class, the average single person had about 21,000 Calories laying around. And these were poor collage kids.
But again, depends on the people right? My exwife burned water, so she never kept food in the house at all. Im a prepper, so Im good for a year, but you cannot tell just by looking at my fringe or pantry, its just looks like I like pasta, lol.
And no, a month worth of food is not a lot, but were talking about folks who did not prep and the static family in the US which is 4.33 members. My bugout bag can feed me for a month not counting what I took from my own house. I raid one empty house, there is another one to four months.
It all depends of course of what type of SHTFE, because a flood ruins a lot of those calories.
I think yall might be missing something. When you buy flour, do you buy a tiny bag/box? Or one that is few pounds or kilos?? In the US most store bought flour comes in a 5lb bag or larger.
a 5lb bag of flower is approx 8000 calories. which all by itself can keep a family of four fed over three days in survival mode.
Add in everything in that fridge/pantry. Rice, ketchup, mustard, noodles, cooking oils, butter ect ect ect.
What about that 60lb bag of dog food?
Cans of cat food?
Most western folk have far more food laying around than they think.
In my JR collage, our nutrion teacher had us go home and Kcal count everything in our house. Elmers glue, chap stick, pet foods you name it. In our class, the average single person had about 21,000 Calories laying around. And these were poor collage kids.
But again, depends on the people right? My exwife burned water, so she never kept food in the house at all. Im a prepper, so Im good for a year, but you cannot tell just by looking at my fringe or pantry, its just looks like I like pasta, lol.
And no, a month worth of food is not a lot, but were talking about folks who did not prep and the static family in the US which is 4.33 members. My bugout bag can feed me for a month not counting what I took from my own house. I raid one empty house, there is another one to four months.
It all depends of course of what type of SHTFE, because a flood ruins a lot of those calories.
really? I buy mine by the 50# bag of wheat and grind it myself. that way it stays fresher and it does not have a bleaching agent in it.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Originally Posted by Westcoastnavy
.......It all depends of course of what type of SHTFE, because a flood ruins a lot of those calories.
Even worse, a fire. That's why I say to clear all brush and trees within, oh, I guess about 30 meters if possible, and get a fireproof roof if you can afford it. Also don't use kerosene lanterns or have large amounts of flammable liquids in the house. Use LED lights and store lots of batteries. This is one instance where modern technology is better than the old.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Originally Posted by monkeywrenching
really? I buy mine by the 50# bag of wheat and grind it myself. that way it stays fresher and it does not have a bleaching agent in it.
You must have bulging, powerful arm muscles, and excellent aerobic fitness. It's hard to grind that stuff!
Plus you should have both hard and soft wheat, so that would be 100 lbs.
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