By the author of Be Ready for Anything and the online course Build a Better Pantry on a Budget
When I saw in my feed a headline reading “The Preppers Were Right All Along,” I foolishly got excited. “Vindication,” I thought. “They’ve finally realized we aren’t so crazy after all!”
My optimism began to wane when I clicked it and saw the Washington Post load on my browser. I cringed when I saw that the byline showed the author as a part of Bloomberg Opinion. My hopes were dashed entirely when I read the description of preppers as a group:
Preppers, as the community of bunker builders and food hoarders is known, emerged during the Cold War as fears of nuclear holocaust drove some people to go to great lengths to prepare for survival in a burned-out world. But as the movement persisted over the decades, it has been mostly ignored by mainstream society, myself included, which came to view preppers mainly as paranoid radicals.
So it’s more than a little uncomfortable to confront the reality that this fringe industry is increasingly mainstream.
Imagine being so peevishly married to your ideology that even when admitting you were wrong and someone else was right that you cannot help but insult them.
Why the author thinks we’re right
The article repeatedly quotes executives from survival food companies such as Readywise, MyPatriotSupply, and Mountain House, who explained how the long-term food market has boomed in recent years. The author, Amanda Little, muses how the demographic has changed from “people preparing their bunkers for Armageddon or resisting a government they feared would take away their guns” to people she actually knows. (I’m sure they’re delighted that she outted them publicly on The Washington Post website.)
I know a growing number of people buying into the survival food trend. I’d first heard about ReadyWise from my cousin-in-law, a former cop in Zionsville, Indiana, who had stashed a supply of the startup’s products in his basement that could sustain his family for six months. My stepbrother, a business executive who lives in downtown Washington, has invested in a one-year supply of drinking water and long-storage food. And my brother, a leading climate scientist, has also begun building a supply in the basement of his West Virginia cabin.
As well, people with academic and business intelligentsia she admires are getting involved in the industry.
Indeed, as the market for survival food becomes more regionally and politically diverse, there appears to be a shifting culture within the industry itself — especially among corporate leadership, which is increasingly pedigreed. Wark of Mountain House brought to the company a history of management roles at Post and General Mills. Last year Augason, who dropped out of high school to work in his family’s business, brought in Moir Donelson, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School, as CEO to guide the company’s growth.
The author links impending doom to climate change.
In an effort to put a politically correct spin on the entire thing, the author links the uptick in catastrophes to climate change. To her credit, she also mentioned the supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising fuel costs, and inflation.
The good thing about this is that perhaps other people of a similar political bent will get on board and get stocked up. Regardless of your feelings about folks who look at the world differently, the more people who get prepared, the fewer people we have to worry about causing problems when things go truly sideways. I personally don’t care what someone’s background or belief system is – I don’t want to see anybody going hungry.
(To better ensure you don’t go hungry, check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to home canning.)
She’s still not going to prep, though.
Despite her rather petulant admission that “preppers were right all along,” Amanda is still above preparing for the future.
I have yet to invest in survival food products myself, in part because I’m optimistic enough to believe that we won’t need them.
It’s like when your child is too sleepy to be pleasant but refuses to nap.
She has other solutions in mind that are so much better than the old-as-time concept of preparing for hard times.
There are any number of good and practical (and very sobering) reasons to be adding long-storage food supplies to your pantry. But we should be putting far more energy into supporting regenerative farming and the next-level technologies that can help us build a climate-resilient food supply, while also voting in politicians who take climate change seriously. Let’s be sure we’re not fiddling with freeze-dried fettuccini while the planet burns.
As for me, I’d prefer to focus on learning skills, producing and preserving my own food, and becoming independent of a system that has shown it cannot be depended upon when times are tough. Sure, I’ll stock up on long-term food too, but the keys to survival are independence and resilience. It always has been, and it always will be.
We can’t vote or mandate our way to food security. Pinning our nation’s hopes on centralization, legislation, politicians, and societal answers is how we got to this place.
Preppers know this. And that’s really why we’ve been right all along.
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What do you think?
What are your thoughts about the MSM getting on board with prepping? Will it happen? How about that opinion piece? What do you feel are the answers for future food security?
Let’s talk about it in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
So, the Grasshopper admits the Ants are correct, but it’s still smarter than the ants.
I love it! Perfect comment!
Clever!
Grasshoppers are useless eaters. When they are done with the good stuff, they are not above eating down the rose buds. Smack ’em hard with the shovel.
Worst thing about grasshoppers? Large amounts that are overpopulated and have consumed all resources in their areas swarm, this phenomenon is commonly referred to as locust swarms.
