(pt.1) Family Food Security

Due to Y2K-related disruptions in the retail, shipping and processing 
industries, there may be problems with food processing and distribution 
in January 2000. There's no lack of raw food products in the country, 
but the processing, transportation, and marketing of groceries is 
vulnerable to Y2k disruptions. Each bite of your dinner travels an 
average of 1500 miles to get to your table. Most grocery stores stock 
less than a week's worth of food; without daily deliveries, their 
shelves will empty fast. The entire food processing system has only 60 
days of product in it. There is not an expected shortage of food; but 
the ability to process and deliver it to consumers may be problematic if 
there are Y2K disruptions. 

There is little or no independent, verifiable, visible assurance about 
Y2k compliance in the food processing and distributing industries. The 
United States Senate met with "significant resistance...from both 
industry trade organizations/associations as well as major corporations 
within the retail and manufacturing sides of the food industry" as it 
tried to gather evidence regarding Y2K issues in the food distribution 
system. Investigating the Impact of the Year 2000 Problem, U.S. Senate 
Report, February 1999, page 130. 

There's a lot of loose talk in the media disparaging the household 
management practice of keeping 2 or 3 months' supply of food on hand. 
When I hear this, I know that the commentator has never been poor and 
has probably led a relatively sheltered and comfortable life. Having 
such a life is not a bad thing of course, but it should be tempered with 
humility. Typically, the only flexible item in a poor family's budget is 
the grocery money, and if there is an emergency, that is where they go 
for money for the doctor, car repairs, or whatever. If the family has 
extra food, they can do this and still put dinner on the table. If they 
have no extra food, they are out of luck and out of food. The less 
economic security a family has, the more important it is that they keep 
savings in food. 

There's other reasons to stock a full pantry. Buying large containers 
usually results in a lower price per unit. Every time you go to the 
store for just 1 thing, you often end up with "just 10 things", so one 
secret of saving money is staying out of grocery stores as much as 
possible. It is easier to do this if you have a well-stocked pantry.You 
also save quite time as you don't have to go to the grocery store so 
often, you have what you need at home, ready to go. A well stocked 
pantry is a good idea what-ever happens in January 2000. 

Do the people disparaging this household management practice as hoarding 
think about these issues? Not likely, that's why they're preaching 
against frugality, prudence and food security. Grocers and food 
processing corporations don't like such thrifty habits. They make extra 
money when we go to the store 7 days a week, without planning menus or 
making a list, and buying whatever "looks good." 

Is there a connection between the full court press from politicians and 
news media against this traditional and frugal practice -- and food 
industry advertising revenues and political contributions? I don't know 
the answer to this, but would it surprise any of us if it turns out to 
be true? Unfortunately, this isn't a question that will be asked by 
today's mass media. 

Mergers over the past decade have brought most of the wholesale food 
processing and distribution systems under the control of a half dozen 
major transnational corporations. Today our food distribution resembles 
an hour glass -- a lot of producers, a diverse retail system, 
constricted in the middle by a handful of big players. Due to 
competitive demands to minimize expenses, production capabilities have 
been streamlined. There are fewer processing facilities. A lot of small 
operators have gone out of business or merged with one of the big 
players. Since there are fewer food factories, the processed food must 
travel longer distances to reach the customers, and at each stage of 
those transportation systems there are Y2K vulnerabilities. 

This year prices of pork to producers plunged to all-time lows because 
the over-supply of pigs coming to market could not be handled by the 
processing industry. Across the wheat belt, grain may be piled on the 
ground because of lack of storage facilities, but the corporations who 
control the processing of the grain may not be able to process enough to 
meet increased demand. Have corporate consolidations and mergers in the 
food processing industry placed our food supply at risk for the sake of 
extra profits for stockholders? From the way food industry executives 
are publicly discouraging stocking up for Y2k, it would appear this is 
so. But we're not supposed to notice that the Emperor is naked. 

This has implications also for food safety, as well as Y2K. With fewer, 
but larger, food processing plants, and contamination in one plant can 
cause an international recall of tainted foods. Such recalls are rapidly 
increasing. In a similar way, Y2K disruptions in even one plant can 
cause trans-continental problems. 

Since the existing players seem to have worked their way into a box, 
increased demand for processed food due to Y2K concerns may mean 
opportunities for direct marketing relationships between farmers and 
consumers. Corporate concerns about the possibility of competition may 
be the real reason behind industry statements discouraging people from 
buying extra food. 

