Canned goods are not only a great way to stock up on food in case of an emergency, but also a fantastic way to feed your family every day. Canned goods are fairly inexpensive, they keep for a long time, they’re frequently quick and easy to prepare, and they are readily available and easy to store.
Many preppers rely on canned goods to form a hefty chunk of their food supply for the same reasons that they’re convenient for every day use. If you’re looking to build up your food storage on a budget, I challenge you to pick up five extra cans of food each time you visit the supermarket. Within a few short months, you’ll have really started to build up a stash of canned food.
You can also order canned goods, oftentimes by the case at a discount, online. If you utilize sites with free shipping or take advantage of special shipping discounts (like free shipping for orders over so much or buying more under a flat rate shipping rate rather than making separate orders), you can absolutely make buying canned goods online worth your while. Sites like Amazon and Dollar Tree offer decent deals on canned foods.
Here are some valuable food items you can purchase in a can for $1 or less :
#1. Condensed soup 10.75 oz can, $0.99
Condensed soup is a compact way to carry a satisfying meal in a small package. Be sure you have enough fresh water stored, as well, or this item won’t do you much good. There are tons of different varieties of condensed soups; be sure that you store some of your family’s favorites. Try each type you plan to stock up on beforehand to make sure you’re not stuck with 100 cans of soup you hate.
#2. Canned Chicken (5 oz can, $1)
Canned chicken is super versatile. You can create a salad spread from it, set it up to be the star of casseroles, or even put it on your pizza. It’s got a dose of the fat and protein your body needs to stay up and running.
#3. Sweet potatoes Princella 15 oz can, $0.99
Sweetened and seasoned are my favorite, and they instantly bring to mind Thanksgiving feasts. They’re also a good source of fiber and vitamin A. They can be used to help sweeten up items if conventional sweeteners are no longer available.
#4. Vienna sausages (4.6 oz can, $0.99)
These are the perfect on-the-go fuel. You can eat them right out of the can, no heating or prep necessary. While they’re likely not the healthiest canned meat option, they’re palatable, portable, and extremely cheap.
#5. Canned pasta (15 oz can, found for between $0.75 and $1)
There are several different types of canned pasta available on your local supermarket’s shelves. Choose a few that appeal to you and your family and stock up, or use the many different types to add heat-and-eat variety to your pantry.
#6. Carrots (14.5 oz can, $0.99)
With lots of vitamin A, carrots are well known for their ability to help the eyes, but there’s more to them than that. They’re fibrous and sweet, making them satisfying. They’re also neutral enough in flavor that you can add them to many dishes to create bulk.
#7. Plain beans (black, kidney, etc.) (approximately 15 oz cans, most all varieties available for under $1)
They frequently get a bad rap for their gas-causing potential, but they’re great survival food. They are high in fiber and therefore very filling, and they’ll tide you over for much longer than carb-rich foods. They’re also high in protein, giving your body the fuel it needs to keep going when the going gets tough.
#8. Salmon (5 oz can, $1)
There’s a reason that salmon is thought of as a health food. It’s nutrient dense, and it contains lots of important fats like DHA that are hard to find in the average diet, maybe especially a diet made up of stored foods. Plus, it’s got a much more pleasant texture than canned tuna in many people’s opinion.
#9. Peas (15 oz can, $0.59)
Peas are great survival food. They’re sweet, fibery, and full of protein. It also has plenty of the minerals our bodies need like calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
#10. Broth (14.5 oz can, $0.59)
Broth is great to keep on hand in case of illness or injury. Canned broth is a good dose of healthy proteins and fluids that’s easy to prepare. In a SHTF situation, it could be that fresh carcasses and bones that you’d normally use to make your own broth would be unavailable, making this classic soup base something worth storing.
#11. Pineapple Slices Del Monte (15 oz can, $1)
Pineapple has some potential uses beyond the carbs from sugar, fiber, and hefty dose of vitamin C it provides. Pineapple has been used as a cough remedy by many, and a component of pineapple has even been considered as a commercial cough suppressant.
