Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

One of the more revealing thought experiments I envisioned recently began with a very simple question:

What would happen if a household had a pantry containing:

50 pounds of beans
50 pounds of brown rice
50 pounds of wheat
50 pounds of soybeans
50 pounds of rolled oats
50 pounds of grass-fed tallow
Along with:

iodized salt
dry milk
spices
greens from gardening, foraging, or sprouting
and two eggs a day per person
Could a person or two people actually live on that?

The answer is yes. Not only survive, but likely remain healthier than many Americans currently eating what passes for the modern “standard diet.”

When the calories are added up, this pantry contains roughly 630,000 to 700,000 calories, depending on the exact composition of the oats, soybeans, and tallow. Supplemented with eggs, greens, dry milk, and sprouted foods, this reserve would sustain two adults for approximately 10 to 12 months at about 1,800 calories per person per day.

What appears visually to be a relatively modest stack of bulk dry goods in a spare room or basement corner can quietly represent nearly a full year of food security for a couple.

Now, meat is excluded from this particular exercise, as this is a basic survival plan for the existential emergency. Some of us may have access to butchered animals, but not all. If you do, consider yourselves lucky. And most likely, you probably live in the country.

That said, add in meat - and this is the diet of past generations. And it isn’t all that hard to live on, as long as one has the cooking and preparation skills necessary. And both are easily learned.