I never said it was.
But mre’s make sense for a few reasons.
They have a long shelf life.
They are pretty close to a complete diet.
They can be eaten at your home, or tossed in a backpack if you decide to bug out.
Bill Gates himself could have wandered through the flooded parts of New Orleans with a pocketful of Krugerrands after Katrina and STILL not been able to buy a single drop of fresh, clean water.
You know, ant and the grasshopper thingie.
Point taken. There are other foods as others have pointed out that provide the same staple. The premise was a hurricane and you have a)plenty of time to haul ass and b) if you are in medical/law enforcement/ med, there are places to go and food to eat. You think the NO cops went hungry during Katrina? Service personnel are generally safe and will not starve.
I once traded for 36 cases of MREs at a gun show. This was not long after Hurricane Andrew and I think that is how he got them.
I thought they were pretty good as a whole. There were a few meals I didn’t care for but most were good and a few were delicious. I always heated them btw. Some of my favorites were the pork patty, the beef stew, the fruit cake, the white cheese,(which went well with the crackers).
I particularly disliked the tetrazini or teriyaki or whatever they called it. There was always more hot sauce than I wanted so I ended up with around a hundred little bottles of it. Sometimes they came with candy bars which were good. I never cared for the peanut butter and saved it to make PB&J sandwiches.
They haven't been acclimated to the taste, it's going to plug them up badly, and menu fatigue sets in very quickly. Like in 24 meals, if you have several cases of the new mixed rats.
The upside is what you said, long shelf life, so-so on diet requirements (they can't be fed without augments for very long), and are fairly handy.
But knowledge is a force multiplier. If you know how many calories you need a day, and can buy canned, transportable and storable foods that you already eat to cover the expected time period, you are better off with the stuff you normally eat. IMHO.
But good water is critical.
/johnny