#12. Pork and beans (16 oz can, $0.69)
These tasty canned beans were a childhood dietary staple of days gone by for many people. They’re very filling and simple to heat up, creating a close-to-complete meal in a can. Try a few varieties until you find one that suits your palate.
#13. Spinach (13.5 oz can, $0.99)
Spinach has been synonymous with strength for decades and there’s a good reason for it beyond the iconic cartoon character. It’s low in calories and it doesn’t take much of it to provide a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals.
#14. Ready to eat soups (various sizes and prices)
Think Progresso and Campbell’s Chunky, though you may need to find a sale to scoop these up for under $1. Check dollar stores or watch your local supermarket ads. There are a ton of different soups available in this heat-and-eat format. Add a little bread to make them into a filling meal you could even share between two people.
Sardines (7.5 oz can, $1)- Some people love them, some hate them. If you can stomach them, they’re a great way to add healthy fats and calcium to your storage diet. They’re great brain food because they have a hefty dose of the fat your brain needs to function.
#15. Pureed Pumpkin Clover Valley (15 oz can, $1)
Another item you may need to find a sale for if you want it for under $1, but it is possible, especially if you can find a store brand. Pumpkin is high in potassium and vitamin C, and it’s also high in fiber. You can use it to make many desserts, or create more savory pasta sauces or breads with it.
#16. Pasta sauce (24 oz can, $1)
You can create a very psychologically satisfying pasta dinner with a can of pre-seasoned pasta sauce and a package of pasta. Canned pasta sauce is a simple heat-and-eat food, as well, and it’s incredibly versatile. It can become pizza sauce, it goes well with lots of different veggies, and you can add whatever protein you have handy to it to create a more well-rounded meal.
#17. Tamales (15 oz, $0.99)
These are a ready-to-eat food that you need only heat up. They are a complete meal that is very satisfying. Though most people would probably prefer homemade, it’s appealing to think of a more ‘traditional’ meal in a SHTF situation where they may be hard to come by.
#18. Sauerkraut (14.5 oz can, $0.99)
While fermenting your own foods isn’t all that complicated in its most basic form, it does take time. Fermented foods like sauerkraut can add health benefits to your panty stores, plus they pack a wallop when it comes to flavor.
#19. Beets (14.5 oz can, $0.49)
These are another sweet veggie that could have various uses if sweeteners are in short supply. In fact, most of the granulated sugar of today comes from beets. They’re also high in folate, which is crucial for women who may potentially bear children to ward off birth defects.
#20. Refried beans (16 oz can, $1)
These are great because they’re filling and they contain plenty of fat, something canned goods often lack. They also have lots of fiber, and they’re easy to eat. They’d be great in the event of a face or mouth injury that made chewing difficult as they don’t require much.
#21. Fruit cocktail (15 oz can, $0.99)
Dessert may be hard to come by if the going gets tough, and a can of fruit could be quite the morale booster. It contains lots of sugars from fruits and juices, and the variety means that there are a multitude of vitamins and minerals in each can.
#22. Olives (2.25 oz, $1)
Again, only small cans are likely to be found within the $1 limit. They contain lots of healthy fats and intense flavor that isn’t often found in canned goods. Plus, you can just eat them plain from the can with great satisfaction.
As you can see based on this list, you don’t have to break the bank to start a hearty canned food stash. Read on to get some tips for deciding which food items are right for your family.
It’s great to take your preparedness ventures one step at a time. If you’re brand new to prepping, you may want to start with canned foods that are heat-and-eat. Canned soups, pastas, and other full-meal type canned goods are perfect because they allow you to be sure your family is easily fed in the face of an emergency. Be sure you include a way to heat these cans in your preps in case the stove or microwave isn’t an option.
If you’ve been at this a while, you likely have enough ready-to-eat food to get you through an initial emergency situation, and you might want to work on building up the diversity of your stash. Take a look at your current food preps and invest in filling in any nutritional gaps. That way, you can turn your focus on keeping your family healthy over an extended period of time.
