The business of survival

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/l...5f-80769f5936e7

You want to read article 54 in this edition of the LA Times, which discusses SOS Survival, a business which provides survival gear and training in the LA area.

The worldwide market for survival stuff, 75 billion in 2017, is projected to rise to 423 billion by 2025. That is a lot of Ritter's knives!!

The article makes a favorite point - canned goods are more useful than freeze dried goods, given that FD items must be hydrated, whereas canned goods do not, saving available water for direct ingestion. the article does confound FD items with MREs (meals ready to eat). MREs can be eaten right from the can, with no preparation whatever and do not require added water.

I think that for most households you don't need to run out and buy a lot of stuff. It's more about organization, propositioning, and planning than anything else. Training and skills acquisition are also critical.

Link accessible for EU folk

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-31/disaster-emergency-preparedness-spending

Interesting! I'll admit to my own personal bias; the title really confused me for a moment. When I read "survival" I immediately see "wilderness survival". To me the article is about a topic I'd call "survivalism". Of course, that's just my way of seeing things. Certainly one must be "Equipped to Survive" whatever comes your way, be it an unexpected night in t he woods or a weeklong blackout. Sadly as climate change whips up stronger storms and raging wildfires the need for preparedness will likely grow exponentially. It's good to see the general public becoming more award of the need to be at least somewhat self sufficient.

I think you need to separate the "Business of Providing Survival Gear, the business of providing wilderness survival gear and the business of providing training. Each is quite different and the last one is not growing and certainly not very lucrative.

An initial investment in food can be a huge sack of beans and a huge sack of rice stored in airtight containers. Eat it and replace near the end of it's lifespan.

Cheap as can be, light compared to cans. Water can be stored separately and then is free to use for other purposes if needed.

Every try to flush the toilet using canned stew? Wash a wound with cling peaches? Bathing in a tub of water chestnuts?

Agreetostore good quantity of water and have themeans to render water potable. Keepa variety of foods, preserved in different ways, available. Variety is good. Not sure I want a diet of just beans and rice....

If water is scarce, flushing toilets is very low on the priority list.