Historically and in the present context, food storage is a prudent 
response to valid concerns about the brittleness and lack of resiliency 
of the food production and distribution systems. Putting food by for 
storage when it is plentiful is not hoarding, it is a traditional 
household management practice. When it comes to food, we've always 
hedged our bets and limited our risks in the face of uncertainty, 
especially when hard times were on the horizon. Increasing your food 
purchases sends important market signals to the food processing industry 
to move more products into the stores. Buying stimulates the food 
production and distribution supply line and create opportunities for 
small businesses (such as farmers and local processors) to compete on a 
more equitable basis with the big players.. As basic products move 
through the system from farmers to processors to retailers to consumers, 
everybody benefits by the increased economic activity. If you hear 
people in the food industry discouraging people from buying food, their 
motives are more mixed than they would like for us to believe. 

Buying directly from farmers and local processors and urban agriculture 
greatly contribute to community food security. Throughout all of China's 
tumultuous history this century, one social policy has remained constant 
under both Nationalist and Communist governments: cities should get 
their food from the vicinity of the city. Chinese governments discourage 
shipping foods long distances (although some of it happens, of course). 
Shanghai, for example, is self-sufficient in vegetables, and gets most 
the rest of its food from within a 100 kilometer radius circle around 
the city. Calcutta produces 1/3 of the fish and vegetables consumed 
within the city. Around the world, many of the urban poor report that 
they would starve if it wasn't for food that they were able to grow 
within the city. 

People who are very hungry may refuse to eat food that is unfamiliar to 
them. Calories count for nothing if we don't recognize them as food. So 
if you can avoid it, don't try a new diet in the midst of a stressful 
emergency. The best advice is to store what you eat and eat what you 
store. 

One: Determine how much of what foods your family eats in a month. Do 
this by totaling up your grocery lists, or saving your receipts, or 
examining your menus. 

Two: Decide how well those products will store over a period of months. 
If you are using a lot of foods that need refrigeration, think about 
substituting alternatives that don't require refrigeration such as 
canned or dried, pickled or salted. 

Three: Make your list, check it twice, buy and store the food. It's not 
rocket science, it's home economics. You are unlikely to need a special 
food consultant. 

Store a variety of foods. You need dried whole foods like beans and 
grains and you need canned goods like tuna and chili and soups. If you 
expect that fuel for cooking will be a big issue, store more canned 
goods (which require less cooking), and less dried beans and rice (which 
require more cooking), or build a solar oven. Cream soups are 
particularly useful; they make excellent instant sauces that can be 
combined with pasta and rice and are a key ingredient in many 
casseroles. 

Store some comfort and specialty foods. Hard candies, chocolate, coffee, 
herbal teas, favorite snacks and meals, all these are important not only 
for nutrition, but also for morale. 

Stock your spice rack liberally, and don't forget condiments, baking 
powder and soda, cooking oil or shortening, bouillon, and yeast. Beans, 
rice, flour, and etc. can be a bland diet without spices to liven things 
up a bit. 
(pt.2) Family Food Security

The traditional practice of groups such as the Mormons, who practice 
food storage as a religious and cultural discipline, is to store basic 
foods such as whole grains, beans, and dried milk. Such food products 
are widely available, and can be easily stored for long periods of time. 
For most people, however, storing these products will require dietary 
changes. They will need to increase the amount of grains, beans, and 
vegetables in their diets, and decrease the amounts of meat. If you 
decide to change your diet, start introducing whole foods cooking 
gradually to allow your family time to learn to enjoy the new foods. 

Cooking from whole foods is what your grandmother used to do, and who 
can forget the tremendous holiday meals at Grandma's? With practice, 
whole foods cooking can be as convenient as anything frozen in a 
cardboard box, especially since you don't have to make a special trip to 
the store to get it. 

If the store isn't busy, for me to get in my car, go to the store, make 
my selection, stand in line, buy the frozen dinner, go back home -- 
figure that time at your hourly wage, and see how expensive that frozen 
dinner really is. If you've stocked your pantry properly, you can get by 
with as few as two trips to the store each month, and how much time 
would that save you, remembering how often these days that "time is 
money"? Not to mention, that time in the store is not quality time 
you're spending with your family. Maybe you are the one American family 
without a time crunch, and if so, congratulations, but the rest of us 
could use some extra hours every month, and stocking your pantry with a 
couple of months of basic food supplies is one way to do that. 

As an added bonus, you save money. When something is on sale, you can 
buy a lot of it without busting your grocery budget. Going to the 
grocery store is often like roulette, meat may be cheap, but canned 
goods have gone sky high. There's a sale on sugar, but look at the price 
of milk. You don't have to be hostage to the pricing strategy of your 
local grocer. Even if you are poor, you can insulate yourself from the 
vagaries of that marketplace by always being in a position to serve 
dinner, even if you don't go to the store for a couple of weeks. 

