Starvation and disease are the original weapons of mass destruction. When you burn fields and kill animals, people are left vulnerable. James Nachtwey
At the moment, I’m sitting next to my husbands hospital bed while he sleeps. He has had a few set backs this week click here for information about his condition but he is a fighter and hopefully he’ll be home in a day or two. Sitting here affords me the opportunity to busy myself on the internet. Nurses, busily whisk into the room, check his vitals, hang more liquids on his IV tree and vanish down the hall like gracefully choreographed ballerinas. Consequentially, this post is a little longer than usual. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and give this a few minutes of your time, if you would.
It was the horrendous realization of a nightmare crisis the world may be, no, is facing that grabbed me around the throat. The U.S. and most of Europe, I suspect, are in the beginning stages of a food insecurity crisis created by humans that want total control and they aren’t going to give up until it all belongs to them. However, there are some things you can do to get yourself prepared. If you hang around, I’ll let you in on some backwoods real world, tried and true things we do.
Generally speaking, I’m not prone to panic, but I do have anxieties once in a while. (Yeah, right. Just once in a while? Ha, that’s funny.) I debated with myself whether or not to put this portion, the food insecurity portion of my article, out there. It’s not like we don’t have other scary stuff to occupy our focus. However,this morning I was gut punched with this video! Sometimes the universe gives you answers to your indecisions without you even asking.
Food Terrorism Warning Poison in the food supply?!
Deja’vu? I suddenly remembered years ago when a group of unhappy people went around to several restaurants in, I think Kansas, posing as customers but indiscriminately sprayed a poisonous substance on salad bars and open buffets. Hundreds of people became ill over the course of their reign of chaos and a few perished. The perpetrators were eventually caught, tried and jailed. I wish I could remember why the group did what they did, it was so long ago I had actually forgotten about it until just then. What panic slapped me, sent butterflys fluttering around in my stomach was the fellow in the above video suggesting an example of a somewhat similar nature. My stomach went nauseous when I thought about an unscrupulous worker, hired to work in a corporate Nabisco cookie factory,for instance, would have the access he needed to put an unsavory toxin in a vat cookie dough. Scary!
The technology advancing as rapidly as it has since the above restaurant incident, plus the newly minted criminal gang elements in western countries hell bent on bringing them down, my gut told me food insecurity could very well be the next nine-eleven. After Maui, North Carolina and the recent L.A. fires that is.
But wait, there’s more!
Dead humans help fight climate change Oh, gag me!! Nasty!!
If you have a weak stomach I should advise not clicking on the above link. Solent green is sooo yesterday. Modern technology called Recompose is now the 2025 trend. Do you take calcium supplements? Or it could be what’s on the menu in the very near future and remember, stock animal feed goes under a totally different set of rules. Then you eat those animals, beef, chicken, pork. Get it?
I did a search on the internet and found at least a dozen more articles and youtube videos on the subject of problems with our human food supply. Bugs, lab grown meat, supply issues, and now recompose? There is money to be made and a population to control. I can imagine George Orwell (1984) palm slapping his forehead,”Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”
There is nothing that ruffles my feathers more than someone messing with my food. Back in 1996, I had a great awakening to what “they” were creating and allowing into the human food supply. The FDA ain’t chur’ friend, there chubby!!
I had bought a bag of regular corn chips at the grocery store to have with dinner. While dinner was cooking I tore open the bag and ate a handful. At about the 15 minute mark, while stirring a pot, suddenly my whole body became itchy and covered in the most horrendous batch of hives I had ever had. Actually, I had never experienced hives before and didn’t really know what was happening until hubby said it was hives. He had seen a case of hives once or twice before.
A couple of weeks later TV news announced the recall of Starlink genetically modified corn. I wasn’t alone in the allergy department, Starlink corn products had sent several people to the hospital and a few into anaphylactic shock. One child died. I can still see this boys innocent little face plastered on the TV screen. Starlink was sued and the genetically modified corn was removed from the market. It was determined Starlink GMO corn was not fit for man nor beast!
