How Long Can You Eat if Your Power Goes Out?

In February 2021, I wrote on the near collapse of the Texas electric grid and asked this rhetorical question: "how would you and your family like to be trapped in your car at 16 degrees below zero?"

Given that it is summertime, and the living is theoretically easy, let me ask another one. If the lights go out, how much refrigerated food will you lose? Similarly, will you be able to replace lost food?

We have all seen huge food price increases and heard media reports of the potential for massive food shortages. Among the many reasons, the Russian-Ukraine war taking out the "breadbasket of Europe" and simultaneously dramatically reducing critical fertilizers products looms large. With no end in sight, this war will significantly impact global food supplies for some time.

Other global factors are also in play. Flooding in China has had a detrimental impact on Chinese crops, and China has limited fertilizer usage in some fields. Also, China is still recovering from a dramatic loss of its swine herds due to swine flu epidemics, creating a potential protein shortage. No idea what the lockdowns will do.

India, one of the larger grain exporters, has placed severe restrictions on its exports to ensure adequate domestic food supplies. Food riots in Sri Lanka are occurring.

Globally, the prices of grains are rising dramatically, creating the potential for almost unimaginable misery among the world's poorest.

In one of my many abortive attempts to read a book — OCD can make it a b*tch for me to read — I started reading one of Selco’s books. He actually did occasionally eat soup in which grass was one of the ingredients, IIRC.

With all the available fiction and non-fiction resources out there to tell us how things can be (Selco, Bracken, Aguirre, etc.), why would anyone in government want to re-create these awful conditions, and why would anybody want to enthusiastically vote for such people? The answer: they simply don’t think like the rest of us.

2.5 years with two bunker mates...more if it’s just me.

If the grid goes down I’ll shrug my shoulders and open my laptop or phone via the Wi-Fi that’s on a UPS with 90 min of reserves. Tell the main breakers to trip out of the grid and the inverters to go into island mode. Then crack another bottle of scotch open fire up a cigar and wait for my friends to call asking to come over for BBQ and drinks like February. My neighbors all have solar panels now they are good too. For more than a couple days griddown the genrac would kick in when the power banks get to 30% DOD , as long as the natgas grid stays above 11” of pressure that genrac will run on a 8/16 cycle for months. I still have the 500 gal original propane tank from the property I kept it once atmos ran gas down the main road and offered at not a steep price to pay poly lines to the property. Th at 500 gallons will run my hot tub, water heater, and genrac for a month or more. Im not in the least worried about ercot and the Texas grid.

why would anyone in government want to re-create these awful conditions, and why would anybody want to enthusiastically vote for such people? The answer: they simply don’t think like the rest of us.

Government is not our friend.

Most North Americans and likely a plurality of Western Europeans have never experienced such conditions. Those who have or are close to those who have, might see the outcome, but have no path forward to affect it.

The ones inflicting it see what we fear as simple collateral damage. They use our fear to control the masses. Given their goals of domination, the risk is worth the outcome. And, of course, they do not see it as their own risk.

I’m fairly certain there hasn’t been a fair election anywhere in decades. Far fewer people actually voted for the Controllers or their minions. No different from social media bots.

If you are interested, I believe there is a cookbook online somewhere with recipes from the Yugoslav War. I have become interested in the recipes and food preservation techniques from the Caucasus region. They grow, forage, & preserve with battered old kettles and recycled glass jars over an outdoors wood fire. There is even an Azerbaijani recipe for preserving the inner seed heads of sweet peppers.....not something I ever thought of as edible. They also go through the process of cultivating some sort of grass just for the roots, which evidently are sweet. It’s presented as a desert.

Lots of videos, if reading is a problem.

A young woman who escaped North Korea tells of catching dragonflies and cooking them w/a butane lighter. Eating is vital and people seem to find a way. If not, they die.

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