Best thing about grasshoppers? They make excellent live bait for fishing.
The ants,(preppers) are wise and use common sense. They prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The grasshoppers however, are not so wise.They do not use common sense, prepare for nothing and come begging when the worst occurs. Be like the ants, not like the grasshoppers.
I guess we shall see how this turns out. A little arrogant…
Oh my gosh. 🙂 At least this gave me a laugh. Certainly *hers* are the first cop, business exec, and scientist to endorse this ridiculousness! Now that they’ve lent their legitimacy and cachet, maybe there’s something to it after all. Snoots up!
That is so funny, when I thought about commenting the grasshopper and the ant came to mind. I am the lonely liberal weirdo prepper and I don’t think being prepared is a political statement. It isn’t left or right, it is smart. I’m not a prepper because of my political affiliation, I’m a prepper because I was raised in a poor rural area. It was just the way it was done. My parents, Aunts and uncles were raised by depression Era parents and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I was raised to be an ant.
That is the way it is around here.
For that matter, I think a number of American’s are going the way of the ant in light of inflation. As you mention, has nothing to do with being political, but being prudent. Disposable income is something that is shrinking for most American’s.
Must have been what the couple in Walmart was doing together. HE had his cart packed to the gills and so was hers. I mean so packed they were practically running over. FOOD stuff, meats water, no toys or clothes or anything else just FOODs and paper towels, etc. GOOD FOR THEM!!!
I too was raised as an ant. To me, prepping represents an American value that traces its roots to our very beginning. Independence. Political ideology has helped to poison that value.
Why should I dislike someone based on their political persuasion when I can get to know them and find out what a jerk they really are?
Glad to see you on here Kristie. We may come across as arch-conservatives, but that’s not necessarily the case. We don’t judge people based on race, creed, color, or political affiliation. That is part of what being a Prepper is about. Being independent, self sufficient, and capable of critical thinking are traits that seem to be more important to us.
Common sense and the “ant” mentality cross all boundaries.
True!
KRISTIE: Thank you for being so honest about your background. I have always thought that having extra food, water, money in my home was the smartest way to live. Those who scoff or just don’t bother are complete ninnies that have had their mommy and daddy (or the gubernment) hand them everything on a platter. Now, if only there were more room to store it all in! Our home was not built with as many closets as it should have been! That is when I call up my unemployed friend who should have also been granted disability for an injury from more than 1 1/2 years ago, and who REALLY needs food, and I give her lots of stuff to eat! Of course, Bill Gates wants all of those “useless eaters” dead, but not me with my friends!
You are not alone! I’m a libertarian Buddhist, also raised by Depression-era grandparents. They didn’t even call it prepping! That was just how they lived, especially since there was no such thing as the modern grocery store at that time. I spent my fair share of summers helping Gramma can stuff, and as put out as I felt at that time, I’m glad to have that knowledge now. Who needs that salt-filled MRE long-term stuff when we can make our own?
Amen!
“60 Minutes” ran a story on Preppers on Sunday.
Maybe prepping is having a moment?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preppers-60-minutes-2022-11-06/
Increasingly there will be (and are) those who will not tolerate anyone who is not dependent on government. I believe prepping will eventually become the government crime of hoarding food and resources. -As far as the ant and the grasshopper, if the WEF has it’s way we will be eating them both for dinner!
what is coming is another magnetic pole excursion, already well underway. tonga erupted and sent water vapor 187 miles straight-up until it fogged-over the camera lens on the satellite viewing the eruption. and it sent ash 36 miles high. our out of town relatives must cause this to clean the crud out of humanity inserted into our populations as “hybrids”, who always seem to take over and go evil. ever wonder why? read page 81, center paragraph, of “voyagers-the sleeping abductees” by ashayana deane. this is not simple, as “the dark aliens” have been hybridizing humanity on earth forever, trying to break our “junc dna” (acronym-“just under the nucleic covalent”) to distort our evolutionary code instructions. you would learn a great deal from that book…the author studied for 28 years to be able to write it. so, we must prepare to go underground again for a time, soon. the ancient cities where tens of thousands of people lived underground for many years during the earth changes that followed were incredibly complex in design. so….why???? “the “equitorial bulge”. an extra 480 ft. of sea water depth circling the equator now, going “walkabout” across the planet in a magnetic pole shift. the massive liquifaction events, “mud floods”, the whole enchilada. there is more water in the earth than on it, “civilized” to stay put only by our magnetic field. so you have an underground lake nearby? when the poles go walking about, all water is free to wander-and wipe-out invading species who know how to put-on a “human skin”. thus the term “skin jobs” for clones in the famous film “blade runner”.
yes virginia, it is true…enjoy the book, i’ve been reading it for 8 years. stretching your mind to encompass the truths within might take a lifetime spent watching it play-out. best get started on “expanding your consciousness” which simply means thinking about, and striving to understand, things you never thought about before…best of luck…fuck the “mainstream” clones and hybrids, one and all…
I am not a doctor, but I do enjoy giving medical advice.