A few weeks after that, pretty faces on the early news were warning the public about GMO corn being held in a storage silo earmarked for animal feed. The GM feed corn inadvertently made its way into the human food supply and was being shipped to food manufacturers. Since the GM animal feed had been mixed with other corn earmarked for human consumption before distribution to food manufacturers there was no way of knowing which products the vaccine/antibiotic grown GMO pig feed ended up in. The tainted corn hit the news cycles big time and it was then people began waking up and doing their own investigating.
Mothers started protesting the altering of our food, “our children are not guinea pigs,” they screamed, while baby formula was being sold to them polluted with GM soy. Corporations like McDonalds became owners of large tracks of farmland growing GMO potatoes for use in their restaurants. Many independent scientific articles came out about the dangers of consuming GMO food products. To get ahead of those damning articles Monsanto offered their scientists a great financial deal if they didn’t find anything bad with using and eating GMO products. So the paid scientists claimed there was no difference between natural food and their genetically modified food and their science proved it. These highly paid Monsanto shills gave me a new GMO motto to live by; “you can’t find what you don’t look for.” You can quote me on that too, if you like.
Shortly thereafter, other brave independent scientists put pictures of laboratory rats on the internet with grossly huge tumors from eating GMO potatoes. Humans have never eaten genetically modified food, frankenfoods, as they shouted from the roof tops. Sadly, many of these Doctors and scientists, actually, lots of doctors and scientists, mysteriously started dying in car crashes, home invasions, and suicided with two to the back of the head. And then the whole genetically modified thing fell silent.
Anyone, who by now, doesn’t understand that our food is being fucked with must live far from civilization in an isolated Amazon jungle somewhere, sustaining themselves eating only crawling things and tree bark. Word on the street now is “they” are spraying lettuce and greens, both regular grown and organically grown, with mRNA vaccines and delivering them to your favorite grocery store. I haven’t confirmed that rumor yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that were true. Erythrosin, known to the public as red dye #3, was banned 35 years ago for use in cosmetics. The FDA has just now gotten around to banning it in food. Red #3 is most prominent in your childrens favorite snack foods and candy. It causes cancer they now tell us, 35 years too late for some people. The FDA ain’t chur’ friend!
Almost all humans could be facing severe hunger very soon
Most assuredly, Trump and his team will get the blame for everything that goes wrong with the food supply. Robert Kennedy jr. is trying his best to clean up the corruption in the food and supplement industries but a mind boggling amount of corporate money has food production by the short hairs. A list of billionaire land owners in the U.S. can be found on the internet if want to know who “they” are. It will turn your hair gray once you see the thousands and thousands of acres of prime farmland that they control. These billionaires and their corporations are going to be hard to beat and things may go from bad to really, really, bad during this next phase of civilization reset. Shortages are already taking a bite out of our daily lives. Bird flu seems everywhere, in every stock animal, including cats and these poor critters are being systematically culled and buried. I heard a guy in a youtube video say there will be food during this transition but you won’t be able to afford it. Today as a matter of a fact, I heard where independent farmers and ranchers in Texas are not going to sell their beef into the market until beef prices small independent farmers are paid for their beef goes much higher. Factory farms, inflated feed costs and rules and regulations targeted at the little guy are killing the small farmers.
Notice all the recalls lately? You won’t see bad food coming from your neighborhood gardener or local farmer. Here in Michigans Upper Peninsula a dozen of eggs rang up at $9.29 the other day. But I’m guessing I shouldn’t protest to loudly, it could/going to be worse.
Remembering Grandmas depression era years
This originally is where I wanted to start this post. However, I felt I needed to get the above information off my chest and share it. You know, misery loves company and all?
We here in Michigan are actually quite lucky. We have glacial water still flowing deep underground. Until governor Whitmers Gestapo agency EGLE and Nestle` find out about where it peeks out of the ground, that is. They grab it for profit or EGLE comes along and caps the leak so no one can use it. Shhhhhhh, but that’s for another story. My dear Grams and gramps happened to park their hand build log cottage next to an artisan well when they retired in the 1960s. They didn’t know at the time they purchased the land that such a pristine water source was just waiting to be discovered. It was during the well digging phase for their new cottage they wondrously tapped into that spring of constantly flowing glacial water. Gramps had it piped into the house, plus this ingenious man diverted a trickle of the free flowing water for his mini minnow pond made from a ten gallon fish tank. This pristine ancient water kept his fishing minnows happy all summer long in free flowing, ice cold happiness. What could be more perfect?
