Reasons Why We Store Food

There are many reasons why we store food. Here’s a list of practical, sensible reasons to have your own food storage.

Why Do We Store Food?

What Are The Reasons for Storing Food?

In no particular order of priority..

Convenience

One of the most practical reasons for storing food is convenience. Build up your own “mini mart” of sorts. Your own little grocery store stash. It sure is convenient to simply go to your “deep pantry” and pick out what you might want for dinner, for example. Seriously, that’s a great reason all by itself. It’s convenient.

Independence

Food storage enables a feeling of independence. It just happens. That’s probably because of subconscious assurance that you have plenty of extra. Anything that you do towards becoming more self-reliant will result in a feeling of more independence. It’s a good feeling. Food storage = peace of mind.

[ Read: Prepping and Preparedness for Independence ]

Because The Ants Do

“In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest…”

[ Read: Are you an Ant or a GrassHopper ]

Food Price Inflation

Prices always go up over time. Sometimes rapidly and significantly! Food Storage is a good investment for your household. The more food you buy now, the less you will pay in the long run when prices are higher. Store what you normally eat. Eat what your store.

“The price per serving goes way down when you buy in bulk. Massively so. Bottom line – it’s more economical, especially when you cover the basics like beans, rice, wheat, salt, spices, etc. used in many recipes.”

[ Read: Food Price Inflation Hidden in Packaging ]

With An Existing Food Storage, You Can Wait To Buy “On Sale”

Here’s a secret: One of the beneficial financial reasons for storing food: When you have accumulated a decent amount of stored food (a deep pantry, full chest freezer, dry goods, etc.., basically your own mini grocery store), then you will have the luxury of (mostly) buying only when something’s on sale.

How’s that? Well, if you mostly eat foods from your stored food inventory, you won’t be forced to grocery shop for “needs”. Your needs will already be in your home. Thus, you can be picky about your shopping – buying items when on sale, etc..

Hunger Is A Motivator

A commenter here on the blog once said, “I have been hungry before. It was not a good feeling. I still remember that feeling today.” ” I try to make sure that never happens to me again. ever… “

As a society, we are not that many missed meals away from anarchy and chaos. Though it may seem quite improbable, a SHTF situation could quickly result in people going hungry and becoming desperate. Don’t let that be you. Build an inventory of food storage.

[ Read: 9 Missed Meals From Anarchy ]

Crop Failures & Large Scale Agriculture

We rely on big agriculture, corporate farming. There are times when major weather shifts will decimate crops or greatly reduce output. What happens next? Prices will go up on those products while availability goes down.

[ Read: 98% Depend On 2% Who Are Farmers ]

Systemic Risk of “Just-In-Time” Delivery

JIT: Just In Time delivery: It’s pretty much how all distribution works these days. Basically there is zero extra inventory in stores (including grocery stores). If this is disrupted (for any number of reasons), there will be shortages. So this is a systemic risk.

Generally speaking, most grocery stores may run out of many or most food items within 3 days of missed regular deliveries – coupled with people panic. That should be motivation enough!

[ Read: Food Delivery System Disaster Waiting To Happen ]

Weather Event Disruption

Severe Weather Panic: People preemptively freak out right before a forecast major weather event (snow storm, hurricane, etc.). They flock to the grocery stores to clear out the shelves. Why? Because most don’t have more than a day or two of food at home! This is another reason for storing food…so you don’t have to be part of that crowd.

[ Read: 10-80-10 Rule of Human Behavior ]

Stranded at home from Severe Weather Impact. A major snowstorm, ice-storm, flooding, hurricane, (fill in the blank) can leave you stranded at home for awhile. It may leave people isolated for days or even a week or more! Power and utilities are often damaged while roadways and distribution is affected (availability of food & supplies). Severe weather is one of the common reasons for storing food — for preparedness.

Sick, Injured, Recovering at Home

Unable To Leave Home: You might become sick. Maybe a health issue or injury has you home-bound for awhile. You will be glad that you have at least a minimal food storage and one less thing to worry about!

