Food Security and Table Manners

[snousle]

I think a lot about food security in this country. Looking at the effects of major disruptions in other countries, such as war or earthquakes, it seems generally true that food production and distribution continues in some form in all but the very worst situations. Hunger is very motivating, so people get creative quickly. While things might get really tight, most disasters in Western industrialized countries do not result in an overall nutritional crisis in the sense that there are too few total calories available to sustain the population.

However, I'm thinking that the US has a special liability in this area because there has been so little experience with hunger within living memory. One thing that my gastronomic studies have highlighted is that many of the complications of table manners come from having to negotiate stressful situations when you're hungry. This is outside the consciousness of most American diners, but would have been very much in mind for most people a hundred years ago.

Being mentally and emotionally functional while hungry - and I don't just mean "missed your afternoon snack" hungry but rather "haven't eaten in three days" hungry - is a learned skill. The politics of food distribution in times of scarcity is also a learned skill. Most people who experience food crises today have had at least some experience with them in the past, and retain the habits ("table manners") that got them through - or were taught these things by their parents.

Table manners - and by that I mean the whole ritual of sitting down together, serving, and eating - often seem pointless, and many of them are being lost because they serve no immediate purpose. We still have ritual, whether it's home or Hometown Buffet, but I would say that at least half of our ancestor's values and customs in eating have been shed over the past hundred years. Particularly those that involve denial or fasting. What is not recognized, unfortunately, is the survival value of these manners. In their absence, we run the risk of a minor food crisis turning into a big ugly riot for no good reason, just because the mechanisms for cooperation have been lost.

This pragmatic view of table manners contrasts sharply with that of, say, Leon Kass, who seems to think they have transcendental meaning. Of those that lack obvious hygienic value, I think they're actually pretty straightforward political acts that have evolved into high ritual because of their extreme age and importance. If only everyone could understand what they're about, they'd be endlessly interesting.

Isn't it odd that we eat together but crap in private? To be a little vulgar, considering the politics of hunger also sheds a lot of light on the obsessive desire to conceal one's bodily functions, as well as the deliberate violation of that taboo in places like the communal toilets of army barracks. A fart is evidence of what you've eaten, which in turn reveals your secret political connections. Imagine the significance it could have when everyone's paranoid and on edge because there's nothing to eat. It could get a guy killed. Surely there's been some natural selection going on there.

[On a tangentially related note, it surprises me that there isn't broader interest in personal stockpiling. Whole grain wheat is a long-lasting food that can be stored in really small spaces. About five hundred pounds could keep you going for a year if you could supplement it with something fresh and green and a bit of protein. Properly packed, it can be stacked in the corner of a closet, or fit under a desk, and last the rest of your life. Considering the cost of acquiring it, the risk of needing it, and the benefit of having it, the overall value proposition is, IMHO, considerably better than homeowner's insurance. So why is stockpiling wheat, which would do wonders for US national security, considered some sort of wingnut activity, while buying homeowners' insurance is not? I don't have our stockpile put together yet, but it is "on the list" (unfortunately with so many other things) because it is literally the only thing we would lack in a crisis, and it seems silly to be without it. If I found a "turnkey" solution where all I had to do was buy it, I'd order it today, but as it stands the amount of research and scrambling necessary to make it happen in a useful way is a real chore.]

Comments

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

"Isn't it odd that we eat together but crap in private?"

I think the crap in private is a result of technology. The "latrines"
of ancient Rome were great centers of gossip and political discussion. I'm not sure which Caesar had the great idea of charging for the use of the public shithouses but he was brilliant for taking advantage of a captive adeance.
BestRegards,
Pete

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

You know there is no reason why you can't start stockpiling an emergency food supply. Spend 10 percent of your food bill on canned goods and dehydrated food stuffs. Fill them in Rubbermaid tubs and bury the tubs.
I'd also plan on saving on water (use old plastic gallon milk containers).

Why bury the can goods? If America gets hit with what you are talking about I'm sure there will be armed gangs going through the pantries of America.
It would probable be a good idea to have a large sprout growing kit also.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Sprouts are a good idea.

We're pretty defensible here, considering that Bill is a former special forces guy and pretty much all the neighbors carry revolvers. Armed gangs would be making a big mistake by coming up into these hills. ;-)

I actually don't put a high probability on these outcomes - I consider it similar to the risk of, say, your house burning down. It's the kind of thing that will most likely never happen in our lifetime, but there's no denying that it does happen.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

You also have a good point that there's no time like the present. Writing this has been a bit of a stimulus to look into stockpiling strategies. Wheat is a long-term survival thing that takes some coordination, while other, more convenient strategies tend to focus on short-term comfort. I hadn't given the latter much thought, but survivalists do make a big deal about "keeping your spirits up" so happy foods like canned fruits and chocolate get a lot of emphasis.