It’s important that you store your canned goods in a cool, dry place to best preserve them. There’s a lot of debate about canned food’s expiration dates and whether they’re really applicable, but no canned food in cans that have been corroded or damaged will stay good for long, so make sure you tuck it away some place safe.
It’s important that you use up your oldest canned goods of whatever variety first. When you buy new canned goods, place them at the back of your storage for that type of good, shifting the others forward to be used first. Rotating your goods appropriately before a disaster will help ensure your canned goods stay good for longer in an emergency.
Don’t buy a bunch of canned goods your family hates, no matter how inexpensive they are. If your family hates tomatoes passionately and you never eat them in your everyday meals, your money is probably better served buying fruits and vegetables that are anything but tomatoes. While this isn’t to say that there’s no place for foods you don’t care all that much for regularly in your preps, definitely do your best to replace them with items you find more palatable.
Having food you enjoy on hand may help keep spirits up in a disaster situation, and that could mean life or death at some point in a SHTF scenario.
Even when money is tight, you can continue building up your food storage with canned foods. In fact, building up a supply of canned food is not only good for a survival situation, but when money is tight. It means that even if you’re broke, you still have the means to feed your family because you prepared in advance.
You may also like:
10 Long Shelf-Life Canned Foods Every Prepper Should Consider Stockpiling
While this is helpful you should remind your readers that most of those can goods you mentioned will expire within the next couple of years. They should check on 5 ounce can meats from the dollar stores which I have personally found that have expiration dates of up to 5 years. Also don’t forget to rotate so there is no waste.
Doc Fields says: Good thoughts!…………….doc fields left coast chuck says:Just because the expiration date has been reached doesn’t mean the contents are harmful to eat. Examine the can carefully. Note if it is bulged. When you open the can smell the contents. Do they smell as you are accustomed to them smelling? If in doubt, throw it out. Oh, I like that. I didn’t even know it was catchy until I wrote it. What happens is that the food will slowly lose its food value. Some vitamins have a longer shelf life than others in the can. I don’t know which vitamins have a longer shelf life, but I do know that food has been discovered in isolated locations many years after it was originally placed there. We are talking decades after the date. This was long before expiration dates on cans. When the food in the can was tested it was still edible. Now I am not talking about food stored in an uninsulated garage in Tucson, AZ or some other area of extreme heat and humidity. I store my cans in my garage in boxes I make with thick walls of corrugated cardboard and I use padded envelopes for insulation. I have had cream of mushroom soup that was five years past its expiration date and I am writing this, so it wasn’t fatal.
I keep an eye on my expiration dates, not that many of them reach that point. My prepper pantry is also my household pantry. I buy my canned goods by the case and usually the store brand (i.e. GV @ Walmart); just as good and less expensive. As I use cans I replace them so that my supply stays where I want it. Another method for storing is dehydrating. I’ve dehydrated veggies, both canned and frozen then vacuum sealed them to last longer. Fresh fruits and veggies are especially good to dehydrate and vacuum seal. I’ve been able to keep sliced apple for up to 2 years and still retain their flavor. Canning is a good method also. We are eating stuff now that we canned back in 2014 and it is still good and flavorful.
Started eating canned rice pudding. 7 years passed its sell by date. Just added some ginger powder and it’s perfectly ok.
I really didn’t care for the first two comments. Not helpful, crass, self-promoting, and some Aryan ideology to boot.
BUT, I think Claude is well aware of rocket stoves, and wants to help people with meager means to help themselves by stocking up with some of these things. I do the same as he suggests, and try to get good items to store and use.
My favorite at the moment is the good old bean with bacon soup. Got it at Walmart for $.75 a can. Add Jiffy mix cornbread and you’ve got a good meal to boot, and sticks to your ribs.
Keep up the good work Claude! Thanks for all you’ve done and are doing. God bless!
………………….doc fields
Bravo! Lets keep the comments clean. This article is clearly aimed at folks that are in a learning stage. The other stuff can (and probably will) come later. There’s no call for beating up the writer that means well and wants to be helpful.
