[ExI] Food on hand was note from a foaf

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Keith Henson
>...Subject: [ExI] Food on hand was note from a foaf

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 5:00 AM,  Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

snip

>> Apart from doomers, and strange cults, I doubt anyone has more than a 
>> couple days worth of food in the larder anywhere in the western world.

>...That's actually a very interesting question.  I know people who store as
much as a year, and some people who (at least in the past) ate out all the
time and had *no* food at home whatsoever...

Hey, it's a bachelor thing.  Before I was married I wasn't sure what a
refrigerator was for.  I can assure the skeptical: it is possible to live
off of fast food indefinitely with no apparent health effects, with the
following assumptions: the devourer is young and indestructible, and
secondly, two meals a day.

>...Bizarre to open a refrigerator and see one lonely can of soda pop...

Although I never visited him in Seattle, I have heard rumors that the late
Robert Bradbury's refrigerator contained some marginally identifiable
comestibles along with a number of unidentified apparent biology
experiments, none of which were actually labeled as such.  Apparently he
knew what he was studying, but if he discovered any anti-aging treatments in
there, we have not discovered the documentation.

>...California's recommendation is two weeks of food and water because they
figure it will take that long for outside help to get into the worst hit
areas...

I actually now think we could airlift survival-level supplies into Moffett
Field with C-130s enough to restore overpasses and water pipes.  It will be
expensive, but high-bucks areas like Santa Clara county will be OK.  An
important survival aspect is that a local disaster doesn't affect one's bank
account, even if the local bank is shaken to a pile of rubble.  On the other
hand, if Libya uses its copious oil money to get revenge on Britain, France
and the US with a powerful nuclear EMP thump.  If that ruins extensive
electronic networks.  Then everyone is broke as well as hungry.  That would
be orders of magnitude greater catastrophe than any earthquake and tsunami
could ever do.

>...I wonder if there has been a survey to see how equipped people really
are?... Keith

I suspect there is more in most homes than we realize.  The important thing
is that once one has devoured the good stuff, one starts eating the canned
soup and vegetables cold.  Since the appeal of these foods ranges from un to
vile, the survivors eat lightly, stretching the remaining food beyond what
we thought.  For instance, consider that 8 year old can of left over cream
of celery soup that was for a recipe no one ever made.  Most houses have
plenty of that kind of trash stuffed away in the back of the cabinet, their
"best if used by" dates having passed a decade ago.  That can devoured cold
is sufficient to kill an appetite temporarily.

spike