White Rice for Hard Times
Copyright © April 19, 2022 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Most people have been really, really hungry at least once in their lives.
And some people are starving to death right now because they cannot acquire any food of any type from anywhere.
On the other hand, there are some people who have never missed a meal.
The purpose of this article is to take a look at what a person can do today to feed his or her family in the future if a worldwide famine makes food unavailable, or if the price of food becomes so expensive that 99% of the people in the world can't afford it.
Discussion
For thousands of years famines have periodically killed people in every country of the world. For example, the Holy Bible says the following:
2 Kings 6:25 - New International Version:
25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver,
A shekel weighs about 0.4 ounces (11 grams) (normal weight), or about 1/2 troy ounce (precious metal weight). Therefore 80 shekels of silver would have been approximately 40 troy ounces of silver, or 40 silver eagles (USA silver dollar coin year 1987 to today). On ebay on April 19, 2022 a roll of 20 silver eagles is currently selling for approximately $780 per roll. Two rolls (40 silver eagles) are selling for $1,560. Can you image paying $1,560 for the head of a dead donkey because you desperately wanted to eat it?
Most people only have a very limited amount of money they can spend on food. Therefore it is extremely important to be able to buy enough food to eat now, and to buy a little emergency food that can be put away for an uncertain future.
Any emergency food items that you purchase should meet the following criteria:
- It is something you enjoy eating.
- It could become part of a balanced and nutritious meal.
- It does not need to be refrigerated or frozen.
- It is affordable.
- It contains a lot of calories (nutrition).
- It has a long shelf life.
Ordinary white rice meets the above requirements and therefore it should be included in every family's emergency food supplies.
White rice goes well as a side dish with almost any meal (including wild game and fresh fish).
White rice can be stored at room temperature and it does not need to be refrigerated or frozen.
White rice is extremely cheap when compared to other foods.
White rice can be purchased at most grocery stores including Walmart.
One pound of white rice contains approximately 1,500 calories.
White rice is normally enriched with several vitamins and it is a complex carbohydrate which is something the human body needs.
White rice has a minimum shelf life of at least twenty-years if stored in a cool, dry area that is kept between 40 to 70 degrees year round. (Note: Brown rice has a shelf life of six months or less.)
White rice is still available at our local Walmart for the following prices (April 19, 2022):
$8.88 = 20 pound bag of "Great Value Brand" Enriched White Rice ($0.444 per pound).
$2.48 = 5 pound bag of "Great Value Brand" Enriched White Rice ($0.496 per pound).
In a survival situation, a 20 pound bag of white rice could feed one person for about 150 days if the person ate one cup of cooked rice per day (equal to 1/3 cup uncooked rice). This would be approximately 200 calories per day from rice. A recommended one year food supply of white rice for one person would be between 60 to 70 pounds of white rice. Obviously other foods would also need to be eaten, but the white rice could serve as an inexpensive part of the daily menu. If white rice was the only food you had available, then a 20 pound bag of white rice could feed one person 1,500 calories per day for 20 days for $8.88. It could feed one person 40 days on a starvation diet of 750 calories per day. If you will pause for a moment and think about it, $8.88 is not a lot of money when compared to the above $1,560 that was paid for a donkey's head during a previous famine.
However, it should be noted that white rice has three disadvantages in a survival situation:
- White rice needs to be cooked. Therefore each family will need to have some method of cooking white rice that does not depend on electricity.
- White rice needs to be prepared with fresh clean water. Therefore each family must determine how they are going to address the water issue.
- White rice has a tendency to become very unexciting after it has been eaten on a regular basis for an extended period of time. However, there are a variety of white rice recipes on my website at the following link: White Rice Recipes.
If you have a relatively "new" butane lighter, or if you have some matches, then you would have the ability to start a fire. If you have some tea candles (tealights) then you could put two or more of the short candles under a cook pot to boil some water. The size of the pot and the amount of water in the pot would determine the number of candles required. You would also need to be able to safely and securely support your cook pot just a little bit above the flames of the candles. A package of 50 tealights can be purchased for $2.97 at Walmart on April 19, 2022 (see picture on right).
If you decide to purchase some white rice for a future emergency then you may also wish to consider vacuum sealing the rice in a vacuum storage bag. This would protect the rice from oxygen, moisture in the air, and insects. Or you could store your bags of white rice inside an airtight container or inside a food-grade bucket.
Conclusion
Nobody, except God, knows how the future will unfold.
A hard times event could happen at any time. A hard times event may include a world war, or a regional war, or famine, or social rioting, or government persecution of specific groups of people based on their political beliefs, or religious beliefs, or national heritage.
A worldwide famine will probably happen even if there is no world war for the following reasons:
- Supply chains are broken worldwide.
- Fertilizer is not being delivered where it is desperately needed.
- There is currently significantly less food available everywhere.
- The price of the food that is available is continuing to increase on a weekly basis.
It would be unwise to expect a future hard times event to unfold in the way that previous hard time events have unfolded. Worldwide there has been a significant decline in moral standards, and in the work ethnic of many people, and in expectations of how the government should provide everything for free to specific groups of people. Many nations now have laws that protect criminals and that punish their victims when their victims take action to defend themselves. A future hard times event will probably unfold in a way that takes most people by complete surprise based on the speed at which it unfolds and based on the ruthlessness that accompanies it.
If you would like to know how World War II actually and truthfully affected Europe before, during, and after World War II then you may wish to read the following book summary on my website: Savage Continent, by Keith Lowe.
May God Bless,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com