With the incidence of obesity in this country, I'm guessing most Americans could eat half as much and still be consuming more calories than most of the world's people. You make a good point, Jeanette, in that we waste an awful lot of food in this country. Way too much of what I buy ends up in the garbage.

Perhaps in a food emergency we would stop putting food in gasoline (corn ethanol).

With a modicum of restraint I could comfortably go for a couple months on what I have on hand. If there is ever a serious, prolonged (years-long) nationwide shortage of basic food items in this country then there would be political and civil unrest unlike anything we've seen before.

I will venture to guess that there is a lot of land in this country that could be cultivated for food -- small (yards) and big plots -- that is not currently.

For more info on stocking up at home, I recommend:

http://thesurvivalmom.com/