If canned goods are high and meat is low, you can buy meat, and get your 
canned goods next week when they have gone down in price but meat has 
gone up. You already have the meat, so you don't have to buy it when it 
is expensive. Effectively, this is a decision to keep some of your 
family's savings in the form of durable goods -- which is to say, 
groceries in the cupboard -- and this investment actually earns you 
interest and dividends in the form of better deals on the groceries you 
buy. You are going to spend money anyway, might as well get maximum 
value for your money -- in terms of saving you time and money. For most 
people, spending less money on groceries and having more time with their 
families would add up to "a better quality of life, and more family se
curity". 

So you can see why the corporate grocery industry has a vested interest 
in discouraging this practical and frugal household management practice. 
Irrespective of Y2k, it is a good idea for the consumer, but grocers 
don't like it because they're making money with their volatile price 
swings and high profits. 

The basic whole foods diet is detailed in the USDA Food Pyramid chart, 
which shows the number of recommended daily servings of each of the 
major food groups. Switching to a whole foods diet certainly doesn't 
mean giving up your appreciation of fine foods. Including these items in 
your diet has very real and health and quality of life benefits. So even 
if hard times come, you can enjoy arroz con pollo, pizza, chocolate 
cake, polenta, red beans and rice, fresh tortillas and homemade salsa, 
or any of the thousands of other tasty and nutritious meals that can be 
made from stored grains, beans, and vegetables. If there are no hard 
times, you can still enjoy the good nutritious food, and save time. 

The advice often mentioned by the United States government is 2 or 3 
days worth of food, but this recommendation is an unwise holdover from 
contingency plans for localized disasters, and also a reflection on how 
far we have departed from traditional frugality. Generally, the Red 
Cross and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) figure that in most 
disasters, within 3 days they will be set up throughout the affected 
area, ready, willing, and able to distribute food or other supplies as 
needed. Thus, their concept is something to tide you over until the 
cavalry arrives. 

However, Y2K is not a normal emergency. It happens everywhere at once -- 
but the Red Cross and FEMA can't be "everywhere at once". Neither can 
anybody else. 

In the context of disaster preparations -- and perhaps as a start to a 
better and more frugal household management practice -- buy more food 
than you think you will need, and for a longer period than two weeks. 
Food is a consumable item, everything you buy is something that you can 
eat in good times or bad times. If Y2K turns out to be a false alarm 
rather than a crisis, you've saved yourself time and money in the year 
2000, because you have already bought most of the groceries you'll need 
for the first few months of the year. You can use that time and money 
for something else, like taking the family on a vacation. Alternatively, 
you can donate the excess groceries to a food pantry that helps the 
poor, and write it off as a tax deduction. Any way you look at it, money 
that you spend on food now is money in the bank. 

Start with your local sources. This may include various grocery stores, 
large discount/membership stores, farmers markets, feed stores, there 
are many possible options. 

An excellent idea is to develop a direct buying relationship with one or 
more farmers. This will be especially useful if you preserve some of 
your food yourself (drying, smoking, or canning), or if the farmer or 
cooperative does some processing. These skills help you ensure a high 
quality product. Make such contacts at farmers markets, or through your 
county extension agent or food circle. If international and national 
food distribution systems break down, having a relationship with a 
farmer in your area could be very important. Small farmers and 
cooperatives are good sources for items such as salt cured country hams 
that keep without refrigeration. 

Support the opening of a "community canning kitchen" in your area, by a 
cooperative of producers, or by a non-profit group such as a church or 
civic club. This would provide opportunities both to help families 
preserve their own produce, and also to give small market gardeners or 
microenterprises opportunities to process foods in a health department 
approved process. 

Since cooking and eating is crucial to your survival, don't be dependent 
upon only one form of energy, such as gas or electricity, for food 
preparation. Have one or more of these alternatives on hand for 
emergencies, or use some of them (as appropriate) for saving money on 
energy costs right now. 
(pt.3) Family Food Security


For emergency camp stove cooking inside a house, the preferred choice is 
the propane camp stove -- with proper ventilation. Place it right in 
front of a window open at least one inch. Coleman fuel stoves are not 
recommended for indoor use, although they would be fine outside, on a 
porch, in a garage, or other well-ventilated place. Most propane camp 
stoves run on one pound disposable cylinders; if you are cooking three 
meals a day, you can probably get 3 or 4 days cooking out of each 
cylinder, depending on what's on the menu. While it's possible to bake 
biscuits on top of a camp stove (you usually will have to flip them to 
get them to brown on top), it is better to buy a camp oven that sits on 
top of the propane burners. These are sold in camping supply stores or 
departments. 