I agree, Doc Fields. Such comments have no place on this list. What brand of bean with bacon soup do you use and what size can? Do you use the whole package of Jiffy Mix cornbread mix?
Great Value, the Walmart brand was used for the bean and bacon soup. And yes, we used the whole box of Jiffy cornbread mix. For four people, two cans of the soup, 1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix (makes 6 muffins) and as I said before, it sticks to your ribs. ??
Spam Snacks in an envelope are one of the items we stock. Amazingly good by themselves and can also be added to other foods for a stir fry or stew. We have found them at the $0.99 price point at times.,
Walmart, Dollar Tree, and online are good sources. But by shopping at ALDI, if there’s one close by, you can get most vegies and soups for .69 or less. Chain grocery stores have frequent sales on canned beans and vegies 2 for $1, 10 for $6 or $7 that are hard to pass up. In most instances you can buy less or more than 10 for the same discounted price and have a good variety. Even if my pantry supply is at max capacity, I have a hard time passing up a bargain. I just rotate out those that I’ve had the longest to make and freeze a big batch of vegetable soup.
I agree Kat, about ALDI. I’ve purchased cases (of 12) of corn, green beans, peas for $6, and the quality compared to other grocery chains is the same for the most part. Once in a while ALDI comes up with something better than the others.
Aldi’s a very good source of cheaper canned goods. Dollar Tree is fine for nonfood items, but their foods may be of doubtful healthiness. No longer shopping at WalMart; their Ontario stores are more expensive than ethnic ones. (Plus, I just like Chinese foods…) Some supermarkets (Kroger?) sell superannuated veggies and day-old breads via good markdowns. Their ‘house brands’ also allow savings.
My local Kroger is always expanding their organic, non-gmo food line. They are roughly $1 per can for the beans and vegetables, but they also have multi-packs that drop the price well below $1 per can. Here in the US most of the corn and soy are GMO now, and they are not required to warn about it being Franken-phude on the labels, so you have to do your homework, or else specifically shop for non-GMO items. For fresh vegetables it is best to grow your own, or to have a reliable “direct from the farm” source, so that you know what you are buying. Rabbits produce quickly, are much less trouble than chickens, provide good manure for the garden, and if you raise white rabbits you may even be able to sell the pelts. They prefer white pelts which they can dye any color that they want. If anyone could catch that darned Easter Bunny, and domesticate it’s progeny then you could even get eggs, and rabbits would be the perfect homestead livestock. 🙂
Enigma says:Rabbit meat is OK as an occasional ‘gourmet’ item, but is nutritionally incomplete. People who try to live on rabbit meat alone will need nutritional supplements. A prepper should be raising a range of livestock, such as sheep, goats, and/or lamas. Goats are a real pain, since they need constant watching so as to keep them out of gardens and from killing young fruit trees. Goats are efficient in arid places, but generally make matters worse. (There’s a reason why Iesous compared the ungodly to goats.) Sheep also however are a problem in that they must be kept moving else they’ll eat grasses right into the roots. Hard to say in North America what’s truly non-GMO and what is GMO. Trusting government and corporations a mug’s game. Basically, if you want assured non-GMO, you must get / accumulate ‘heritage’ seeds and sets, and grow your own whatever.
Goats are OK for milk, and less trouble to keep than cows if your land is fairly small. It is easy enough to supplement any livestock with wild game. Chickens do have their uses, but I am personally not fond of them… another filthy animal in practice. Maybe keep just a few for eggs and free range them to keep their filth in check. lol They will eat ticks and other pests. I completely agree about the GMO situation here in the USA. Another problem that few people recognize is that food grown by corporations are generally low in nutrients due to corporate farming practices. They fertilize with basic chemicals to get the food to grow, but have stripped the trace elements such as iodine and others from most of the land. Heritage seeds and farming practices are best including rotating your crops, composting, etc. Codex Alimentarious at work. lol To get good food you almost have to grow your own.
