A Year's Supply of Food?

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I don’t see anything greedy in planning for the future by laying up a cache of food. It seems prudent and sensible. People squander money on ATVs, snowmobiles, boats, and all sorts of other fivolous items, which they buy on credit. THAT seems reckless and maybe even sinful.

Having stores of food is no different than having a savings account or retirement fund. I’m surprised that people think that means you’re not trusting God or are hoarding things for yourself. Meanwhile, people waste food everyday, throwing away good food. Restaurants give too big of portions that go to waste.

Our society is very wasteful. There’s nothing wrong with prudent planning.
 
Mom_of_5 said:
We always have extra food in the pantry. We could probably survive several months and not go hungry. We do not go out of our way to hord for fear of war or famine, or end times. We shop at a large store in volume and have groceries on hand to help out the food bank and feed guests. What we have to think about when it comes to hording and stockpiling huge amounts of any commodity is the fact that hording creates shortages and the price of goods goes way up in price. The real answer is “everything in moderation”, let common sense prevail.

Mom of 5
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So being an ex-mormon and all you must know that our storage is not the effort of running into the store at the last minute, but by careful management over a period of time. We don’t go and clear out the super markets we do not create shortages or add to the increased cost of food. That is done by those that react to CNN fear mongering. I have seen people reacting to stories of rice shortages and coming out of the stores with shopping carts piled high with bags of rice, and yes as a result, bags of rice are rising about a dollar a week where I live. My family has been buying a little extra rice each month for a long time. We have been counselled by our leaders for decades to be prepared for emergency situations, be it financial or civil emergencies, not the end of times, and yes we also help those who are in need if the situation arises. So there is a difference between hording and storage.

Paul
 
J_C said:
absolutely correct and my previous posts, including the one to which you replied here, make this point exactly.

the distinction is between prudent preparation, and hoarding. a year’s supply of food (and whatever else) seems like hoarding to me. now I believe hoarding is a type of mental disorder. I have the tendency myself, and have observed it in many others, especailly older people who having enough money will buy way more of things than they can possible every use anytime soon. dozens of pairs of shoes, closets full of lotion and razor blades, these are criticisms of me, for I am prone to hoard, so I know a little about how the disorder develops.

it starts with a noble ppurpose, and gradually gets out of hand.

that is why I be;leive that a religion which teaches the accumulation of a year’s foodsupply (and other supplies) is promoting, rather than hindering, the hoarding disease.

Don’t you think that western culture encourages the acquisition and accumulation of “stuff” over the reliance, daily, upon the providence of God? wouldn’t a correct religion work against what secular culture encourages? which is the storing up of supplies while millions around the globe go hungry, not for want of enough food production, but because it is being stored up rather than distributed?
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What utter nonsense, food storage can in no way be compared to compulsive shopping. We don’t go out, and say “Oh look dear they have a new brand of spam, we better get right down to the store and buy it all up before somebody else there”. Come on, our storage is the calumniation of in most cases of years of careful management of financial resources. By your comments it appears that your really do not know to much about the subject.

As for world hunger all of us could take care of the problem in as little as a year, if big business, governments would get out of the way. World poverty and hunger is a well managed enterprise. By the way the LDS church send hundreds of tons of food and clothing to areas of the world that are in need. So yes we gather it together but we also share it out.

Paul
 
lovesMary said:
Didn’t Joseph, in the Old Testament, have a vision of 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine? He told this to Pharoh who saved grain and was prepared.
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Pharaoh also had a superb army to guard his stores of grain.
 
As an LDS I’d just like to clarify that the principle of storing food isn’t specifically tied to a belief in a specific and imminent cataclysmic world event but rather is viewed as a prudent measure to cover local disasters, loss of job, etc. in addition to larger issues. In recent years the LDS leadership has been less prone to emphasize the “1 year” target and instead has just focused on having food (specifically raw cooking materials such as grains and oil), water and supplies to last for some “extended” period of time. What exactly we store and how much of it is left to each families discretion but the church does have good information on recommended items to store and storage methods on it’s website.

Tied closely to this recommendation is the recommendation to not take on unnecessary debt. In most cases, LDS leadership defines unnecessary debt as anything besides a home loan and perhaps student loan debt. Credit card debt, car loans, etc. are discouraged.

Both of these topics are generally viewed as “wise council” rather than binding commandments and there are certainly plenty of active members that ignore one or both of these admonitions.
 
i think all of this goes back to Brigham young’s desire for self sufficiency. he wanted the LDS independent from the outside world and inculcated them with all sorts of these type things. later on it was less necessary as a “people” but still good for the individual. today, it’s just good advice to keep people prepared for any type of short term setback, be it loss of employment or natural disaster. not really a bad idea these days and certainly not problematic in my opinion. sometimes it’s been abused by individuals trying to make money selling food storage and emergency supplies and one could make a case that the main purpose is to keep folks able to pay tithing and less likely to need assistance but i don’t know that you can really say that’s bad. I think may be something unique to mormons but certainly not worthy of criticism.
 
i totally agree with majick. God wants all of us to be self reliant and have food in case of emergencies is just one part of becoming self reliant. Mormons work much harder in their careers and education then food storage.