Buy an attachment for the propane camp stove that will allow you to cook 
on it while using a bulk propane tank (such as a 20 lb, 5 gallon tank) 
for fuel. These stoves are cheap enough that you could buy three or four 
and thus be able to do a lot of cooking, while also having one or two 
that you could loan to a neighbor in distress. 

Remember that a blue flame is the cleanest burning flame, so adjust the 
flame so it burns blue. 

(1) Place a heat diffuser on top of the burner(s). This could be a large 
cast iron skillet or grill, or a cookie sheet. 

(2) Put something on top of this to raise the cooking pan up off the 
heat diffuser and allow air to circulate underneath the pan. This could 
be a low cake pan, or a couple of empty tuna cans. 

(3) Put the food to be baked in a covered pan on top of the "risers". 

(4) Make a tent from several layers of aluminum foil over the cake pan, 
so that air can circulate underneath it, and put a small vent hole in 
the top of the aluminum foil cover. Keep an eye on the food as it is 
baking. 

RV's, campers, and mobile homes are often equipped with kitchen stoves 
that burn propane. A natural gas stove can be converted to propane by 
adjusting the natural gas jet orifices to burn propane (in some cases 
they will need to be replaced). Propane companies will often do this 
conversion for free. I found a company here in Oklahoma City that 
charges $40 for the conversion. Other sources for propane stoves are RV 
and mobile home distributorships and suppliers. Never try to run a 
natural gas appliance with propane gas without such a conversion; the 
natural gas jets are much larger than the propane jets. 

A chafing dish consists of: (1) a stand that supports a pot, (2) a heat 
source, which is usually cannister of a jelled cooking fuel that is sold 
specifically for chafing dishes; typically, this sits on a little 
platform in the middle of the stand, (3) a pan for water, (4) a cooking 
or warming pan that can sit either directly over the flame or over the 
pan of water. A fondue pot is a type of chafing dish with the heat 
applied directly to the pot. 

For chafing dish fuel, there are multiple options. Sam's Club sells 
"Safe-Heat" brand canned fuel for chafing dishes, a dozen to the case, 
each can burns six hours, 72 hours of cooking for about twelve dollars. 
Candles and denatured alcohol burners are other alternatives, although 
alcohol burns very fast, and candles cook slowly. Chafing dishes come in 
many sizes. The small stand that supports the chafing dish can be used 
with a skillet or omelet pan, or a pot for soup or stew. You can often 
find small chafing dish stands that are made for use with a candle at 
thrift stores; they will support a small pot. These can be used for 
warming canned foods (chili, pasta and sauce, ravioli, soup, etc.) It 
takes a half hour to an hour to heat a can of food using a small candle, 
depending on how hot you want it. Oatmeal could also be made this way, 
especially the instant oatmeals (or instant grits, depending on what 
part of the country you hail from). 

Woks work well with the chafing dish fuel canisters such as Safe-Heat. 

You can make a wide variety of recipes in a chafing dish: griddle cakes, 
eggs benedict, salmon cakes, creamed dried beef, crab meat bisque, 
chicken a la king, stew, soup, macaroni and cheese, Swedish meatballs, 
etc. Very useful in the event of either setting up for a party buffet or 
getting through utility problems in January 2000. Even if the 
electricity and natural gas are disrupted, you can still enjoy a gourmet 
meal, prepared at the table, served by candle light. 

Solar cookers can be made with cardboard boxes, aluminum foil, duct 
tape, and glass. Such ovens can easily get to 350 degrees, hot enough to 
bake meats and casseroles. You can easily make one. There are several 
books on the subject, one that comes well recommended is Cooking with 
the Sun, by Beth and Dan Halacy, with complete plans for different 
designs. 

A solar cooker works by (1) absorbing solar heat in a dark pot through a 
clear transparent cover such as glass or an oven baking bag, (2) 
insulating the pot so that the heat does not radiate out but rather 
cooks the food, and (3) they usually have some way to reflect additional 
sunlite onto the pot via a panel of reflective material. Any recipe 
suitable for a crockpot will generally work in a solar cooker. 

One of the easiest solar cookers to make is the "two box model". Glue 
aluminum foil to the inside of two boxes, one a bit larger than the 
other. The smaller box is placed inside the larger. It's not necessary 
to use insulation between the two boxes, as long as there is at least a 
half inch air space between the two. 

The smaller box should be just larger than the pot that will be used in 
the cooker. Slit it at the four corners (down to the height of the pot) 
so that its sides will fold out, and duck tape them to the sides of the 
larger box. Make a tight fitting lid for the outer box, and cut a large 
hole in the center of the lid so that sunlight covers the smaller box. 
Glue an oven baking bag to the inside of that lid, completely covering 
the sun opening. A second piece of cardboard (the size of the lid) is 
covered with aluminum foil and attached to the side of the box so it 
reflects sun down onto the box. 

