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Short answer: no. I was moving around quite a bit some time back, living in several different, high-end apartment complexes. One thing that struck me was that I never, ever saw anybody bringing groceries home. And, met no one that cooked at home. Young professionals earning six figures, with no food in their apartments, other than snack stuff. One young woman laughed at me, saying “Cook? Why cook? That's what the telephone is for. Just pick up the phone and order something.”

These people will die.

Short answer: no. I was moving around quite a bit some time back, living in several different, high-end apartment complexes. One thing that struck me was that I never, ever saw anybody bringing groceries home. And, met no one that cooked at home. Young professionals earning six figures, with no food in their apartments, other than snack stuff. One young woman laughed at me, saying “Cook? Why cook? That's what the telephone is for. Just pick up the phone and order something.”

Very excellent point. I have watched this stage of learned helplessness by convenance for some time. Cooking requires time and knowledge. Even buying items such as bread is being replaced by the telephone. I have wondered how many are unable to create a shopping list for a week of meals. This is something I was thinking about today as I worked on our 19 raised beds.

We are in the midst of a construction project to install a vinyl fence around our rear yard. I was measuring out where a potential chicken coup would go as the need arises. While doing elevation shots I was thinking about food preparation and the time it takes with raw foods. Our lives have been made efficient. Even if we buy from a local grocery, our preparation time is significantly cut. That will change because it has to with a currency default. That is inevitable. We are a speeding train to a chasm without a bridge.

Food growing takes years of work and development. From seed selection to pest control, it takes years of experience and adaption to our local environment. We are lucky that we have a greenhouse and spring water (as required) to prepare multiple crop rotations. Further, we have learned over the years to store foods with canning, dehydration, and freezing (if our backup power is sufficient). The learning curve and work takes years.

Helplessness is not necessarily isolated to the poor. It is represented in all income brackets. Today's EBT incident is just a reminder of both how frail our system is and how ill prepared all levels of our society are.