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​Doomsday survivalists have over the years have earned a reputation for stockpiling medical supplies, guns and ammo—essentially gathering whatever resources and expertise necessary for self-sufficiency in the event of the apocalypse. That ethos has now drawn a group of survivalists that call themselves preppers to an unlikely superfood that's just beginning to take hold in North America: moringa. Moringa Oleifera is an unassuming shrub that grows in hot, dry tropical climates around the globe, and is prized for its high level of nutrients—especially protein. "The biggest reason is because it is a great food source," David Wentworth, who publishes expertprepper.com,...

Spring is always a busy time for garden centers. But during a nationwide lockdown, the season is a whole different animal. "We are 500% busier than we normally are this time of year," said Mario DiGrande, owner of Oakland's Thornhill Nursery. "I've already sold as much soil in six weeks that I do in an entire year. It's just crazy." Considered essential businesses by California's stay-at-home order, many garden centers have opted to stay open for the past few months - albeit with reduced staff and social-distancing measures such as curbside pickup or appointment-only shopping. [...] Herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, citrus...

New York (CNN Business)Tyson Foods (TSN) is warning that "millions of pounds of meat" will disappear from the supply chain as the coronavirus pandemic pushes food processing plants to close, leading to product shortages in grocery stores across the country. "The food supply chain is breaking," wrote board chairman John Tyson in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. US farmers don't have anywhere to sell their livestock, he said, adding that "millions of animals — chickens, pigs and cattle — will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities."...

Appearing recently on BBC Radio Live, Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, revealed she and her husband stored food in their basement years ago in anticipation of a pandemic. "We had prepared for years"@MelindaGates told @EmmaBarnett how her family had prepared for a pandemic and what they think about wearing masks. Listen live on @BBCSounds 📻 https://t.co/4SnxX44AQs pic.twitter.com/SE9MlxrW44 — BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) April 16, 2020 A transcript is as follows: EMMA BARRETT: In terms of your own — again, just to talk about you and Bill for being so familiar with this — had...

We have some troubling news developing deep inside America’s food supply chain network, suggesting rapid food inflation could be dead ahead. In the last several weeks, six major US meatpacking facilities have shuttered operations because of the coronavirus outbreak. That means 15% of America’s hog-slaughtering capacity has been shifted offline, and there is an additional risk that beef and poultry capacity could be reduced in the weeks ahead, reported Bloomberg. With every virus-related plant closure, farmers have been denied access to meatpacking facilities/slaughterhouses, resulting in herd overcapacity and suggests euthanizing hogs could be next. Dennis Smith, a senior account executive...

A China-owned food company has started closing down slaughterhouses and processing plants across the United States, putting America's meat supply in jeopardy.The U.S. meat supply is now under threat due to workers at facilities being diagnosed with COVID-19, leading to closures across the country.

My neighbors hunt. They can survive in the forest, hills, lakes, and rivers, here in Indiana. They understand the world of nature, its vicissitudes and savagery. Appreciating its transcendent beauty and cadences, they also accept its fierce cruelties. They do not worship nature. They seek reconciliation with it that they may endure and protect their loved ones. They admire the natural world, its towering majesty and microscopic complexity, but they do not hold it on a pedestal, pristine, and viewed from a distance. Theirs’ is a realistic appraisal of nature and its vagaries, and what they require to survive. Coming...

Melinda Gates said in an interview with BBC Radio this past week that she and her husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, had been storing food in their basements for years in anticipation of a pandemic or other disaster. "A number of years ago, we had talked about, you know, what if there wasn't clean water? What if there wasn't enough food? Where might we go? What might we do as a family?" she said. "So I think we should leave those preparations to ourselves. But absolutely we had prepared and had, you know, some food in the basement in case."

Americans are panic hoarding plant seeds as the coronavirus outbreak confines millions to their homes, crashes the economy, and disrupts food supply chains. This has resulted in people questioning their food security. A Google search of “buy seeds” has rocketed to an all-time high across the US in March to early April, the same time as supermarket shelves went bare. We’ve done a pretty good job of documenting the evolution of panic hoarding over the last several months. Americans started buying 3M N95 masks in mid-January, then non-perishables in February, followed by toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and guns. Now apparently,...

As the coronavirus continues to infect more and more people, food supply chains have started to become more strained in recent days. It was announced yesterday; the world’s biggest pork producer is closing a primary U.S plant indefinitely after a coronavirus outbreak amongst employees. Smithfield Foods Inc. will halt its pork-processing facility in South Dakota, which accounts for 4% to 5% of U.S pork production. The company also warned that closures across the country are taking American meat supplies “perilously close to the edge” of shortfalls. This is just one of the latest examples of the coronavirus beginning to disrupt...