One thing i would like to point out though is the fact that the church was able to produce food that can be stored for over 30 years and is still edible and has nutritional value.

In comparison the MREs that the US military developed only is designed for up to 2 years.

I don’t know of any other product then the LDS food that is so durable.

www.providentliving.org
 
falisrm,

Thanks for the link. I think there needs to be more pragmatism in religion. The most common reason for divorce is finances. I notice this site gives wise counsel about finances as well as food storage.

My sister’s family has just finished a course in financial prudence given by a Protestant Church. It is the Dave Ramsey Program. (google it). She is now trying to get this program made part of the pre-marriage counseling at her parish. So far no luck, but she intends to keep trying. In the mean time, she is telling all of her neighbors about the course. It is really helping a lot of families.
 
falisrm said:
i totally agree with majick. God wants all of us to be self reliant and have food in case of emergencies is just one part of becoming self reliant. Mormons work much harder in their careers and education then food storage.

One thing i would like to point out though is the fact that the church was able to produce food that can be stored for over 30 years and is still edible and has nutritional value.

In comparison the MREs that the US military developed only is designed for up to 2 years.

I don’t know of any other product then the LDS food that is so durable.

www.providentliving.org
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ease up on the faith promoting rumors. I haver had c rats that were close to 30 years old and i had a lot of MRE’s that were over 2 years old. I have also had sam andy **** that went bad in 7. thet LDS church didn’t “invent” and food storage technology nor has there been any miracles reported on it’s shelf life. private companies use pretty much the same principles. there is irradiated food that pretty much has a half life in stead of a shelf life 😃 you want durable food? look at twinkie’s. those things will outlive cockroaches.
 
I have a load of Hallowe’en candy leftover from 2004 in the back of my closet. Does that count?
 
Paul_G said:
So being an ex-mormon and all you must know that our storage is not the effort of running into the store at the last minute, but by careful management over a period of time. We don’t go and clear out the super markets we do not create shortages or add to the increased cost of food. That is done by those that react to CNN fear mongering. I have seen people reacting to stories of rice shortages and coming out of the stores with shopping carts piled high with bags of rice, and yes as a result, bags of rice are rising about a dollar a week where I live. My family has been buying a little extra rice each month for a long time. We have been counselled by our leaders for decades to be prepared for emergency situations, be it financial or civil emergencies, not the end of times, and yes we also help those who are in need if the situation arises. So there is a difference between hording and storage.

Paul
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I never belonged to LDS, my husband is x-LDS. I do know a bit about economics(MY BA is in Economics) and what I know about LDS is from my husband, his family, friends and studying.
I am not against being prepared, it makes sense to be ready “just in case”, but as I said, all things in moderation.

Mom of 5
 
When I think of all the money dished out to pay for various insurance policies…and not one of them is going pay a return of food if I need it in an emergency…then why not store up a quantity of long term food supplies in the event of a catastrophe?
 
J_C said:
I am not aware of any Catholic teachings that encourage hoarding of supplies, or material goods, or wealth. far from it, in fact, we are continually urged to give things away, to not hoard, to share sacrificially, to consume with a mind that acknowledges the hunger and illnesses of the world.
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Joseph of Egypt stored seven years worth of grain. It wasn’t considered hoarding because it was stored at a time when there was plenty and distributed when there was a shortage. The LDS are encouraged by modern prophets to have a food storage plan. It is a part of our encouragment to be self sufficient as individual families and as a church. If no one stores food while there is plenty, who will distribute food if/when there is widespead shortage? The government?
 
I have made it a habit of having at least 3 months of non-perishable food on hand. It has saved me from “panic” several times in the last couple of decades when I was out of work for several months…my unemployment check paid utilities, rent and gas…and that was about it…however I had a “wall” of canned goods to eat…several large bags of rice and a freezer stockpiled full of meat.

I finally got another job…but I didn’t buy food for 9 weeks…I had plenty…and I was thankful I had saved food…a practice I learned from some RLDS friends…who happend to be former LDS.
 
Personally, I think this is a worthwhile thread to “resurrect”. In terms of food, I store varying amounts of different things. I grow various fruits and vegetables, which are canned, and sometimes frozen. When I can the fall harvest, I’ll often can enough for a couple years, so that I can use that space to plant something else the next year. Foods stored in glass jars keep well, and on the rare occasions when things spoil, it is obvious. Fruits and vegetables aren’t all that I can. I also can meats and some soups. Although the soups taste best when heated, they certainly may be eaten cold if there is no other option. Not all my canning is done in the fall. Berries are often frozen, then made into jams and jellies at a later date. Potatoes and carrots keep decently in cold storage, and will wait until I finish the things that spoil quickly.
Most of the things I store aren’t kept in fear of a natural disaster, but because I’d rather eat things that I control what they contain and how they are prepared.
 
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