Looking around Grandmas kitchen in my childhood, I remember she always kept an enamel dish pan in the sink full of that perfect water. Old habits don’t go away with new times. She was in her 30s during the great depression and hauling water was hard work, harder yet to forget that hard work. Grams kept the pan in the sink to wash hands in her new cottage during the day even with running water at her disposal. She made sure she had a clean pan of water for meal prep, too. Hands were washed often to cut down on the transfer of bacteria. A doctor was a luxury during the depression, that’s if you could find one. So she made sure her family stayed healthy by frequent hand washing. Seems the media talking heads have to remind us to do what was pure instinct of past generations.
Too, I remember there was always a tin of bacon grease next to the stove in her bright, clean kitchen, for cooking and frying. And she kept a comb of honey on the table at all times. I swear that is why my wonderful seniors never seemed to get sick. It was the fresh, local honey and the constant clean hands, I swear.
Grams always cooked with an apron, doing laundry in an old wringer washer was hard work. If you could keep your clothes clean just a little longer that was a plus. I have actually, done laundry in a galvanized wash tub stationed over on open campfire, for my family of 5 at the time. Trust me, that is really hard, freaking work!!
Grams had rolling pins, cookbooks, cast iron skillets and a dutch oven in her warm, inviting kitchen. By the back door hung a 32 quart enamel granny pan for when she needed to cook for a crowd. That huge pan did doubled duty, mostly for harvesting during canning season. And then, on the counter she kept a thermos handy for left over morning coffee. The coffee would stay hot for hours and was used later in the day or when guests showed up. Hot coffee was at a premium during depression years, saving it for later saved money. Other stuff dear Grams had in her cottage kitchen were a bone saw and a large wooden cutting board for cutting up whole chickens and other critters grandpa brought home and a mortar and pestle for grinding herbs and spices. Times were hard back then and one needed to make do.
Getting you ready from my backwoods kitchen
The time has come for us to take this threat to our food supply and health very seriously, if you haven’t already. Hubby and I don’t own a microwave so everything that needs heating is heated on our propane stove or on the woodstove in our backwoods home. People are going to have to learn how to cook from scratch again. Old timers, loggers camp and iron ore mining bunk houses had a coffee pot of boiled water on the woodstove, the cook threw ground coffee right into the pot and then moved it to the back corner of the woodstove to keep it warm. If you didn’t want the grounds in your cup, you poured the coffee into your cup through a fine mesh strainer. That’s hard core coffee making and drinking for sure!
Living out here in the woods has taught me a lot about self reliance. If you run out of milk or butter for supper, too bad, you should have planned ahead. Door dash won’t deliver out this far and there is no 7-11. Proper planning and thinking ahead is a must. What are you going to need and when are you going to need it?
I learned a lot from granny,too. I have 3 32 quart granny ware enamel pans, they are so very handy especially in the times that are right now barreling down on us. Making soup for a large crowd, making applesauce, harvesting veggies from the garden, washing dishes or laundry, water collection and so many other things. I can’t tell you how many times I have used these pans while out camping or during a power outage.
Apple Cider vinegar is a must have too. I keep several bottles handy at all times to use as a medicine or to make shrub in the winter, so yummy! Shrub recipe here When there is no going back to what was normal, or the luxury of a well stocked grocery store, this naturally carbonated beverage will be a taste treat.
During Americas next 9-11 we will undoubtedly become minimalists, learning to live with less stuff. The hard part will be getting used to the inconvenience. Hauling water for a shower and then then heating it can be such a drag. Finding enough to eat and then knowing what to do with what you do find could be agonizing and stressful. Below you will find a checklist of real items that we use, have used and can’t live without here in the woods 30 miles from town.
Number 1 in my kitchen is Cast iron cookware- Where I go my cast iron goes. Regular pots and pans won’t hold up if you need to cook over an open campfire. I learned how to use a non-electric coffee maker out in the wild, too. They’re not as nice as electric but they do serve a purpose. Imagine folks without their morning brew. Dude!!