On a remote property near Terlingua, a prepper community is thriving.Ten years ago, my wife and I started a disaster preparation service, also called a mutual assistance group, out on our land in West Texas. Word got out about us on Yahoo chat groups and Texas preparedness groups. I got on there and started talking. Then, once we started getting interest, we vetted members: If you’re a loose cannon with a big gun and lots of money, I don’t want to have anything to do with you. If you have something to contribute, for the good of all, you’re welcome....

Most Americans were not aware food consumption in the U.S. was a 60/40 proposition. Approximately 60% of all food was consumed “outside the home” (or food away from home), and 40% of all food consumed was food “inside the home” (grocery shoppers). Food ‘outside the home’ included: restaurants, fast-food locales, schools, corporate cafeterias, university lunchrooms, manufacturing cafeterias, hotels, food trucks, park and amusement food sellers and many more. Many of those venues are not thought about when people evaluate the overall U.S. food delivery system; however, this network was approximately 60 percent of all food consumption on a daily basis....

Civilization truly is a fragile thing. The electrical grid is susceptible to sabotage, the internet is vulnerable to being shut down, and our transportation industry is highly sensitive to fuel availability and price. And we're never more than a few days away from anarchy when it comes to the food supply. Rep. Thomas Massie is warning that the supply chain has been so disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic that we'll be seeing food shortages sometime in the next few weeks. Washington Examiner: Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie warned that the United States could face food shortages due to the “brittle” supply...

Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, we have seen various versions of face masks people use to protect themselves against the virus, be it store-bought or homemade. But just how effective are these masks? To find out, a Japanese chemistry professor compared three different types of face masks in a science experiment: a surgical mask, a homemade paper towel mask and a homemade cloth mask. Dr Tomoaki Okuda, an associate professor of applied chemistry at Keio University, measured how well the three masks could block airborne particles using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS). To put it simply, the hose...

I have been working on a knowledge base of topics related to prepping and SHTF situations. It is geared towards making people more self sufficient with topics ranging from unarmed self defense to small space gardening to how to sew your own clothes. I'm one of those types of people who believe that we are going to go out with a whimper, not a bang, so there is a lot of content on how to do your own repairs, build your own stuff and live a more frugal lifestyle. In order to get access you need to send me a...

RINGTOWN, Pa. - When Dan Wowak went to live alone in the wilds of Patagonia in 2016 for a chance to win a half-million dollars on reality television, he was allowed to bring 10 items. Toilet paper wasn't one of them. Wowak, a Mahanoy City native, did bring an ax and saw, a sleeping bag and a ferro rod, which you can strike to make sparks in just about any condition. He also chose fishing line and hooks, which proved invaluable. Over 51 days, he ate nothing but fish he caught in a lake: nine of them. "I lost 54...

Posted on March 25, 2020March 26, 2020 Saving for a Rainy Day (like today) as Modeled in Scripture In the young adult Bible study at my parish (conducted on Zoom during the current crisis) we have been reading through the Book of Genesis. Most recently, we’ve been studying the story of Joseph the Patriarch. Genesis 41 features the memorable story of how Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of the seven cows and the seven sheaves of grain. God’s word always seems to be right on time: this story gave us an opportunity to discuss the anxiety brought about by the...

This is our ongoing prepper thread, re-invented to be more specific to prepping for, and of course during, pandemics. Where gave you found your preps have withstood this test? What would you like to have done differently? What are your current prepping plans?

Deborah D. Moore knows a thing or two about prepping her pantry for an extended period of time, having lived most of her life as a “prepper” before there was even a word to describe “prepping.” “When I was a newlywed, just 19 years old, we lived in Detroit,” explained Moore, the author of “A Prepper’s Cookbook,” in an interview with Fox News. “I heard there was a snow storm coming and we were to stay off the roads … I checked my cupboards and we had a half loaf of bread and two cans of soup.” As Moore told...

GUARDIA Civil are cracking down on movements across the country with a particular focus on roads which lead to the coasts. It means if you are caught travelling with families and suitcases to your second residence, you will be ordered to return to your home with a fine of between €601 and €30,000. The state security forces began the ‘high impact operation’ today in a bid to stop people planning to break the coronavirus lockdown restrictions. One of the biggest focuses has been on stopping people heading to the Costa del Sol after Andalucia surpassed 1,000 cases today. Guardia Civil...