I really don't want to have to maintain and rotate a stock of short-term rations, particularly since we hardly ever eat canned things. But it would make sense to do more short-term storage of beans and grains, that's really easy. Also, the whole bottom layer of the deep freeze can be covered with things that aren't perishable in the short term but which won't last more than a year at room temperature, like dried fruits and such.

Just thinking out loud here...

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

I know people in Saskatchewan who have a bag of wheat at home and grind their own grain but it's mostly a way to have it fresh and for some to cost less if they bake a lot. But then it's a whole different culture there.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I do some of my own grinding now with a Kitchenaid unit, but I'm still in the experimental phase. Certainly, for polenta it knocks the socks off of commercially ground grain, which gets overheated in the big mills. Gotta get a hand grinder though, eating stockpiled wheat is a bit boring if you can't grind it...

[stivalineri.livejournal.com]

Did you read "The Road" or something?

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Nope. Should I?

[snousle.livejournal.com]

LOL, I would totally love to go to a public crapatorium. Don't know if you've seen pictures of our "room with a view" but it's a dramatically un-private outhouse we have on our property. I'm also thinking about putting in a very old fashioned two-seater. ;-)

Taboos can go either way, though. It seems to me there's an African group that only eats in private, though I cannot locate a reference.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Interesting timing, Attacking the Food Supply, Schneier on Security, May 14, 2009.

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

Taboos can go either way, though. It seems to me there's an African group that only eats in private, though I cannot locate a reference.

That's private too :)

[come-to-think.livejournal.com]

Somewhere Orwell remarks: We may be faced with horrors of which we have not even a traditional knowledge.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

The sweetener conspiracy theorist comment on that finally made me do the calculations on how much methanol would be produced from the aspartame in a can of diet soda. I won't bore you with the details - but assuming 220mg of aspartame, it's about 0.03ml. Now I can use that as a ClueBat on the morons who whine on endlessly about that point.

(And what IS it with people who insist on trying to compare sucralose to stuff like PCBs and DDT?!)

[beastbriskett.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Utah, having a year's supply of food was almost ubiquitous. The 'Mos have bins and barrels for grains, and canning supplies, all designed and refined for the last hunnert years. I googled "two year food supply" and sure enough, lotsa links to check out. Might as well glean what ya can from folks who've been doing it a while.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Frankly - my problem would be rotating stock. I'd be very likely to simply forget about it and in an emergency have a lot of stale/spoiled stuff.

I figure if there's a major food crisis I'm a goner anyway, given what a fussy eater I am. And that's not even considering the potential impact on access to medication.

[sfbootdog.livejournal.com]

But but but but it's sugar with chlorine in it! Aren't you scaaaaaaaared?

And anyway, pleasant-tasting food without drawbacks will void the warranty on our protestant work ethic.

[stivalineri.livejournal.com]

Well I won't read it because Cormac McCarthy's books, although full of beautiful language, also always turn my stomach. But a wide ranging disaster that causes gangs of starving city folk to head to the hills for food sets up the premise for that book. There might be some useful lessons in it if you can bear reading about the cannibals....(I saw the trailer for the movie that's coming out later this year.)

[stivalineri.livejournal.com]

mmmm....tasty Mormons.....

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Would you like a second wife with those tasty Mormons?

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Salt has chlorine in it - about 61% by weight, in fact. I love watching the faces of these bozos when I tell them that.

Of course, the way in which the chlorine is bound and what it's bound to make a huge difference, but most of the people who screech about this sort of thing don't know enough chemistry to be able to understand the difference. Which to me means they shouldn't be screeching about it at all - but that's me.

heh

[arkanjil.livejournal.com]

My dad has moved from planning for the race war to planning for the food crash- his organic garden beds are coming along very nicely, he's heavily invested in mylar Foodsaver bags (along with the oxygen desiccators, stored food should last over a decade), and he sent along several cans of dehydrated food with mom on her last trip here. Being raised among Mormons tho, the tech comes easily...

Missionaries started coming around our house after my brother died. It was tolerated well enough, up until they reached the point about how the church recommends keeping a six month supply of food on hand (side note: Utah refused food assistance during the New Deal, as they were well prepared to take care of their own). My dad, who had taken to sipping vodka form a juice glass as they preached at him, informed them that he didn't have to store food, as he knew that they stored food, and he stored guns. That stopped the missionaries in their tracks.

Re: heh

[snousle.livejournal.com]

LOL. I always appreciate a line that leaves missionaries speechless.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of getting the mill attachment for a Champion juicer. That apparently works well although not as good as a stone mill of course.

thinking out loud...

[beartech420.livejournal.com]

You know It would be interesting to pack a rubbermaid tub with stuff like pasta and chickpea. Silicone epoxy it shut, drill a small hole, create a vacuum and store it away.
Oh as for length of time for food stuffs I have a supply of Slimrfast in cans that has not lost its "flavor" after 5 years in the can.