Look at the supermarket today and you’ll find an abundance of fresh food to choose from. It wasn’t always like that. The Netherlands suffered a big famine in the winter of 1944/45. People had to travel by bicycle from the big cities to the countryside, in hopes of finding farmers who had some food available for sale.
The Dutch famine is a classic example of how rapidly things can go wrong in a wealthy densely populated country. Famine is not just something you hear about on TV, my grandparents lived through one, they had to eat tulip bulbs to survive. Many people suffered hunger during the Great Depression too.
In countries plagued by war today, famines are happening as we speak. Things can go wrong in a country without war too however. In Venezuela in 2016, 75% of the population lost an average of 19 pounds of weight! A big natural disaster could similarly lead to people going hungry. For this reason, we will look today at ways to store food to prepare for potentially disastrous situations.
