So you want to be a sort of “Doomsday Prepper” and be prepared for an economic collapse with a stockpile of food? It’s good that you are thinking of being prepared for everything. And, you want to know what kind of emergency rations you should build your stockpile around.
Two popular choices are the Army MRE’s and the very popular freeze-dried survival rations. Both of these rations have their advantages over the other, and both have some severe limitations you might not realize.
The Army MRE’s have the chief advantage food survival kits of being “cool” and totally self-contained. What self-respecting “Doomsday Prepper” wouldn’t have at least some Army MRE’s?
The MRE’s have the advantage of being totally self-contained and can be eaten cold or heated with the enclosed heater. They also need no water to reconstitute them, and only a little bit of water to activate the heater pack.
There are 3 disadvantages of the Army MRE’s. First, they are very expensive. At about $6 per meal, if you don’t like the taste, it is a high price to pay for “cool” rations that you don’t want to eat.
Second, they are bulky. You won’t be able to fit a year’s supply of these under the bed!
Third, the storage life is highly dependent upon the temperature. Stored in your basement, they will last 4 years. Stored in the trunk of your car in the summer heat, they will last only a couple months.
The popular “Freeze-dried survival food” has some of the same limitations. It is very bulky, very expensive and, unlike the Army MRE, this food will require water to reconstitute it.
I may sound like a broken record to those I consult for, but the best way to stockpile food is by looking at both short-term and long-term. Short-term food storage should be 6 to 10 weeks of regular food in your pantry.
From 10 weeks to one year should be food like that you can buy from the Mormon food packing centers, which is basically staple items that require you to know how to cook.
If you really want to be prepared for an economic collapse where food can quickly become all but unaffordable, you must learn how to cook from basic food staples, which you can stockpile cheaply, and which is very space-efficient.
The other thing to remember is that you need to have some food in the trunk of your car, along with your emergency preparedness kit, in case anything major happens when you are away from home.