Should I have Food & Water Insurance? What is it?

The majority of Americans have some form of insurance. Car insurance is probably the most common. There's insurance for your pets , home, health, jewelry, boats, motorcycles, renters, and so on.

In this piece we are going to examine Food and Water Insurance. What is it? Who needs it? How much does it cost? Where do I get it? What are the risks of not having it?

Unless you live in a cave, you are aware of the recent super storm called Hurricane Sandy that recently devastated much of the northeast. Several years ago, there was a huge storm that devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast region. In both of these disasters, government assistance has been less than stellar if not outright negligible.

Let's not lose our perspective on super storms and hurricanes. There are any number of disasters that may occur, both natural and man made. Disasters can happen anywhere, so no one is immune to their effects regardless of status, class, or standing in the community.

FEMA traditionally recommends that everyone have three days of food and water at all times as well as a quick way to grab your important and necessary papers. The latter is based on the premise that you may have to suddenly vacate your home. The former is predicated on you being self sufficient until help can arrive.

What happens if help doesn't arrive? We have seen in the cases of both Sandy and Katrina that many people have suffered or died because help was not available soon enough. I could write an entire other article on government response, and I may do so later, but I want to focus on helping you devise a better plan.


I was never a Boy Scout, but their motto is "Be Prepared." It has only been in recent years that the importance of these two words has registered deeply in my psyche. If many of the victims of these two huge storms had been prepared, some would never have needed to leave their homes at all, or they may have been able to return as soon as the immediate threat had passed.

There is no perfect scenario for every contingency, so each individual should tailor their Food and Water Insurance to their specific needs, means, and geographic locations.

Some people are more resilient than others. The tougher among us may prefer to stay on their property even if it is flooded. If sufficient food and water are available, and other accommodations can be adequately met, why not stay? In the case of a flood, persons with upper levels to their homes may choose to stay upstairs while waiting for the water to recede. I'll remind you once more that not all disasters involve flooding.

So how does one obtain Food and Water Insurance? The beauty is that each individual or family can purchase it on a level that is affordable and on a schedule that works for their specific situation. Simply purchasing foods that are non-perishable or having a long shelf life can be bought in small, medium, or large quantities as your budget allows. There are also bulk food supplies available from an increasing number of sources.

I will only touch lightly on some easily obtained and economical foods that can be stored for long periods. Brown rice and several kinds of beans are available in small or large quantities and have protein which will be key to keeping up your energy in any emergency. Many people will stock up with one month's supply or even years worth of supplies, then they rotate the stock, using the oldest quantities first. For shorter periods of self sustaining, this rotation method can be done with everyday foods, giving caution to foods that tend to have shorter shelf lives.

Many outdoors shops have pre-packaged foods with longer shelf lives. Hikers, campers, and other outdoors enthusiasts are very familiar with these foods and they are similar to the MREs (meals ready to eat) that our armed forces use. Because they are dehydrated, they are lighter in weight and more compact.

The dehydrated foods generally require water for rehydration before consumption. It is not always necessary to rehydrate, but prolonged or even short periods of use without rehydrating them can cause constipation or impaction. This brings us to the other half of Food and Water Insurance.

One can live longer without food than they can water. The amount of water we use and consume daily is quite remarkable and largely overlooked until it is no longer available. Contaminated water can kill you quickly. Having a supply of usable and consumable water is essential to life and survival. It is not enough to simply have a water source.

If there is no electricity available, how will one boil water? Are there sufficient materials available for making a fire? Do I know how to start a fire in the event I don't have access to matches or other traditional forms of fire starting? Will authorities allow fires in the area where I live? How much time and energy will be dedicated to gathering and purifying water?

I know,...so much to think about. Better now than later, huh? I'll give you a few pointers to get you thinking in the right direction. One way to purify water is to place four drops of regular unscented Clorox per gallon of water and shake it well. Wait at least thirty minutes before using. This requires having the Clorox available when a disaster strikes, so add this to your shopping list and put some away for a rainy day.

Outdoors outfitters have differing treatments and filtering systems that work well for the short term. For longer use there is a filter that can be used for up to 6,000 gallons of water and it is made by Berkey. They can be a little pricey, but what insurance isn't? Insurance is a gamble. When you don't have it and need it, you will wish you had it. These Berkey filters can be purchased with a stainless container that looks exactly like a commercial coffee or tea dispenser. They can filter the nastiest of water. One supplier tells me they will filter swamp water. Personally, I would be inclined to treat the water after filtering just for good measure, so remember to keep some Clorox handy.

I have seen YouTube videos where people have used two five gallon food grade buckets to build an inexpensive filtering system using the Berkey filters. For brevity, I will leave you to research that on your own.

It is easier to filter water that has been stored than to filter water gathered from a pond or stream. Pre-filtering using cloth or some other material may be needed to remove dirt or larger debris from pond water. The way I see it, if the Berkey filters will filter  6,000 gallons, I may be able to prolong the life of the filters by having a store of water I bottled myself. I use everything from Gatorade bottles to empty peanut butter jars to store tap water. It is my understanding that water stored in this manner will be good from six months to a year if not exposed to the sun or light. I would much rather run old tap water through my filters than pond water, even if it has been pre-filtered. Another tip on storing water is to use rain barrels or the five gallon food grade buckets that can be purchased from places like Home Depot, Tractor Supply or Northern Tool Company.

Let's revisit the food half of our insurance for a moment. It is important to note that many foods, fruits, and vegetables can be dehydrated using home dehydrators. They can then be packaged for storage that will keep for years. YouTube is chock full of great videos on these methods. This can be a fun and economical way to handle your food insurance needs and have a well balanced food supply. Additionally, it can be a family activity that may be cherished for years while also passing on important lessons of self sufficiency. Also note that it is not necessary to only store these foods for emergencies. They can be used anytime to prepare great meals for the family.

There are so many more facets to being prepared, it would require a several part series to cover it all. I am still in the learning process myself and I am amazed at the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people. The internet is loaded with information on prepping.

Oops! did I say a dirty word? Do you feel like you have been duped into reading a blog post by one of those nutcase preppers? It's funny how it all makes so much sense until certain people hear certain words that we are conditioned to react to.

Recently, someone asked me "what if you store up all that stuff and never use it?" I replied, "what if I don't and I DO need it?"

I will leave you with two brief videos that will change one's mind about preppers being nut jobs, not to mention the Bible stories about storing food and water for hard times. If it's good enough for a squirrel, it's good enough for me. Enjoy the videos and spend some time researching more information on being self reliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBUYiZWztuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgQD4DuK81k