Campfire cookbooks and wild beasties cookbooks- Venison will be the choice critter until they run out. This is where your bone saw will come in handy. How will you cook, cure and store the meat from wild critters for winter? This is also, where your 32 qt. enamel pan will be indispensable. The Indians made red meat and fish jerky over an open campfire, soap too. I bet ancient Indians would have loved a 32 qt. enamel pan.
Mortar and pestle- For making my own herbal medicine, herbal tea, and grinding corn and seeds for flour.
Solar trickle charger, photovoltaic panel and inverter- So many uses for these items. Keep the trickle charge solar panel next to your “get-me-home” bag in your car. If you are stuck in the snow and your battery goes dead, this little gem can save your butt. Charge small appliances, etc. We use the larger folding photovoltaic panel and inverter when camping out beyond the sidewalks. Oh, we are so spoiled!! If you are dependent on medical devices or equipment a battery charging photovoltaic panel can keep your machines working properly for you during a power outage.
Solar lights- Lots of solar lights, they don’t need batteries. Great for camping and power outages. Kerosene lamps stink and candles can be dangerous, especially around dogs, cats and little kids. I love my solar light bulbs. You can find some on Amazon.
Axe- If you need to cook with wood you must have a good, sharp axe.
Matches- Goes without saying, if you are using wood or propane, you need several boxes of stick matches. It’s crazy how many you will go through. Great for barter too.
Rags- We go through so many rags it’s amazing. When normal life stops and you don’t have paper products, out grown and worn out tee shirts cut into squares are a perfect clean up item to have handy. Rags make a comfy feminine necessary pads too.
Silvex- Silver sulfadiazine w/silver nitrate. This is some of the best stuff for burns, cuts and scrapes. If you only have one product for wound care and burns you’ll get from learning to cook on an open campfire, make it this one. Last I knew they had it at Walgreens.
Barter box- When groceries get scarce having things to trade for what you need will be invaluable. Items that will be in short supply are dish soap, womens products, hand lotion, shampoo, canned milk, macaroni and cheese, coffee, canned fruit, matches, rice, cooking oils and fats, peanut butter, freeze dried foods, and warm, dry socks, etc.
Vegetable garden tools, seeds, supplies, gloves and fencing- While thinking about your garden, give some thought to how you will keep your garden produce and perishable food fresh and cold without power. There is lots of information on the internet to get you up to speed. We have used a Coleman cooler to keep food fresh when out in the woods. All you need to do is dig a hole on the north side of a shaded building a little larger than the cooler. Place your cooler in the hole and fill the remaining space with newspaper, straw or better yet, that left over insulation from the project you just finished. Put perishable food or medicine in the plastic bags, place in the cooler and close the lid. Put another layer of insulation on top and cover with sod. Works pretty damn well, especially if the cooler has been left somewhere cool overnight. Then placed in the hole already cold.
Gravity fed water filter This is a must have any way you look at it. You can’t drink dirty water to stay healthy and alive. There are plenty of options out there, pick one now. An old Chinese proverb; “The best time to dig a well is before you are thirsty.”
If you are serious about getting yourself prepared, I published a book back in 2015, How to Survive and Thrive When the Power is Out. I sure wish I had organized it differently, but the information in it is perfect for the crisis coming at us. If you go to Amazon to order it get the digital version and copy it to a thumbdrive, USB stick, it’s a whole lot cheaper.
In it you will find a chapter on my emergency baby formula, plus,
Section one starts with;
Analyzing disasters, 35 items that disappear first after a disaster, and 10 diseases seen first after a disaster
There are sections on;
Thirst and hydration, sanitation, appetite fatigue, sleep, soap making, making jerky, what to do before the toilet gets nasty, womens and baby needs(some serious topics here), herbal stuff, how to be comfortable using hot rocks and lots more. The book has places to write in your own trials and triumphs and your grannys recipes. It is truly a get-you-started volume.
Oh, looks like the Doctor is on his way. Hope they fixed hubby up enough to let him go home today. Talk to ya soon.