Relying on local game such as deer unsustainable in urban/suburban contexts. They will get hunted-eaten rather quickly during any enduring crisis. Remaining critters will either leave for safer parts, or become very wary. A way to become more familiar with situation is to hunt wild turkeys wherever they are now hunted. Southern hunters may use specialized silent hunting dogs. I actually have confidence in many supermarket and farmer’s market veggies, because living things such as plants will filter out unfamiliar substances and incorporate what they truly need. It’s GMO entities which are risky, since such are modified at a DNA level. The plant’s or animal’s cells no longer conform to nature, no longer ‘understand’ what’s abnormal.
In a SHTF situation, there is very little that is “sustainable” in an urban/suburban environment. lol That is why people are being encouraged over, and over, on this website to get out of the city now. Your claim about plants filtering out toxins is at best only partly true depending on which plant is being discussed. For example, corn does a wonderful job of cleaning up polluted soil due to the fact that it will take in all kinds of trash. Since the elitists are trying to poison us (Agenda 21, Agenda 30, etc), IMO, that is why they grow the (GMO) corn, then convert it to HFC, and put it into everything. Note that this trait of corn is not limited to GMO’s. Bamboo, on the other-hand, does a great job of filtering out trash. I am not trying to be argumentative, rather just pointing out some basic facts, and a few holes in your reasoning.
Agree about maize/corn. It’s among the worst crops to grow; unlike the grass-based grains (wheat, oats, rice…) its stalks sequester much of the value. Maize farmers either must be semi-nomadic or heavily employ fertilizer. Maize may seem a simple and easy crop, but farmers are better advised to grow legumes and the various kinds of beans. Bamboo has many more uses than maize, yet in the ‘right’ soils tends to be invasive, expanding rapidly. One plant to avoid is trifoliate orange, unless you possess stand-off power equipment. Saw some for sale in western Florida, and reckon that planting it to defend a property could be a mistake. Merely stating a general principle in my prior. Relatively few things in Nature are 100% one way or another.
Most of that canned food has many poisons in it.
I’m shocked and surprised that you know nothing about ROCKET STOVES, ROCKET MASS HEATERS of WOOD GASIFIERS.
FUCK BIG OIL.
Please research these simple technologies hidden by government and Corporate thieves
I agree, Fizzlecat. Having spent eight years in the Marine Corps, I am accustomed to vulgarity and other expletives, but I feel they have no place in discussions on this list.
left coast chuck says:Not only are your comments crude, but they are incoherent. Perhaps it would be better if you posted when you are sober.
Delinda says: How do I go about purchasing these cans? You truly are a moron! Liedtoabouteverything@gmail.com says:You can search jewtube for WOOD GASIFIERS/GASIFICATION, ROCKET STOVES. Im currently buiding a ROCKET MASS HEATER/STOVE/WATER PURIFIER/BENCH.
Look me up on Google Plus or YouTube under the following name
RED PILL OICU812M8.
My “repost it” website…
http//flatwaterflatearth.wordpress.com
Included in expletives are also ethnic slurs. What brought about this sudden upwelling of derogatory comments.?
Oh boy! An Internet troll and a DoD one to boot! Don’t go to any of his websites out of curiosity, they like to find out who you are, get your IP address and tag you for their databases. Just ignore him, he’ll go away soon.
Good idea Kat, better still, make a pot of soup or stew with the old cans, then home can. extends the use by 5+ years. A good seal is shelf safe. Not frozen to again worry it will go bad.
Oh puke on those English green peas. Had many cans thinking my family would eat them, boy was I wrong. Gave them to the chickens and they were even smart enough to not eat them.
u really r a wannabe cause do ur family like say pea soup all u have do mashed them up add some ham and u have delicious pot of pea soup
To Sasquatch, only thing I can eat English peas with is English pea salad and that is if they came frozen. I just can’t eat English peas any other way.
Regarding the Chunky Soups such as Campbells makes, heat and pour over rice or noodles, and dress it up a bit with a little seasoning like garlic powder, salt and pepper, and it is VERY satisfying. We eat this a good bit when coming in late from work and then tending to the farm. Quick and easy!
