Living the Pantry Lifestyle - Venezuela

Unless you are living under a rock, you probably have been hearing about the food crisis in Venezuela.  A country once rich in oil money is now without the most basic essentials.  I've read a few articles about what is causing the crisis, there are many opinions but they all lead back to Socialist leaders (to what extent the crisis is manufactured and by whom seems to be the argument).

I don't write often about stocking up for an End of the World scenario for I have seen such stories have the opposite affect of deepening the pantry.  They can cause us to throw our hands up in despair and say we could never stock up in this way.  Very few people have the budget or the space for such an endeavor.

However, most of us could and should have enough essential items to get us through a temporary crisis.  Can such a thing happen here?  Could grocery store shelves be empty? Could there be a crisis which brings in the military as in Venezuela?

I have one word for you... Katrina.  It has happened here.  I heard an interview given by the head of one of the faith based programs who was among the first to arrive after the hurricane hit.  He said there was total chaos until the military showed up.  In a major U. S. city.

The most likely scenario the average American could go through is long term unemployment.  Been there.  Done that.  I can assure you, the time it happened when I had a well stocked pantry (including essentials) was a whole lot easier than when I didn't.  It doesn't help to have a grocery store full of food down the road if you have no way of purchasing the food or any other supplies you need.

I know most of us don't want to think about scary things happening.  Only a handful of readers follow the websites I do that are full of the "what if" scenarios... and I understand it.  I've mentioned before that I can read those with no problem but put me in front of talking heads debating politics for five minutes and I come away with a serious twitch.  Especially this year!

The thing is, we do live in a fallen world and every one of us is subject to an environmental or man made crisis.  Obviously we will be affected the most by a local crisis but I remember immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, some trucks carrying food and essentials were diverted to those Gulf states.

A good friend lives in New Mexico and the store where she shops had shortages due to those trucks being diverted.  Many hardware stores throughout the country had a hard time getting plywood and some construction items because of the massive rebuilding that had to be accomplished in the Gulf states.

I know some people are tired of hearing this but it is so simple, just by putting back some extra food and essentials you can keep yourself from having to be put in a bad situation and becoming a victim.  If you have what you need put back, you don't have to drive in the middle of a blizzard.  If you already have some essentials handy, you don't have to stand in line for hours before or after a hurricane.  Should there be a power outage, you have some water on the shelves so you don't have to stand in line for one gallon of water.

I'm going to revisit soon what I learned long ago in reading about war town Europe in WWII.  In the meantime, the following article is interesting.  It has information about what one can learn to have in your pantry from the crisis in Venezuela.

LINKS
The Organic Prepper... here.


Photo:  Ecuador Times