When I do cook I use a lot of tomatoe sauce and stewed or just plain canned tomatoes to make up spaghetti sauce and freeze so mine rarely go beyond the best use date.
I don’t do a lot of stalking up in fear of what the future might bring. I remember Y2k and people stalking up with spam. lol. I just have enough stuff (usually) for a month or two.
I get that. I grow enough tomatoes to get us through the year, so I really don’t need to stock up. But I do it for the “what if” factor.
I prep because i believe we have a group of globalists who want to control everything, include what we eat. Gates and China own most of the farmland in America. The folks at WEF want us to eat bugs. Look what is happening to farmers in other countries who are selling out to government. I am not worried about tornadoes (or Y2K) but I am very concerned about those clamoring for power, who want to decide who gets to eat and what, because he who controls the food controls the people.
That’s my motivation anyway. YMMV
If you don’t want to prep a lot now, just watch things politically and economically. For anyone paying attention, it is easy enough to see the warning signs that something is coming.
I did that pre-Covid. Saw what was happening in nChina and it was starting to get a foothold here, and expecting the worst possible response from our government, (they did not disappoint) got stuff ahead of time. I did go shopping the day the lockdowns were supposed to start and the grocery stores were NUKED. NO pasta, no chicken, no baking supplies. Fortunately, I knew of a couple specialty stores and went they and they were well stocked with those items. People were n ot even thinking outside the box.