To cook food, place a covered pot inside the smaller box and put the lid 
on the larger box; face the box toward the sun. Position the reflector 
to direct more sunlight down onto the box. It will get 300 to 350 
degrees inside. Start your dinner in the morning; eat it at night. Use 
an oven thermometer to monitor the temperature. 

You can make an improvised non-electric crock pot with an ordinary box, 
or a five or six gallon plastic bucket. Line the inside with aluminum 
foil, and put several inches of insulating material on the bottom. Bring 
the food you are cooking (generally, crockpot recipes) to a boil, cover 
the pot and put it in the container. Pack the spaces between the pot and 
the sides of the box or bucket with insulating material (whatever is 
handy, crushed newspapers, cloth, straw, sawdust, etc.) Pack the top of 
the box or bucket with insulating material, and put the lid on. Let this 
sit for several hours or overnight (depending on the crock pot cooking 
time). 

A wood stove not only can keep your family warm, you can cook on top of 
it, using a pot or a frying pan. With some bricks, you can make a stand 
for a pot in an open fireplace, and Dutch ovens can be cooked in fires 
built outside in the yard or in the fireplace. Dutch oven cooking is an 
art in and of itself, and there are many good sources for recipes and 
instructions. A good place to start is with materials prepared for use 
in Scouting, or the cookbook and camping sections of your local library. 
Charcoal briquets can be used with your cast iron skillets, Dutch oven, 
and other pots and pans, but such cooking must be done outside. 

The outdoor barbecue grill is an obvious outdoor stove, but if you don't 
have one, it can be built. Many families are building outdoor bread 
ovens in the traditional European style. This is a backyard project 
accessible by most people, and plans can be found in most major 
libraries. 

Coffee can cooking. Layer food in a coffee can (such as onions, 
potatoes, carrots, meat, repeated ). Cover with heavy duty aluminum 
foil, place on medium-hot coals, put some coals on top of the foil, cook 
for about a half hour or 45 minutes. 

Pie-pan oven. Grease a metal pie pan and put biscuits or bread into it. 
Grease a second metal pie pan and place it over the first. Use 4 metal 
clamps (the kind you use with paper) to hold them together. Put some 
coals on top of the pan. If doing this on a camp stove, instead of a 
campfire, use the procedure described above in "baking on a camp stove". 

Muffin pan oven. Take a metal muffin pan, and either grease the cups or 
line them with cupcake liners. Put different foods into the cups -- 
meats, vegetables, biscuits of muffin batter. Oil the second pan, fit it 
over the first and clamp them together using four big clamps (the kind 
you use for paper). Cook for 25 to 35 minutes. This can be used over a 
campfire; put some coals on top of the muffin pan as well as underneath. 
If you are doing this over a camp stove, use the procedure described 
above in "baking on a camp stove". 
(pt.4) Family Food Security-the end

Grain mill. Many people are learning the advantages of grinding their 
own flour or cracking grains to make their own cereals. In the event of 
prolonged problems due to Y2K, it is possible that there will be 
emergency distributions of whole grains, since processing may be 
disrupted by the effects of the Y2K bug. In such a situation, the 
ability to grind those whole grains at home will be very important. 
While it is possible to improvise a grinder using three small diameter 
metal water pipes bound tightly together, this is strictly a third world 
human labor technology (lift, pound, grind, lift, pound, grind). 
Electric mills are available that also have hand cranks. Metal-burr 
mills can be bought cheaply, and are often found at flea markets and 
thrift shops. 

Hand mixers and choppers, kitchen knives, non-electric can openers.
 Power failure will mean that electric food processors will not be 
available (unless you have alternative power). Hand mixers, potato 
mashers, and hand crank choppers, which are inexpensive right now, will 
be very useful -- especially if you are feeding more people than usual. 
Make sure you have a quality set of kitchen knives, as well as the 
appropriate sharpening equipment. It's also possible to find DC food 
processors, mixers, and blenders that will work on battery power. 

Don't forget non-electric can openers. Get extras. 

Spice mill, coffee grinder, meat and sausage grinder, pasta maker. These 
items can add a lot of quality to your life right now, as well as being 
about as useful as it gets in the event of problems in January 2000. 

Food preservation tools. Dehydrators, and boiling water and pressure 
canners have many uses here and now as well as in any later emergency. 
Home processing is the best way to ensure taste, nutrition, and quality 
for your family. It opens a world of traditional activity, including the 
making of your own jams, jellies, salsas, pickles, saurkrauts, and other 
specialty and ethnic food items. (These make wonderful gifts during 
holiday seasons.) Home processing is much easier than most people think, 
as long as you are able to follow the instructions. Mason jars and lids 
are useful, and it's good to have a supply of them on hand in the event 
of emergencies. 

