Really? Brexit Boxes!

Submitted by David Trammel on Sat, 01/19/2019 - 20:35
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The Second Circle: Food and Water

Why not spend $380 at the local grocery store instead?

Anxious Brits have bought hundreds of food-prepper 'Brexit Boxes'

Usually the domain of survivalist groups and doomsday "preppers," food stockpiling has gained some mainstream appeal in the UK recently, amid fears that the country could leave the European Union without a deal, leading to shortages of basic goods. More than 600 people across Britain have bought a $380 "Brexit Box" since it was launched in December, according to manufacturer Emergency Food Storage. Billed as "Brexit stockpiling made easy," the box includes 60 freeze-dried main meals, a water filter and fire starter. "Brexit could potentially be an emergency -- if we believe all these predicted chaos reports," James Blake, who co-owns the company, told CNN. "We are in a situation that is completely unprecedented ... something like this [the box] puts people in control when they can't control what is going on around them."

We had a huge storm here last weekend, which dumped almost a foot of snow on the city, and people were packed at the grocery store buying like it was the end of the world. Really? how many times have we seen this and still people don't have the basics in their kitchen.

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Blueberry

Thu, 01/24/2019 - 17:16

Go into any food store in Florida just before a storm and guess what will sell out first. The World of Wally in the Camping section sells a 2 days supply of food for one person for like 40 dollars. Just can't figure out what a freeze-dried fish an chips would taste like. Maybe I should get with this company before next storm season and market a kit for Florida. The unknown in this is the UK imports 60% of there food . Meat and wheat from the USA so that should not be a problem. Nothing like making a profit off of fear.

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David Trammel

Sat, 01/26/2019 - 10:21

I've always tried to have a well stocked pantry. Perhaps not the 6 month's supply of food that is recommended but enough to keep me and my cats feed for several weeks. I'm light on water and of course beer, lol. We had a recent snow storm that dumped almost a foot on us and to my shame I had to go out in it at one point because I had forgotten that. It was a quick trip, down to the main street and back.

Having a food in an emergency is only expensive, if you try to buy it DURING the emergency. The simplest thing is to spend a mere $10 or $20 a week for a couple of months, buying a bag of storable food to put up. Put back that bag of chips and bean dip that you threw in the cart to munch on over TV and put a couple of cans of soup, chili or stew.

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ClareBroommaker

Sat, 01/26/2019 - 19:51

Who is suggesting six months? I recommend having a look at one of those photo essays which show people from around the world with their family and their _one week's_ worth of food. That's a lot of volume expanded to 24 weeks.

Blueberry, are their really two-day supplies of food packaged up for $40? How ridiculous.

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Blueberry

Sun, 01/27/2019 - 11:20

Stuff has like 25 year shelf live, hell I will not be around to see if it will last 25 years.. It is good if you are back packing in the mountains were every ounce of weight fells like a pound at the end of the day. My days of hiking the appalachian trail are over. https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-House-2-Day-Emergency-Supply/dp/B015GO2JLM

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David Trammel

Sun, 01/27/2019 - 18:10

I should learn not to post after an all day stint of moving posts, lol.

Six months comes from my survivalist days, when you had to prepare for a nuclear war. Its woefully excessive but it does make a over the top point. How many of our clueless friends and family members have almost zero food in their homes to see them through a emergency?

I have probably 4-6 weeks of food right now in the pantry and the freezer, some of it a bit too long in storage. I need to spend the next month or so eating some of that older food too. I'm light on pet food since I now have three foster cats in residence (one of which is a juvenile and eats like a human teenager).

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lathechuck

Fri, 03/08/2019 - 20:45

I really like peanut butter, and I buy it in the biggest plastic jars the grocery store stocks (a little more than a quart). When the jar is empty, I wash it thoroughly, let it dry thoroughly, and refill it from the bulk section of our local organic grocery with rice, beans, pasta, nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. (Nuts will get rancid if stored for too long, so I only keep one full jar in reserve, along with the one I'm taking from.) As the years have gone by, I've got dozens of jars, each with a pound or two of dry food items on the shelves.

A handy rule of thumb that I heard in an old English monastery: the standard ration for a monk was one pound of wheat, ground into flour, per day. That's about 2000 kCal, IIRC. High-fat foods contain more energy, per pound and per volume, but (having once nibbled on a rancid cheese cracker) I know how important it is to avoid rancidity!

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Serinde

Sat, 03/09/2019 - 05:57

there's not. Fools and their money are easily parted, and why are we surprised that an enterprising group jumped on this bandwagon? I'm no gambler, so won't be taking odds on what sort of Brexit we end up with here, but I'm not panic buying, either. There is bound to be dislocation and supply chains will be stretched stupidly even if there isn't a 'no deal' Brexit. If there is, well, that'll be unpleasant, and food might be the least of our worries. Having said that, I'd expect fresh fruit and vegetables and bread to be the first to go and take the longest to restock. I may have a few extra tins of British staples on my pantry shelves (tinned tomatoes, baked beans, borlotti beans -- well, a staple in my house) plus slightly more sugar and flour of various sorts than I might normally have. And my freezer is always well stocked (peaches for cobbler, anyone?). But I have 240ft2 of dedicated growing space in my garden, and that doesn't include the fruit. Water, surprisingly, isn't an issue where I live. I might be more concerned if I lived in either of the nearest two cities, though.