Monthly Archives: November 2019

Article – Switzerland is getting rid of its emergency stockpile of coffee

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ZURICH – Switzerland on Wednesday announced plans to abolish the nation’s emergency stockpile of coffee, in place for decades, after declaring the beans not vital for human survival, though opposition to the proposal is brewing.

Nestle, the maker of instant coffee Nescafe and other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee. The country stockpiles other staples, too, such as sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed.

If you’ve spent any time as a survivalist, you know that the Swiss are the closest thing to a country that has institutionalized preparedness (the Israelis probably get runner-up). Their ‘secret’ bunkers that litter the countryside are famous…as was their mandate about new home construction including shelter space. Add into the mix the long-standing (though that may be changing) access to military arms for its citizenry and you have a recipe for nation that could be said to have made preparedness a national platform.

And…apparently….coffee was part of that preparedness plan.

In just about every classic piece of survivalist fiction (“Alas Babylon” springs to mind) there is always a little section about how the lack of coffee is greatly lamented by survivors (with cigarettes and alcohol coming in a close second). The Swiss, apparently, hedged their bets and stockpiled some java to get everyone started when they wake up in the morning.

I don’t drink coffee, but I do keep some freeze dried coffee around. I am told by aficionados that although freeze dried coffee is regarded rather poorly, it is magnitudes of order better than no coffee at all.

My own personal addiction is CocaCola. I can go without if I have to, but I won’t be happy about it. I find that my cravings for the sugar and caffeine can be met with long-term-storage-friendly drink mixes such as powdered ice tea mix. However, for the folks that smoke or have a less-than-healthy relationship with alcohol, well, I don’t envy them.

Part of me is a bit disappointed that the Swiss are slowly dismantling the policies and practices that made them a beacon of preparedness. For a while they were a great example of ‘civil defense’ to point to when discussing national policies on the subject.

But, in the end, the only person responsible for your safety and security is you. It’s nice when governments make it easier with things like tax breaks, flexible building codes, and free ammo, but you always need to operate as if it’s going to be just whatever you can do for yourself… which is often how it actually goes.

Article – The first map of America’s food supply chain is mind-boggling

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Our map is a comprehensive snapshot of all food flows between counties in the U.S.—grains, fruits and vegetables, animal feed, and processed food items.

As you might expect, the midwest produces a lot of grain which gets fed to a lot of animals which get fed to a lot of people. What’s interesting is what the map suggests – crippling or disabling a few key points can have a disproportionately large effect on a region. Remember the Boston marathon bombing a few years back? Two guys managed to shut down an entire citys worth of airports, ports, tunnels, and major transportation hubs…and thats just two guys with DIY training from the internet. Get a group of dedicated, focused individuals with some more serious training, and perhaps some real backing from some source, and you’ve got the potential to cause some major mayhem.

Note that the article mentions the regions/localities that export the most food, but also the ones that import the most food as well. Its fascinating to note that some of the biggest exporters of food are also the largest importers.

Although it may not necessarily have been the intended point, I think this article demonstrates quite nicely some vulnerabilities that exist should someone get their act together enough to have the muscle and materiels to try and create a little manufactured crisis.

Interestingly, the article suggests that should something….dramatic…happen to southern California the repercussions through the national food supply would be rather pronounced.

The moral here, I suppose, is to keep in mind that relying on a ‘long tail’ for your food exposes you to a significant risk and that the smart individual might be prudent to develop closer-to-home sources for foodstuffs.

Warmth

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After some rather uncharacteristically cold weather, things have stabilized into a more normal range of temperatures. Still cold, especially by the standards of people from states where “y’all” is considered good grammar, but tolerable.

Whether it’s sitting out a power outage from an ice storm, or you just happen to live in a hermit shack where the BTU’s come from whatever fuel you brought with you, staying warm is a priority in the winter. I live in a decent house with forced air heat from a gas furnace. Double whammy…in a power outage there’s no electricity for the blower (although the Honda EU2000 could be made to work in such a situation), or something may occur that disrupts the flow of natural gas (say, foreign hackers getting into the system that controls the distribution system.) Being me, I try to keep several options on hand. The most notable of which is the old standby – kerosene heaters. No fuel puts out as much heat as kerosene. And it’s remarkable stable and safe to handle. You could drop a match into a 5-gallon bucket of the stuff and…nothing.

I also keep one of those smaller Mr Buddy heaters around with a few dozen bottles of propane, as well as the 20# bottles out by the BBQ, but I find them not as efficient as the kerosene. Theyre nice if you want to justhear one small room, which is pretty much how to deal with a heat problem in a really bad situation…you retreat to one room and heat that room. but, I prefer the kerosene.

Of course, once its time for bed, you can crank the heat down considerably. Wool blankets are nice, but for keeping yourself comfortable warm when the temperature in the house is only a few degrees above freezing there is nothing that beats a big down comforter, and if you throw a heavy wool blanket on top of the comforter you’ve pretty much made yourself impervious to cold. Im one of those freaks that sleep better in a cold room and I often turn off the heat to the bedroom, shut the door, open a window, and sleep with my head right by the window when its below freezing.

The only reason a stunt like that works is because your bod has fuel to burn to keep your dumb butt warm. Going to bed hungry is a great way to not stay warm. Eat a good meal, go to sleep, stay warm.

Staying indoors, even in a house that is hovering in the low-50’s, is a far sight better than sitting out in the 5* weather. On the few occasions when we’ve lost power here in the winter I’ve managed to barely be inconvenienced…kerosene heaters and lanterns, along with judicious use of closed doors to isolate various rooms, kept me warm and my pipes unfrozen.

I mention this because, as I was straightening a few things up today I came across a stash of military wool blankets I forgot I had. Theyre not very attractive, and perhaps a tad scratchy, but I’ll take warm and slightly itchy over cold and frostbitten any day.