Dutch oven (cast iron), metal pie and muffin pans, extra oven racks, 
large pots, aluminum foil, oven baking bags, cake pans, cooling racks, 
trivits. Dutch ovens are practical cooking tools. Metal pie and muffin 
pans can be used to improvise camp-stove top or campfire ovens. Large 
pots are useful if you find yourself feeding extra guests or helping to 
set up a soup kitchen. Extra oven racks can be used over camp fires or 
charcoal briquets. Aluminum foil has many uses in an emergency kitchen, 
many foods can be cooked in it. Oven baking bags are useful for making 
solar ovens. Trivits sit underneath a pot on a cast iron stove and raise 
it up a bit, preventing the scorching of the food inside. 

Your concerns are to keep the food clean and free of infestations by 
rodents or bugs, as well as maintaining its nutritional quality. You 
must maintain high standards of hygiene at each stage of this process. 

The basic storage drill is quite easy. 

Start with good quality products. 

For products like rice, beans, flour, dried milk, pasta and etc., open 
the original package and fill a large ziplock bag (gallon size), seal 
it, and then place that bag inside another ziplock bag. Many people put 
a bay leaf inside each bag of beans, grains, or flour. Pack these 
ziplock baggies in food grade plastic buckets with airtight lids. This 
helps keep the products free from contamination, and if you do have a 
"bug outbreak" inside the containers, the ziplock bags help minimize the 
contamination. 

The warmer and more humid the climate, the more trouble you will have 
with weevils and bugs hatching inside the containers. If you generally 
have a problem with storing flour on your shelf, freeze the bags for 2 
days before putting them in the buckets. 

Food grade plastic buckets may be purchased new from local sources and 
catalogs. Many people get them for free, or at reduced cost, from 
bakeries, donut shops, restaurants, or other users of institutional size 
containers of food products. Plastic paint buckets and trash cans are 
not food grade plastic and should not be used for this kind of storage. 

Canned goods are best bought by the case, and stored in their original 
cans and cases. Canned goods have expiration dates, and if the date is 
stamped in a code, you can ask at your local grocery store or county 
extension office for help in deciphering it. Many companies have a toll 
free number on the can for consumer information; such departments can 
also give you this information. Dried and canned foods bought in 1999 
will still be safe and nutritious to eat well into the year 2000. If a 
can is bulging, don't use its contents. 

Store all food away from light and at a constant temperature, avoiding 
extremes of hot or cold. Garages or attics are not good places to store 
food, unless you live in a mild climate. Dry basements are better; 
always put food storage containers on shelves or on bricks or boards so 
that they aren't stacked on bare concrete. Put a label or sticker on the 
buckets that lists the contents and the date they were purchased. 

At all stages of the food purchase, storage, preparation and consumption 
process, observe good food safety procedures. Wash your hands with soap 
and warm water before handling food products. Make sure that any areas 
to be used for food packing or preparation are cleaned thoroughly with 
soap and water and then rinsed so that no soap residue remains. Use a 
sanitizing solution on all preparation or packing surfaces. A sanitizing 
solution is 1 tablespoon of chlorine bleach in a gallon of water in a 
gallon of water for hard surfaces, 3 tablespoons of bleach in a gallon 
of water for porous surfaces such as wood, the chapter on Health and 
Wellness has complete instructions for this. 

Once food has been prepared, hot foods must be kept hot (above 140 
degrees Fahrenheit) and cold foods must be kept cold (below 45 degrees 
Fahrenheit). Be careful about storing prepared foods in the absence of 
refrigeration. If it is winter, use an enclosed porch or unheated room 
as a cold room. Put a thermometer in the area and check it several times 
a day to make sure it is staying below 45 degrees. Protecting the cold 
box from sunlight will help maintain cold temperatures. If it is very 
cold -- freezing cold -- food in your freezer can be kept frozen in such 
a box in a cold room or outside. During the Montreal ice storm of 1998, 
many people had food spoil in their freezer because they didn't think 
about keeping their food frozen in a box on their porch. 

If the power goes off, you can prolong the life of food in your 
refrigerator or freezer by opening them as little as possible and by 
providing additional insulation. Wrap the freezer in blankets or 
newspapers, and/or stack bags of clothes against the walls or on the 
tops. The more insulation the unit has, the longer the items inside will 
be safe to eat. Shield it from any direct sunlight, and don't heat that 
room. You could buy some rigid board insulation, and use duct tape to 
wrap the refrigerator (or an improvised cold box). 

