Is Executive Order 10998 (Bill Clinton, 1994) the reason the church doesn't stress the 'importance' of food storage anymore?


http://www.disastercenter.com/laworder/10998.htm


The way I see it, the way Mormons were taught to have a year's supply of food would make them large targets for the government (if it should deem necessary) in a disaster.

This brings up, how much is 'hoarding' vs. 'reasonable', how do you really plan to 'store' your supplies?



And while we're on the subject of hoarding, I've recently learned that supposedly it's illegal to hoard money. Where do I find info on that? (That's how I found the above link, searching for info on money hoarding) And what constitutes money hoarding? Aren't the 1% guilty of it?

I remember that my parents bought a lot of that dried TVP stuff to have for food storage. I bet somebody made a killing off selling that to Mormon families!

I suppose it was nourishing, but it sure was nasty stuff. Ours didn't totally get wasted as I imagine a lot of that stuff did. I recall using up some of it while of camping trips.

Glen Beck makes money from hawking food storage/last days preppers...

I had over 200 bags of wheat and other food storage in my garage after the church did a big food storage push back in the early 2000's.

I bought the bags for $2.50 each and was there when the church delivered the sacks of wheat to the church for us to vac pac it all.

We did all the work and paid the church for the privilege. God, what an idiot I was.

I would have given them away, all free to a good home, but no members would take any bags. I haven't heard anything about food storage for years so we probably don't need it for the Second Coming anymore.

So it was almost therapy to take half of them to the local dump and throw them into the dumpster. Now I have space in my garage for more useful things.

Food storage didn't help anyone during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. If you were not able to evacuate, then you lost everything in the resulting flood (my niece got out ahead of the storm and returned to a total loss of her possessions and apartment.) I went through a severe blizzard in my area, and the grocery store was back up and running within a week.

I M H O
It would appear to me that the whole food storage thing was a massIVE con game to get the member to buy large amounts of canned and dry food from "church" resources.

Most of this would never be used and much of it would rot and decay while in storage.

If there were such a crisis rest assured that the political powers at the time of crisis would not hesitate to confiscate any and all food or supplies thus stored.

cristib Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And while we're on the subject of hoarding, I've
> recently learned that supposedly it's illegal to
> hoard money. Where do I find info on that? (That's
> how I found the above link, searching for info on
> money hoarding) And what constitutes money
> hoarding? Aren't the 1% guilty of it?

No, it's not "illegal to hoard money."

In 2014, the Fed issued a statement saying that people who were hoarding cash were hurting economic recovery. That's essentially all it said.
Of course, the "end of the world" and "one world order" conspiracy nuts then turned that into an internet scare, where they declared it was illegal to hoard money, and/or illegal to put cash in a safe deposit box. Neither is true. There are no such laws.
I saw several forums where people claimed to have "confirmed" both "laws" with their banks. Yet none could every point to any US Code law prohibiting either practice -- because there is no such law.

Got to admit food storage (not the whole wheat and stuff you'd never use crap) but a good supply has served me well in times of economic trouble. I'm over in UK where large larders etc aren't the norm, and as far as most tv shows seem to show, most people here seem to have not one crumb in their homes until next grocery shop. I don't understand that mentality. I love my food storage including my deep freeze, but it's all stuff I use. It definitely came into its own last year when my husband became ill with cancer, the 3 months interim to get all insurances sorted etc were especially lean (add in hospital parking and commuting charges and things were really stretched!) but we had more than enough food. Xxx

A well thought out emergency plan that includes food, hygiene and basic necessities to last 30 to 90 days will take care of most emergencies.

Including go bags and easily portable items is usually the first thing to acquire.

Wheat is probably the worst grain to store. In fact storing ingredients instead of storing ready to eat or easily prepared food is a waste.

If one uses case lot sales you can inexpensively buy ready to eat meals that you'll actually rotate and eat. Thus saving money.

Ever since the church sold off a lot of their agricultural businesses, I noticed less emphasis on food storage.

I have my rock and hat. I'm all set!

In terms of having food storage in times of a stressed budget I don't understand why an emergency fund wouldn't be better. Nothing to go bad or take up space.

In almost every conceivable circumstance, and certainly in likely disasters (fire, flood, earthquake, unemployment), an emergency fund is far more useful. Mormons seem to have this deep seated need to justify *their* particular version of food storage. IMHO it's all nonsense. Anybody has enough food around the house to get by for a couple days. That's all you need, if that.

People died of injuries and disease after the Haitian earthquake. You didn't see stories of people starving to death. Nor do you see such stories about Nepal right now. Extreme poverty and civil war at the same time are the best predictors of widespread starvation (I'm not talking hunger; starvation). Humans are actually pretty good at getting emergency food and water to natural disaster sites.

I am sure the food storage thing was a " left over" rule from days gone past

When we got married in 1979, there was a big push for a year's supply. My ex got wheat of various types along with a hand-grinder. We had honey, powdered milk, dried eggs and all kinds of dried veggies and fruit, plus stuff like stew and Spanish rice.

All of it, with the exception of the honey, which I used, was nasty. Really bad tasting. Plus it came in huge cans and took forever to use up. I can count on one hand the number of times I used any of the stuff (except the honey) and it sat in our basement for 22 years until we got divorced and I dumped it.

