If you can, keeping a buffer it seems like a sensible thing to do, given that supply chains now are almost entirely ‘Just In Time’ so have almost no buffer in the system, so small supply issues can rapidly become larger ones.
Instead of causing a problem like the hoarders who stuff trolleys with everything they can grab, having a stock to cover that gap actually does the opposite; if I hear tomatoes are in short supply I won’t rush to the shops to grab some before they completely run out, I can just stay home cos I already have enough canned ones to last a month or two anyway, I got them when there were plenty (actually I am a little low on canned tomatoes, I’ll add them to the list).
Yes, to the extent that Americans keep a little extra in the pantry, in a way that was predicted by the corporate buyers (so, not a sudden change in habit) that makes our whole supply chain a little more resilient. We can absorb must fluctuations and delays in supply better.
Of course, if you live in a small apartment in a city, you can’t do a lot of that. I keep way more on hand in my big house in the 'burbs than i ever did in my cramped apartment in the city.
And i misspoke. All that stuff i described isn’t over the fridge, it’s over the oven. About the same height, but the oven doesn’t stick out as far. The space over the fridge has emergency flashlights, matches, stuff for making yogurt, a rarely-used coffee machine, and vases. I can reach the yogurt stuff and the light stuff without the stool, because they are on the sides, but need the stool for the vases, which are in the middle.
I read your link to the end and I can’t tell you that, but I have been listening to an “oil guy” called Nate Hagens on you tube and - here’s the thing - even if there wasn’t a war started and being run by idiots - we are facing The Great Simplification soon anyway.
which is why people would rather talk about toilet paper.
I found Nate’s channel because he has done fantastic interviews with experts in both climate change and AI: he’s one of those who understand the big picture.
I’m curious about this. The 55 miles/hour limit was introduced in the 1970s as a consequence of the oil crisis. I see I-294 has zones at 55 and 65. Why do people drive so fast today? Is it still possible for someone to drive at the speed limit on U.S. highways?
I-294 is a modern interstate, and it is fabulously maintained. Unless traffic is heavy and/or driving conditions poor, 55 or even 65 MPH is too slow of a speed limit. In good conditions, traffic can flow safely and easily at 85 MPH.
Can you drive at 55 MPH? Of course, but keep in mind that traffic flows smoothly and safely when all the cars are traveling at pretty much the same speed, that’s why they call it “traffic flow” (like a liquid). I also suggest you stay in the right 1 or 2 lanes because, if someone changes lanes at 85 MPH and suddenly sees you in front of him traveling at 55 MPH, it could get ugly.
So, travel at the speed with which you are most comfortable, but don’t become an embolism in the artery of traffic.
Now, look we don’t drive on a high paced “fabulously maintained” interstate! (Slow paced rural roads, where a deer or tractor might get in your way, apparition style!)
There’s a good chance it could get worse within the year. With exports from Ras Tanura (Saudi Arabia) and Basra being blocked at the Strait of Hormuz, the Port of Corpus Christi is now the #1 oil exporting port in the world. There’s a good chance, however, that we might run out of fresh water within a year, which would lead to Corpus Christi joining Ras Tanura and Basra in the same boat (though obviously for different reasons). I don’t know just how much higher gas prices would go if that happened, but I don’t think it would be pretty.
We also import a lot of food. And much of this is either different foods, or at different seasons.
Very few people in the current USA would be happy with the sort of food availability limits that people took for granted before trade went routinely global. Remember those scenes in old children’s books in which an orange was a great Christmas present?
Some of the difference of course is refrigeration. But a lot of it is transport. And transport, even within the USA, is affected by a lot of things happening outside any given country.
Our current complicated distribution system, for food as well as for other things, is actually pretty fragile. (That includes the refrigeration; and the production.) However — while it makes a whole lot of sense for people to keep some stock of necessities plus some additional desirables, on the grounds that there are a whole shitload of things that might prevent a daily trip to the grocery, and some things that could prevent that grocery from being well stocked: there are limits to this. One limit is storage space, another is money; these obviously vary a whole lot from household to household. Another is that unless you’re in a really unusual situation, if the problem persists for a really long time you’re almost certainly screwed anyway. There’s no sense in buying ten year’s worth of toilet paper, because in any situation in which toilet paper becomes unavailable for ten years, toilet paper is going to be the least of your problems.
Buy some extra of what you use anyway, according to your finances and storage space. Rotate it so it doesn’t go bad. Don’t do this in response to some particular crisis; just make a habit of it and do it anyway, all the time. Not all crises are predictable.
I eat berries from South America all winter. I live in the Northeast, in a suburb. Most of my food is shipped from somewhere. Wheat from the Midwest, vegetables from CA and Mexico. Meat and apples are the only things i mostly get from local sources. And if there are shortages, those local sources will have a LOT more demand.
Of course hoarding fresh produce and meat has limitations. Not everyone cans and freezers are only so big.
As much as people complain about the cost of groceries the reality is that grocery prices as a fraction of household expenses are, from a historical perspective, pretty low. Housing, healthcare, and transportation costs (and servicing education debt for many) I suspect are the big drags on what people can afford.
I’m not going to buy a big freezer chest for meats. If I spend more for produce so be it.
so sorry, I shouldn’t post stuff right before leaving for awhile.
It’s society suddenly collapsing is one way to put it - but in theory, it could be done deliberately, thoughtfully, with everyone working together. in theory!
basically, we are at or past peak oil and the downslope of the carbon pulse is going to mean everything is going to be a lot different, like smaller and local. a huge change.
this war and what it could mean is - if we are lucky - only a dress rehearsal.
oh, boy, is this true.
yes, exactly
again, sorry I posted a video without enough text and then rushed off.
I bought a big standing freezer during the pandemic, when i didn’t want to shop very often, and we kept a large supply of stuff.
Now there’s a drawer full of frozen veggies. A drawer full of extra sacks of flour. (One open on the shelf, one in the freezer. Flour doesn’t need to be kept cold, but it never hatches insects in the freezer, and it helps maintain the thermal mass of the freezer.) A drawer mostly of frozen fish. A shelf of meat. A shelf of frozen leftovers. (Make a big pot of soup, freeze half of it.) A shelf of frozen coffee concentrate… I quite like having it, but it’s not going to protect me from the zombie apocalypse.
If you need to keep the freezer full freeze gallon jugs of water.
I have, let me count…4 freezers not including the 2 refrigerator freezers.
But my husband keeps them full of catfish and venison. So the one in the garage is for freezing our veggie garden stuff and ice cream.
The inside the house ones are for daily freezer needs. My daughter fusses if we put one thing on a particular shelf because she uses it while cooking if something needs to cool quickly. She’s funny that way.
I’m not bragging. I hate all these freezers running. But husband brought them home for his hunting/fishing pursuits. And I deal.
Ivy just won’t do!