Eat the items in the refrigerator first, that same day, even if it makes 
for an odd collection of salads, sandwiches, and leftovers. Invite the 
neighbors for a Y2K buffet and barbecue (morale and neighborhood 
solidarity are always issues in emergencies, so don't discount this as a 
rhetorical flourish). 

Creamed foods, soft cheeses (cream cheese, cheese spreads, cottage 
cheese)gravy, mayonnaise, salad dressings, pork, and poultry spoil 
quickly. Dispose of them if they have been in the refrigerator without 
power for 12 hours or more. Spoiled foods may not have an offensive 
odor, so while the presence of a bad odor is a sure indicator of 
spoilage, its absence may not be an assurance of safety. Quickest 
spoiling of all are seafood, chopped meat, and poultry sandwich 
fillings, which are not safe after 4 hours without refrigeration. 

Hard cheeses will often be fine at room temperature. If a surface mold 
develops, cut it off and use the rest. So does milk, but sour milk can 
be used in baking (corn bread, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, sour dough 
starter). Butter will keep for several days, and clarified butter will 
keep for months without refrigeration. Clarified butter has the 
additional virtue of being low in cholesterol while still imparting that 
unique natural butter flavor, it doesn't smoke when used in cooking, and 
it is found in the finest gourmet kitchens. 

If you keep the door closed, most freezer food will stay below 40 
degrees for up to 3 days, even in the summer. A full freezer stays 
colder longer than one that is partially full. If you are expecting a 
power outage, turn the freezer to its coldest setting several days in 
advance of the expected emergency (add this to your last week of 
December 1999 checklist). Fill any empty spaces in the refrigerator with 
bottles of water (leave 2 inches of empty space in the bottle to allow 
for expansion of the ice). The larger the freezer, the longer foods will 
stay frozen: 

Freezer size time until food spoilage 

4 cubic feet 3 days 

12 - 36 cubic feet 5 days, and possibly as long as 7 or 8 days 

If you plan to intermittently generate power to keep your freezer or 
refrigerator cold, you will need a good thermometer. Before an 
emergency, experiment with the appliance to determine how much power is 
needed each day to keep the food in the freezer frozen. 

A second alternative is to preserve freezer foods by pressure canning 
(if you have the equipment, jars, and ability to follow directions 
exactly). Frozen prepared meals should be eaten right away, as there 
isn't a practical way to preserve them in the absence of electricity, 
ice, or very cold temperatures outside. Meats can also be made into 
jerky, or cooked and dehydrated. 

Since Y2K may bring power outages, if you are not equipped to generate 
power and you don't expect outside temperatures to remain below 45 
degrees, slowly emptying your freezer and refrigerator in December 1999 
is a good idea. If nothing happens, you can always restock; if the power 
does go off for an extended period of time, you won't lose the 
investment you've made in frozen food. Fortunately, December is the 
holiday season, so you shouldn't lack for opportunities to prepare and 
serve food. 

These days many people take short cuts regarding food safety and manage 
to not kill themselves or others, but these risks are assumed in the 
context of a fully functioning medical system ready to rescue in case 
something does go wrong. In an emergency, that medical backup may not be 
available, so it becomes imprudent and risky to cut corners with food 
safety. Do it by the book, follow the instructions, use a disinfecting 
solution liberally in food preparation areas, don't eat questionable 
foods or drink unboiled/unpurified water. When in doubt, err on the side 
of caution. If the pharmacy is closed, you do not want to deal with 
dysentery or intestinal parasites. Even if food is scarce, don't eat 
questionable foods. If you are undernourished in general, the last thing 
you want is a food-related illness or parasite. 

Urban areas grow an amazing variety of food, so foraging may be a viable 
alternative, depending on your knowledge of edible wild plants. This 
requires a good plant identification guide, or expert personal knowledge 
about the subject. Those dandelions in your yard aren't weeds, they 
could be lunch, or even wine! So could the nasturtiums and bachelor 
buttons and carnations in your flower garden. (You would pay a lot of 
money in a fine restaurant for a salad garnished with these flowers.) 

The most common form of foraging is fishing. An essential part of your 
preparedness plans should be fishing equipment for use in ponds, rivers, 
streams, lakes or the ocean. An added advantage of fishing is that time 
spent fishing is not deducted from your allotted life span. If fishing 
in an urban area, think about what pollutants may be present; check with 
local health authorities about eating fish taken from the urban rivers 
or lakes in your area. 

There are many perennial plants, trees, and shrubs that have attractive 
displays of foliage in addition to their food production capabilities. A 
local home and garden center, or the county extension office, can offer 
advice about appropriate selection and cultivation of such plants in 
your area. Many areas have community gardening associations that can 
provide everything from free expert advice to seeds and tools. Gardening 
offers advantages that include exercise and a closeness with nature that 
is often missing from our urban lives. The sweetest asparagus comes from 
the perennial patch in your own back yard. 