Chunky soups OK, but lay off the extra salt. What I like is a tiny Thai pepper diced (remove seeds) into the heating soup. If you like spicy foods, you can plant seeds. Garlic always appropriate for meaty Euro-American foods.
O.K., O.K, Where I live a can of Campbel soup costs $1.50 per can and the chunky soups are $2.00+. Canned sardines, $2.00+ depending on brand, chicken and salmon are $3.00 amd more. For me this is not really viable.
Tom: If you travel by motor vehicle at all, you might make a list of stuff you would like to add to your store of foods. When you see a WallyWorld or Costco (if you have a membership) stop in and check their canned food prices. See how those prices compare to prices in your hometown. If they are lower, stock up. If you do that every time you drive to another location, you will be able to purchase the foods you want and save some money to boot. I know some small towns have to charge more because they don’t turn the goods as rapidly as WallyWorld or Costco and shipping costs are higher the further one gets from the big city. The merchants aren’t ripping you off, low volume means higher costs for the merchant. I had a stationery store many years ago and it used to chap me no end to be able to buy a single bottle of white out at the big box store for less money than it cost me to buy a gross of the same thing from my wholesaler PLUS pay shipping. But the big box store contracts for a million bottles and ships them with all the other stuff in their own trucks, so that makes it hard to compete on price.
Economy of scale yields lower prices, unless a big outfit has an effective monopoly like telcos and power companies. And like ISPs… If you like being offended, see what an urban Japanese pays for very-high-speed Internet access. About the only way for any small business to compete is via attentive and prompt service. That’s where the big-box outfits and banks must generally fail.
You may not want to store a huge amount of fruit cocktail. We have have quite a few cans swell and/or explode after a couple years. If you can afford dried or dehydrated fruit, that may be a better way to go.
What about instant mash potatoes that are in a Mylar bag already? Also stove top stuffing it’s already dehydrated? You can also purchase bear creek soups that are in Mylar bags and just add water. Would these hold up ok?
I would think that dried goods would not go bad. They might lose flavor and they might lose food value so a steady diet of Bear Creek soup that was thirty years old might allow you to slowly starve to death, but assuming the mylar pouch was not somehow perforated, they should still be safe to eat. I started to eat a handful of rancid peanuts the other night. They smelled okay when I opened the jar but as soon as I bit into them I knew they were rancid. There was not an iota of doubt about that. I had put them in a jar to save space in the pantry and they had been in there a while, so it wasn’t a freshly opened jar that had been factory sealed. You can take it from the horse’s mouth. You won’t mistakenly eat a rancid peanut. You will want to spit it out immediately. I think even if you have reduced taste capability you will recognize the problem.
I would think that some of the mashed potatoes like with three cheeses or loaded with butter might go rancid after a while, but plain dried mashed potatoes should be good to go as long as the pouch is sealed.
Foods with fat in them do not last as long as foods without fat. Nuts that are vacuum sealed will keep for about three years.
I take my Bear Creek chili cut a slit in the bag with a sterilized razor blade, add a oxygen absorber, gently squeeze out the air and seal with duct tape.
22 CANS ETC MOST OF LISTED ITEMS ARE POISON–IF POSSIBLE PURCHASE ORGANIC FOOD IN CANS OR ORGANIC DRIED
ALSO PURCHASE A GOOD MULTI VITAMIN
Many grocery stores now have their own brand of organic canned goods that are very reasonably priced. I’ve been stocking up on organic chick peas at .75 a can. The liquid can be used as an egg substitute in baked goods (aquafaba) and the chick peas are great in soups, stews and salads.