Seek a professional.
Some sage advice.
Good article Daisy. The idea of prepping becoming “normal” scares me to a degree. I’ve never been “normal”. I don’t know how to be “normal”. THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE MY IDENTITY AWAY! LOL.
Darwin will persevere in her case. On the bright side, she can have all the cockroaches she wants and bow in gratitude to Emperor Schwab before her stupid arrogant life ends.
I chuckled at the article’s claim that we shouldn’t fiddle with ridiculous options while Rome burns, immediately after outlining several of her pie in the sky solutions (regenerative farming, next level technologies, climate resilient food supplies, politicians etc). Practical solutions? Save that for the Harvard Biz School grads, they know better than you silly doomers. Amanda knows Little, it seems…
Yes, it is kind of amusing. Even while having to admit that preppers may be right, she has to push her own political agenda. “Okay, maybe you are right…….BUT! You’re doing it wrong”.
Here is a thought, technically the term prepper at one point in time would of been called life. My one neighbor, he can recall when they first got indoor plumbing and electricity. They would raise a hog every year. Gardening and canning was . . . just the way it was.
And they still garden and can.
It was only with the post WWII economy, technological developments, electrification, modern highways, the single family home in the sub-burbs that really led to our current lifestyle. Hungry Man frozen dinners, to microwave dinners. Go to the grocery store and look around. Back in the early 1900s a lot of that would not of been possible. According to Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the average food product travels approximately 1,200 miles. How far did that pound of bacon travel to get to your grocery store? Box of cereal? We take that kind of thing for granted. It will just be there.
Then COVID lockdowns and suddenly empty shelves. Still seeing it today.
Wife came home with two bags of groceries. Nothing extravagant. $80.
Read an article the other day, 1 in 4 Americans cannot afford a $100 Thanksgiving dinner this year.
What will next years Thanksgiving dinner look like?
Ah, my friend, you’ve hit the nail on the head. For 99.9% of recorded history this wasn’t prepping – it was life. Each small community had a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker.
It is only through technology and globalization over the last 40 or 50 years that we have gotten to where we are today. Unfortunately, we have a generation or two that think this is “normal”, when in fact it is a historical anomaly. Globalization is great – as long as it works. Covid has proven that when it doesn’t work that it can lead to instability – for everyone.
Great points, all!
Hat tip to you!
We moved to a more rural location as part of “prepping”. We now do what city people roll their eyes at. We annually buy a pasture raised pig and a beef, get it butchered locally (lacking the facilities currently ourselves), bag a deer or two when we can, raise garden and can or trade the surplus (when running garden you learn not every year is the same for your production), make our own wine and hard cider, buy eggs locally.
I love the pic of the frustration of reading MSN opinion pieces! Me too 🙂
I guess I was raised to prep although we never called it that. Mom always canned and froze stuff. We put away extra things just so we’d have an extra if needed. She taught me and I still can and preserve today. I actually prolly do more than she did but I really enjoy doing it. It’s kinda neat to discover all of the things I am able to actually can for later.
Storing up for hard times is an ancient principle. Biblical even. I find it amusing her attitude towards the subject. She will be one of the ones who will find herself very hungry one day. One sure can’t eat one’s politics!
Globalization is proving to have a destructive side and we are finding that out the hard way. I am so grateful for my mom’s teachings.
I really enjoy and learn from the comments here too 🙂
Missouri: Thank you for your very insightful comments. My mother grew up in Northern Jersey, not far from NYC, and her mother died when she was 8. Her mean and overly particular grandma taught them only to stay out of her kitchen!! That means when Mom came to the foothills of the Adirondacks and married a poor dairy famer (moviestar gorgeous, though), she had zero idea how to cook, to can, to raise babies, nothing….barely to boil water for tea!! So, by the time she had 2 girls of her own, she determined to learn and then teach us plus all of our female cousins how to cook, to bake bread, pies, rolls, and cakes from scratch, etc., etc. We learned to sew at a very young age, too!! 4-H all the way!! Well, I learned from a lovely Mennonite land lady years ago how to water bath can, and then my Montanan Hubby taught me how to pressure can meats and other low-acid foods. THEN, I saved up and got myself a Freeze Drier!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!! So, yes, I learned most of what I know from my very smart/teacher Momma, and I have always named her at my “most admired person” in my life because she learned and taught us all we needed to become self-reliant. Wow! Even our daughter came home from college one time and yelled at me: “Mom, you made me learn how to cook, to sew, to can, everything…and NONE of my classmates at college know how to do ANY of those things! You were a drill sargent!” Not true, but I considered her “insult” to be a very big complement and replied “Well, I guess you are all trained and prepared to run a household, then, aren’t you?” So, true. Today, she is an expert at almost everything she does!