Persons who live in apartments can garden in containers or pots, on 
porches, and on roof-tops. Plastic five or six gallon buckets make 
excellent containers for growing food. Hydroponics gardening sounds 
complicated, but it really isn't, and information is readily available. 
It's even possible to raise fish in a barrel or a tank -- it's possible 
to raise as much as five tons of trout in a year in tanks in a space the 
size of the average basement (20 X 30). An indoor fish farm like this 
works well with hydroponics; as the water is changed in the fish tanks, 
it is circulated into hydroponics to feed and water the plants. 

The community gardening movement, which is well established in all parts 
of the country, can provide expert assistance in starting and 
maintaining a garden, empowering people to join together to create 
community gardens. One city provided land in street medians for such 
gardens; vacant lots, church properties, and other open spaces are also 
used. During the siege of Sarajevo, seeds were smuggled into the city 
and gardens were planted everywhere. 

Be sure to store seeds, and get extras. 

About 10% of the world's food is already grown in cities. The experience 
of cities in crisis suggests that the amount of food actually produced 
in a given city can be expanded very rapidly, the limiting factor 
usually being seeds. People planted gardens in Sarajevo, even as snipers 
fired and shells landed. 

In Indonesia, which has experienced major disruptions over the past 
year, people in cities have turned athletic fields and golf courses into 
gardens. Although cities may have high density populations, there is 
also a lot of open space that can be turned into gardens (medians in 
streets, parks, lawns of homes and public buildings, roadsides, golf 
courses, vacant lots, etc.) Flat roofed buildings can support bucket or 
other container gardens, and containers can also be placed on porches, 
sidewalks, streets, hillsides, or other areas where regular gardening is 
not practical. Old tires (which are in plentiful supply in most cities) 
can be turned into containers for growing crops. 

Salt cured and smoked country hams will keep without refrigeration, even 
after slicing. If a bit of mold develops, simply cut it off. Such hams 
should always be cooked before eating. Some people find the taste a bit 
salty; recipe books suggest soaking the ham slices in water overnight to 
draw out the salt. 

Hard cheeses can be preserved by coating of with wax. Dip the cheese 
into a salt solution (salty enough that an egg floats) and place on a 
rack to dry overnight. On the second day, rub with salt and leave on the 
rack. Do this again a third day. By this time a rind should be 
developing. If it feels dry and smooth, continue to the waxing; if not, 
rub with salt and let dry another day. Apply 3 or 4 coats (either with a 
brush, or by dipping into melted wax), letting the wax dry between each 
coat. Wrap with cheese cloth, and continue the process of dipping and 
drying until several layers later the cheese is completely covered with 
a smooth wax exterior. It will continue to age inside, but remain good. 
If you do find mold on hard cheese, simply scrape or cut it off and use 
the rest of the cheese. Paraffin wax is the best for this. 

In situations of food scarcity, fats and oils are often the first foods 
to disappear, and we miss them a lot when they're gone. Olive oil stores 
virtually indefinitely without refrigeration (keep it cool and dark, 
don't refrigerate), and has the advantage of being a healthy choice. 
Hydrogenated shortening in a metal can stores for a very long time, but 
many people have health concerns about it (although in the author's 
opinion shortening is necessary for pie crust!). Note that usually only 
the larger sizes (five or six pounds) are sold in metal cans, most of 
the smaller 1 and 3 pound cans are a waxed cardboard. 

Another alternative is clarified butter. It will keep indefinitely 
without refrigeration, and is easily made at home. Put butter in a pan 
(do about five pounds at a time), and melt it slowly over low heat. 
After the butter melts, allow it to boil slowly until the solids collect 
together in the bottom of the pan. The butter oil will be clear and 
golden. Sometimes a bit of scum floats up to the top; skim that off. 
Ladle off the clarified butter, leaving the solids in the bottom of the 
pan (you can pour the remaining bits of butter oil and solids through a 
cheese cloth to extract all the butter and leave all the solids behind). 

Pour into a clean mason jar (boil the jar and lids for 10 minutes, and 
leave covered with hot water until you are ready to fill with the hot 
butter oil. Cap tightly and store in a cool and dark place (if your 
pantry has a window, put the jars in paper bags). If you have lard, you 
can clarify it by this same method. For both lard and butter, clarifying 
greatly reduces the cholesterol content of the food without compromising 
taste. When substituting clarified butter for regular butter or 
margarine in a recipe, reduce the amount needed by about 20%. 

Generally, salt cured/smoked country ham, olive oil, clarified butter, 
and cheese are not considered second class foods. All are used in 
gourmet cooking and are important basic ingredients in many recipes.. 