Frankly, I get a little tired of these comments about the food being suggested here as poison all the time. I’ve sat and listened to people explain in great detail why I shouldn’t eat this or that because it’s bad for you, and finally the list gets so narrow that it makes you really wonder what can you really eat? Sure, some stuff may not be good for you but your body is naturally designed to deal with that and it goes out the draught. You may want to get on a soapbox and yell it to the world about all the poisons in this and that, but the very air you breathe today has aluminum, barium, and strontium in it, not to mention nanoparticles, all from the chemtrail spraying. I eat, I breathe. Someday I will die like everyone else. I look forward instead to the day when a new heaven and earth will come down from God the Father. I ask His blessing upon the food I eat, and then I eat it, being thankful for it……………………doc fields
I am 83, my cholesterols are better than my 50 year old cardiologist’s. I have eaten most of what people call poison all my life. Granted GMO;s are relative new, but I bet the nay sayr’s have eaten many GMO’s because they did not know it. I do not recommend looking for them but don’t panic people to believing they will die at 20 if the accidently eat GMO’s. Yes look for non GMO, amg organically grown food, but lets not make people fearful snowflakes.
Graywolf12 – Not to belittle your comment, because I ate cr@p food when I was younger too. The problem is that what was cheap food back in the day was not nearly as full of poisons as what is available on the shelves today. The number of major food providers of every type has been drastically reduced. This includes everyone from the farmer on up. Also, in recent years the globalists have stepped up their program to weaponize the food supply. I don’t think that anyone is overstating how bad the available factory food is today.
The soups that don’t need added water are often $2 – 3 a can, but I keep an eye on the flyers and often find them for .75 -.95 a can. I buy in bulk when that happens. A few weeks ago I bought 100 cans. My father-in-law eats them often but we usually have at least 60 cans on hand.
Might mention that any of these items with pop tops will not last as long as you think. A less sturdy way to seal a can. In our rural area it would be hard to find any of these items for less than $1 even at our Dollar store. We don’t eat this crap daily so will continue to store ingredients to make our own healthier versions
Doc Fields: I agree. Yes, it would be nice if we could all pick our fresh veggies from our garden and grow our own beef and other farm animals on an isolated stretch of land far from civilization, canning them when they are at the peak of flavor and ripeness. Unfortunately, with all the people in the world such a utopia doesn’t exist. I have maintained in past posts the more vehement the opinion expressed the weaker it is in fact. Unless the food is certified organic in accordance with guidelines set down by the FDA, that same governmental agency so many like to vilify, the name “organic” is merely a sales tool. To me the foodies, vegans, vegetarians, organic converts, all strike me as a sort of religion seeking converts to their way of life. I don’t care what you eat, so don’t shout at me about what I eat. If the stuff is truly bad for me you should be able to point out the exact reasons why it is bad for me rather than just shout out “You’re eating poison.” What are these folks going to do when all that is available is just plain old winter wheat full of glutens; when all that is available is Vienna sausage and canned peas, certainly not my favorites? you are going to see these foodies scarfing that stuff down like no tomorrow. It’s like eating crow and possum. If you turn up your nose at it you ain’t hungry enough yet.
Left coast.. As per your above comment, no complaint but someone wrote a while ago, that if every human on earth was given a small plot of land,suitable for subsistence living, they would not even cover i/2 of the US. Look up area of US, and total world population. The claims that we are overpopulated are wildly extravagant, to say the least.
While it’s true that a lot of the land might not be ideal, (mountain tops, swamps, deserts, etc) many people in the world live in such places, eke out a living, and would love to come here and show what they could do with our “waste spaces”.
