That's pretty much what the new guidelines are; store a year of the simple stuff, like wheat, beans, and rice. Store 3 months of the normal stuff.
And you're right, it's a good idea to eat wheat, beans, and rice, because it's healthy, it's cheap, and it will get you used to that diet in case you ever have to live off of food storage.

Another possible reason for the 3 month supply is it will take your body 3 months to adjust to just eating what we refer to as long term foods.

And don't forget to store some imodium.

Back to the original topic, I'm very glad they are discouraging teaching "store what you eat, eat what you store." Otherwise, it will be the end of the world as we know it before I get around to learning what to do with wheat and THEN buying some.

I've recently come to realize that there are some very important benefits of having long-term storage. (Notice I didn't say year's supply.) One can have a year's supply in ordinary food, but most of it would require very frequent rotation and management. So, say life gets really busy and crazy for a couple months before an event that requires dipping into the food storage. I'm already going in with a disadvantage because I've let things slide during that crazy time. I know me well enough to know this would happen. Also, to have enough veggies in my year's supply would require buying (and then eating) way more canned vegetables than I would prefer to eat in a year and then eating them before they expire. Having them in my 3-month supply, I can get enough for 3 months and then spend a year and a half rotating through them. I also like the flexibilty to use my freezer in my 3-month supply. Most of my meat is in the freezer. (I have canned meat as well.) The point is that if it comes to eating the long-term storage, hopefully, I'll have a garden going as well, but either way I'll be eating to survive, which is really very different than the eating normally. I love the do it and ignore it for 20+ years factor of long-term storage. (It might not turn out that I ignore it for 20 years, but knowing I could is comforting somehow.)

So, maybe the advice isn't so officially repudiated after all.  On Providentliving.org's Family Home Storage pamphlet, we're counseled to do it step by step.

Step one is to "Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet."  (In other words, store what you eat.)

Step two is drinking water, step three is a financial reserve.

Step four is to "gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans." (In other words, the necessities of life.)

LM

-- Edited by LoudmouthMormon at 14:17, 2008-04-28

I agree.

It all came together when I read the Little House books. They almost starved to death one winter - the train with the supplies couldn't get through, and the family did the last several months on johnny cakes - eventually just one per person per day. They were down to their last johnny cake, and pa was about to go slaughter one of their cows, when the train showed up.

If they had raised corn or rice or barley, it would have been one hunk of cornpone per day, or one bowl of rice, or one barleycake. When we're faced with eating food storage or starving, most of us will pick food storage.

I'm thinking that's what the longer term storage is for - to make sure we survive through the winter (or economy collapse, or bird flu pandemic, or endless tornadoes and earthquakes, or whatever it is). The Little House books painted a bleak picture. Little Laura wrote about how "her head felt stupid". All they did was hunker down around their stove and survive. They ached. Pa lost the ability to play his fiddle because his fingers were shaking too much. There were no more fun times - just the bleak warmth coming from the stove and their one johnny cake each. But then the winter ended, the train came, and everyone got on with their lives and the fun times came back.

LM

-- Edited by LoudmouthMormon at 16:04, 2008-04-28

Bok is right, for many it would be a drastic switch in diet. In a day when there are people who don't even know how to shop at the store for themselves, how many people are going to know what to do with wheat? How many people are going to even think of taking the basic step of soaking wheat to make it more edible? And I hope that you have plans for what to do when your gastrointestinal tract objects to the sudden influx of whole grain.
I've been sneaking more whole grain into our diet lately. Some quinoa, some corn meal (both in the stew I made yesterday), and we're going to start making our own bread soon out of various grains. Because even though my family is much more used to cooking from scratch, even we're going to have some adjusting to do when the time comes to live off of food storage.

I just had deja vu! There was this family on my mission that put wheat in EVERYTHING, I kid you not. It was the weirdest thing we'd ever seen. There was also cat hair in pretty much everything... This whacko also kissed my companion on the lips!

You ain't seen me crazy yet!

-- Edited by Cocobeem at 00:58, 2008-04-29

Yeah, that's why my wheat is ready for the 100 year long haul.

Keep sane! Eat Ravioli!

Well, what are you thinking? You just got rid of yours!