Oooo a freeze drier! Now that’s pretty special. I wish I had a neighbor that had one. We could trade. I don’t have any plans to get one, cost aside. Really great way to store stuff.
My daughter was the same way. There are so many young ladies who don’t know how to cook. That’s a gift from the feminism movement btw. Such a sad but at times, hilarious situation.
I am so glad for that kind woman who taught you as well. That is the kind of wisdom imperative to be handed down and why we should treasure our seniors while we can 🙂
Great life story! She WILL thank you.
Not surprising. Some moron media and their pusillanimous pundits are mever happy unless they are UNhappy with somethiong. But when other countries like South Korea, Ukraine, and even Japan are currently seriously prepping up for a nuclear attack, I think everybody should at least subscribe to our own government’s minimalist survival recommendations of a three day emergency supply stash?
Wow! 3 days to eat. And do they even have water to drink or medical supplies in case of accident? What a JOKE that is!!
Preppers were 1 to 2% in 2019. After the shortages of 2020, we are at least 2%, probably 5%. Many stash food, but don’t prepare for anything, don’t think of themselves as preppers or survivalists. Worldwide food production was crashed in 2020, and there will be starvation before much longer. When political SHTF, that will wake people up about other aspects of prepping.
But normal people=most people? As in 51%? They will start to prepare when most people stocked up in toilet paper in 2020–AFTER it disappeared from shelves. That will be enuf for many to squeak through, but planning ahead of time is much less stressful.
Anyone prepping for their survival from climate change is an ignorant fool
She’s a smug, self-righteous ignoramus who will be the first one at a prepper’s door when her overlords tell her she gets nothing (and will like it). She’ll also be the first one to demand the government confiscate and redistribute the preppers’ larders. For equity and fairness, of course.
We have the bossy “Karens”. Can we now call all the ding dong, everything is unicorns, rainbows and electric cars beautiful—as Amandas”? If it comes down to it, she better hope that some of the people she so coyly insults will take her ass in and feed her.
I don’t prep for a EOTWAWKI. I prep for bad weather, loss of income, or major illness. I guess all of those could be considered SHTF scenarios. I lost power for 17 days during Hurricane Isabel. I’m on a well and my whole house is electric. No power equals no water, not cooking, no HVAC. I swore it would never happen again! I’m ready for most things.
“ I personally don’t care what someone’s background or belief system is – I don’t want to see anybody going hungry.” I disagree. Libtards love and rely on Big Daddy Government. Let them stand in the coming food lines and beg for their government cheese. As the chaos increases, the supply chains continue to break down, and the supply of Diesel fuel runs dry, I do suspect BDG will set up show in the cities via FEMA and will lace the food and water with Graphene Oxide and require every hungry person in line to be up to date on the latest booster before being fed. Injection tents will be set up on site…for convenience of course. Good riddance to them. America will be so much better off in their absence. Getting your food supply in place now is more important than it ever was. Help conservatives only in the future. Democrats have done tremendous harm to the country. Do not assist them in any way from here on out.
Sounds like they are trying to bring awareness of the existence of preppers to the average Joe on the street.
Question is why? Why remind folks that preparedness people exist, especially since you loath them with your whole heart?
Sounds suspicious.
As a 15 year prepper…that’s 15 years of luxuries and frivolous entertainments foregone…I’ve yet to need any of my preps. My gold and silver sit gathering dust in a safe…more or less at the same value as I paid for it…whereas the appreciation of the same money in an index fund would have bought me a new house.
I keep this in mind every time I start to get too self-righteous and superior to the normies who have drank tropical drinks on beaches and drove new sports cars while I inventoried my beans, bullets and bandaids.
I then remembered how my father came home from WWII and hunkered down, sure of the next Great Depression, through the hey day of the American consumption orgy while those around him borrowed and spent.
The moral of the story: don’t let yourself sink too far into the prepper mindset. Tend to your bucket list the same as you tend to your pantry. You’re gonna die in the end either way.
They won’t admit prepping is needed until they are hungry and come looking for the food you have put by.
Complacency. A scourge as bad as being entitled. Ostriches.