Could You Do It?

Could you survive the end of the world as we know it? Could you raise your meat with love, then kill, then process, then eat it?

Could you?

In the United States, there's a movement called Survivalism. The name was coined in the 1980s. Survivalism is all about being prepared for the end of the world.

The movement's members differ in personality wildly. Some are paramilitary enthusiasts who love their weapons. Some are religious fanatics (even a cult or two). Some are convinced some virus or other will start killing people and shut down the world. (That last one seems a bit more realistic since 2020!)

Dystopian fantasy has ever been popular. Imagining the end of the world, what it would be like, how people would survive has been a large part of the book and movie industry. Books have been written (and banned by governments) detailing futuristic dystopian worlds since the early 1920s.

These books have been popularized in movies and other media. Think of George Orwell's 1984 This book inspired not just 1 adaption, but 19! Between film, stage, and radio there have been 19 adaptations of 1984, including 1 musical.

This demonstrates humans' amazing fascination with an imaginary future society where there is great suffering or injustice.

It is no surprise so many people are taking these end of the world scenarios seriously.

Some survivalists don't like to associate themselves with the term survivalist because of the stereotypical negative connotations this word has come to have.

Fringe groups. Fanatics. Doomsday cults. Conspiracy theorists. Nut jobs.

I asked my husband what kind of person he imagines when I say the word survivalist. He said,

"Crazy people living out in the wilderness in bunkers shooting each other with paint guns convincing themselves they have the knowledge to survive." He may have added the words nut and job in there somewhere. He also emphasized the true survivalists are the world's poverty-stricken people who do everything they can to make it through one day into the next and feed, house and clothe their families.

Those who don't like to be associated with nut jobs, as my husband calls them, call themselves preppers.

To my mind, preppers are the same species as survivalists, maybe just a different breed. The survivalist (or preppers if you prefer) can get a lot wrong. That's a whole different article (don't worry, it's coming soon to a blog near you!)

One of the main things they get wrong is storage.

We personally know a man who bought a brand new 16-foot trailer and filled it top to bottom with food packages (similar to these)

The food is supposed to last in 1 person 1 year with 2000 calorie per day meals and can be stored for up to one year. Really? I'm going to need Fettuccini Alfredo to survive?

Where's the salt? People need salt to survive! Where are the iodine pills with which to decontaminate the water they will need to rehydrate their food?? What happens when that year is up? Will they just lay down and die? What about the people who know about that storage container (because the survivalists I know love to brag) and don't have a problem stealing or even killing to get it?

The irony is this man owned land. He could have been growing wheat, beans, corn, and other grains that can be dried and stored for decades.

Instead, he grew cotton and alfalfa and peanuts because that's where the money is.

He already had cattle and sheep. There's some food right there!

That's the rub right there. People would rather purchase today's convenience for tomorrow's survival rather than learn and prescribe the skills it will actually take to survive.

Some of the skills a person might need to survive are:

• starting a fire

• creating a smokehouse

• using salt to preserve meats

• Killing animals

• Processing animals (removing the skin, offal, and bones)

• If staying in one place, raising animals

• If staying in one place, vegetable gardening

• Foraging for edible plants

As for storing things, personally, I would store a 50-pound bag of white rice, a 50-pound bag of beans, a 50-pound bag of salt, a tub of acerbic acid (vitamin C), and as many iodine tablets as I could carry.

I already have the ability to raise with love an animal, even naming it, whose sole purpose is to provide meat for the family.

Thankfully, it isn't the end of the world and I can store the meat in my freezer.

[Linking photo for sensitive viewers. Do not open the link if you are squeamish]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wla5N_r6kppJpARxv_ait9kgZfHSHsPIIajeX5rdDBc/edit?usp=sharing

I also already have a vegetable garden (and an indoor fungus garden).

I have the means and know-how to preserve plenty of food, but more importantly, I know I am not squeamish about eating something I've raised and loved.

How about you? Could you do it? Could you raise a chicken or a goat, lamb, calf, pig, horse, or donkey, and then eat it? Could you? Could you self-sufficiently survive?