Job Loss

You might lose your job. It’s not unheard of to lose one’s job. Expected or unexpected. With no more paycheck, if you’ve built up a food storage supply it will be one less expense to deal with until you get back on your feet.

Squeezed Budget: It happens. For whatever of the many possible reasons, if you are suddenly faced with reduced income (maybe you retire, a pay cut, your spouse loses a job) – having a food storage supply in the house will be a relief.

A reader here said, “I learned from experience! We had a financial crisis. It taught me…if I hadn’t had a deep pantry we wouldn’t have eaten.”

[ Read: 8 Lessons Learned From The Great Depression Era ]

For Those Reliant On EBT

(EBT) is an electronic benefit transfer system that allows state welfare departments to transfer money. Lots of people are on it, and I’m not judging here. For those who rely on this assistance, you can (and should) be smart with grocery purchases. There is cheap food available that could be added to a food storage. Forgo some of the more expensive products to make that happen. Just suggesting.

[ Read: How to Prep when you’re Broke ]

Pandemic

Just look what happened with Covid. Shortages! First the TP, then more and more foods from supply chain disruptions. When people notice a shortage of something, they will buy more of that ‘something’ the second they see it on the shelf. It’s a natural reaction. Quickly the supply chains are disrupted. Basically all of our food comes from a complicated supply chain. A pandemic will directly and negatively affect that.

[ Read: When The Trucks Stop, It’s Over ]

Major Earthquake and Regional Disaster

Earthquake: For those who live in earthquake country, do yourself a favor and build up emergency food storage. The “big one” is going to happen some day. You don’t know when. It could be tomorrow. Building and infrastructure damage could bring an entire region into shutdown. What you have will be all there is.

[ Read: Natural Hazards Leading To Natural Disasters ]

Terrorism

The follow-on effects of “terrorism” could be bad enough to limit movements and travel. The reasons for food storage are many. And this is just another one. It might seem unlikely to happen, but we do live in very uncertain times..

War

Prices go up as the uncertainties of war pressure the markets. The price of oil puts price pressure on everything, including food. You do know that food prices will not go down. Rumors of war? Actual wars? What if there’s a war right here? Unthinkable, right? Yet another reason for food storage.

[ Read: What I Can Predict With Certainty ]

Financial Economic Meltdown

Economic collapse of the current financial system could lead to a domino effect of major disruption at a minimum, or bring down the entire system at worst. If bad enough it could lead to an era similar or possibly worse than the Great Depression. Buy food storage now, while you can afford it.

[ Read: Analogy Of The 20 Titanic Lifeboats ]

Societal Chaos

Division leading to chaos. Mass protests, rioting, looting on a grand scale, perhaps caused by a trigger event that chain reacts into society. The resulting chaos will be more likely in urban areas of high population density.

The trigger event could be nearly anything. We’ve seen it before in the news, and it will happen again somewhere. Perhaps even widespread. These days we even hear talk of the potential for ‘civil war’. Could it happen again?

Food storage – it’s a good thing for disruptions.

EMP or CME Event

EMP: An electromagnetic pulse, either weaponized (EMP nuke) or a natural event (massive solar flare and CME, coronal mass ejection). These events could badly damage or destroy parts of (or all of) the electric power grid. Anything electronic. We could be sent back to the stone age, and most will not survive it. This is a worst case scenario, but worth mentioning.

[ Read: Solar SuperStorm 1859 ‘Carrington Event’ – In the Blink of an Eye ]

Food Storage = Personal Security

A commenter on the blog said, “I went to observe my local super market 8 hours after the Hurricane had passed. There was definitely a lot of people panic buying. If there is a run on Food you do not want to be anywhere near the masses of people that’s for sure.”

Food Insurance

Another commenter said, “You buy insurance, hoping you won’t need it. You buy food, and you know you will use it. Even if some of it gets wasted, the majority of it will be used at some point in time. It’s illogical not to have food insurance!”

These are just a few (of many) reasons for storing food. To have extra food storage on hand. It’s a security blanket for survival.

The point is, it’s never to late to start. Or to continue adding to what you already have.

[ Read: Four Things That Affect Food Storage ]

[ Read: Food Storage Mistakes To Avoid ]