Larry: True, the Bedouin of North Africa managed to eke out a living but mainly by raiding their neighbors who had more to eat. Life span was short and the population suffered from a variety of diseases and conditions due to the limited diet. While humanity may survive it certainly will not thrive. During the draft for WWII, many men were rejected for service due to nutritional deficiencies. Many were significantly underweight and significant numbers of others suffered from pellagra, rickets, beri-beri, scurvy and other nutritional deficiencies. They had bad teeth and poor eyesight. They were alive but poor specimens of humanity. Turning fallow land into fertile, productive land can be done. The Japanese immigrants who came here at the turn of the 20th century proved that. In California and perhaps in Montana they were forbidden to own land and were able to only rent the poorest of farmland that they, by diligent hard work turned into productive farm land. The father of a judge I worked for rented land in what is now known as Fountain Valley in Orange County CA. It was swamp land when he first rented it and the farmers all snickered at the “dumb Jap” who paid money for that worthless swamp land. He turned it into fertile farmland by diligent hard work. What I really had reference to was that land that the prepare novels seem to fall back on where pure running water is at hand, the land is fertile, the rainfall adequate, the sunshine perfect for growing crops with accessible stands of timber ideal for all the building projects that spring up. The domestic livestock never suffer from disease. Insects and blight are unknown and the only neighbors are the friendly older couple with all the wisdom from an earlier age on how to grow things and survive in a modern 18th century setting. Even with all the plenty that this country offered 18th and 19th century country living was pretty darned hard scrabble. You look at photographs of farmers from the 19th century and none of them are heavy-set. They are all lean and I suspect all have some hidden ailments. You are right that we have lots of room if folks don’t mind living sixty miles out in the desert from Boron, CA or Desert Center where Patton trained for the North Africa campaign. On the other hand I have read that “experts” whoever they are, estimate that arable land in the U.S. can only support a population of about 30 million people without modern farming methods of irrigation and fertilization.
Darn. I changed “prepare” novels two times. It was supposed to be prepper novels and predictive changed it back a third time when my back was turned.
Larry: You are absolutely correct. the 7.5 billion folks who reputedly inhabit the face of the earth divided into the 9 million + Km2 of the United States would give each and every one of them 3.21 acres each. I have read, although I don’t know who developed the data and how, that it takes one acre of crops to support one individual, so theoretically, each little plot would support one individual with food left over. That assumes that the folks whose 3.21 acres in the sand dunes near El Centro. CA and in Colorado and New Mexico are able to grow something on them. Also, the article that provided the world population figure indicated that the world population would hit 7.6 billion sometime this year which would change the acreage to something just a tad smaller. That’s the problem. Much of the world’s area just isn’t suited to grow anything except sparse shrub. If you drive from Indio CA to Blythe CA, you can see vast expanses of property that has a plant density of one cactus or creosote brush per 25 square feet. It’s hard to support even one goat on acreage like that. The same is true for the drive from Barstow, CA to Las Vegas and beyond. It is low desert and in my opinion, without developing some other water source other than the Colorado River and the water table, Las Vegas will, once again, be the junction of two roads in the desert with a few desert rats and their burros living in adobe huts. They will haul water in a cart from the trickle that used to be the Colorado River and will live on jack rabbit and ground squirrels with the occasional wild burro or coyote thrown in. If there is 20 of them living in the valley where Las Vegas had been located that will be a mob.
we have rabbits and squirrel where i live and while i won’t eat them now, i sure will if it comes to that. crows too.
i have about a years supply of prepped food and lots of canned etc. a well and some water stored i do want to get a good tank for water. i have a great pellet rifle and have easily popped off 100s of squirrels when they first invaded. at least i can shoot.
How does dating on “pop top” cans compare with cans with tops that need to be cut off? Remember, it is in the manufacturer’s best interests to have the shortest date possible on the can. If you throw the can away before it really is expired and buy more the manufacturer gets bigger sales. So back to my question. Have you compared the expiration dates on pop tops to conventional to have a basis for making your statement that pop tops don’t last a long as other types? Have you read the results of peer-reviewed studies that have established that pop top cans don’t have the shelf life of conventional cans? If so, I would like to read those studies for myself so that I can make an informed decision about what to buy. It would be far more helpful to state facts than opinions. If you have conducted experiments storing pop tops and conventional side by side for an extended period of time, we would like to hear about those experiments. Or is it just a feeling that you have. If it is your opinion that pop tops don’t last as long, then so state and reason for the opinion rather than just, “Everybody knows” sort of thing. Personally, in the dialog between pop top and conventional, the only information I have is a comment on another blog by an Australian visitor to our shores commenting on how inconvenient our cans were, that in Oz all the cans had pop tops. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I found it interesting.