He also bought a wood-burning cast iron stove that never got installed and I sold that when we got divorced.

I have an aunt that had a basement room, just for her food storage. It was actually, amazing what she accrued and cycled out. It was like a mini mart. Literally, had everything you would ever run to the local gas station for in a pinch. Every item logged and the organization was something else.

I was pretty young and we lived next door to my aunt. My parents scraped to keep food in the cupboards. I am sure that's why her food collection was so astounding. Now I know she was sucked into the whole second coming, fear mongering of the 70's and 80's. She is getting older now and I am pissed she wasted decades on senseless food storage. Honestly, decades..

I'm afraid that most of the comments that I read here are opposed to food storage. I only ask do not come to my door when you do not use wisdom to prepare for the Crash of the Dollar and Stocks and other even worse disruptions coming our way and your philsophical veiw of food storge will not feed you. You better spend some time searching what is coming, but I am afraid for most of you it will be very too late. Those who do not like my post wait 60 days and tell me then!

Holy shit Dr bait! I am talking about extreme food storage to the point of crazy.. that Mormons 30 years ago prioritized above anything else. 3-6 months food supply is just general public knowledge. Anything after that and looting in homes is the most likely outcome. Hope your bunker has been double locked..and sleep with a gun under your 1952 brain. Oops

60 days? I'd take that bet in a heartbeat. I'll check in in early October and let you know how I'm doing.

I'll make my own prediction. In October, both gold and gasoline will be cheaper than they are now.

Don't worry, I won't come to your door. Because such events are highly unlikely, to the point of paranoia.

Maybe being from California, where earthquake prep is routinely stressed, I don't think a reasonable food storage is such a bad idea. It's good to have extras of stuff. At one point, years ago, there was some sort of truckers strike and the stores ran low on toilet paper - it was good to have extra. When the power went out during a windstorm, it was nice to have the extra lights, batteries, food and stuff. A friend of mine was in the San Francisco earthquake and depended on her food storage to get through for quite a while, because of the disorganization and people making a run on the store. Also, because they had some immediate expenses and could concentrate time and money on those. Finally, one of my bishops was in that huge Alaskan earthquake years ago. Of course, the power went out and he had a ton of meat in his deep freezer that was in danger. So he pulled out his barbecue and cooked a meal for whomever needed food and cared to show up. It didn't help him for the long-term storage as he'd hoped but it was nice for everyone in the neighborhood to get a hot meal during a terrible time.

I do think there are many people though who take this to an excess - getting more food than necessary or impractical food they won't ever eat. And I also think it's funny, based on the above link, because Mormons blame Obama for the government messing with their right to store food.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2015 02:53PM by CA girl.

I agree with you -- I think a 2-or 3-month's supply is perfectly reasonable. Perhaps more if you have the storage space, the money, and will actively rotate the food.

Where I live, a backup generator is probably the best thing to have. Our severe storms nearly always involve a loss of electricity, possibly for a week or more.

WOW! where's the "like" buttons!


Y'all answered my questions, and put to rest some of my inquiries.


I agree, after trying to get what the church claimed you needed for food storage, and then realizing what my family really eats, and started reading labels, that there's a real possibility that the church was trying to line financial pockets. We don't use much sugar... and I had the recommended 100 pounds a person. When we moved, I gave away some 900 pounds of sugar! I'd had it in storage for 3 years! And, yes, I was using it. I used up all the honey... only bought 3 jugs of that. The powdered milk? Tossed it. (We used quite a bit. But it mostly sat there... the best IMO is Morning MOO... the rest, gag!) Wheat? 3 varieties. Almost all given away, some we discovered had been infested (metal containers chewed through) by some rats. NEVER again!

I also realized pretty quickly after being in AZ when the electricity grid went down for my Oregon/Washington friends and relatives (our house never lost electricity, but the rest of the neighborhood was down for several hours) for a few days, just how important some food storage could be.

Yet, I also remember the California fires and stories of people taking shelter in their pool (not a good recommendation) or a near-by fire-safe shelter, and listening to their cans of food storage explode and the devastation of that shrapnel. And, I saw first hand how hurricane victims lost EVERYTHING, grocery stores unable to provide anything (yet the store I worked at was up and running within a couple of hours... ONLY store within 100 miles. Talk about BUSY! ALL HANDS ON DECK!) for days.

Both of these situations, groups came to help with the emergency call. Our store normally got 2 Distributor truck loads a day of groceries. After Ike, we got a full truck load every hour, yet our shelves were empty! Water and ice seemed the most valuable food commodity. Money was a good thing (banks and ATMs were down), but not as important as supplies.

I would like to have an outdoor kitchen, just so that IF we were to have a disaster again, I could cook for my neighbors. Some were caught unprepared, some were able to evacuate, and some relied on the nearby store, and camped out there.

A friend of mine worked at a dump in Utah County. Every year people would bring wheat, oats, spoiled food storage there. He had the best fed chickens and pigs in the valley.

I find a lot of these food storage interesting to read because of how ridiculous some of the stories can be. I think having some extra non-perishables in case something happens like natural disasters is a good idea but what the Mormons are doing is a little out of hand.