I recently read an article discussing what the writer believed were the five most overrated prepper advice. Some of their suggestions made sense, but some didn’t sit well with me.
This isn’t me bashing another prepping site. I’ve read several articles on the same site and found them interesting. This is more me just thinking out loud.
Are these pieces of advice overrated?
The five pieces of advice they recommend ignoring are stockpiling wheat, focusing on the worst-case scenarios, stocking up on freeze-dried foods, having a bug-out location, and reading prepper fiction to get good ideas for prepping.
The article’s main problem is that each piece of advice is taken in the most literal way. Being a prepper means that you have to THINK! You need to look below the surface and read between the lines.
Above all else, prepping means preparing.
Read prepper fiction to get good prepping ideas
The assumption is that people will take prepper fiction as truth and try to imitate it.
I’m personally not a very big fan of prepper fiction. I don’t often find it compelling, and much of what I’ve read hasn’t been well written. That being said, I have read several prepper fiction novels.
Hopefully, no one is reading these books and taking them as “the way” to become prepared. They are fiction, but some ideas should trigger you to think deeper about potential disasters.
In the end, I don’t think anyone should feel left out if they haven’t read any prepper fiction.
Have a bug-out location
Do you need to buy a new home or property to have a bug-out location? Absolutely not.
Should you at least consider where you would go if you did have to bug out? Absolutely.
The assumption they made is that having a bug-out location is expensive and not something that most people can do.
I have a relative’s house you plan on going to if the need arises to have a bug-out location. At a minimum, everyone should know where they would go in a bug-out situation. I see bugging out as a last resort, but I’m at least prepared to leave my home if I need to.
Stockpile “prepper foods”
The assumption here is that prepper food companies try to scam customers and con them into purchasing their products. Additionally, freeze-dried foods are limited in their menu selections.
I was a little confused by this one. You’re limited in menu types if you limit yourself to one manufacturer, and if a company is using hard-sell tactics then you shouldn’t be doing business with them.
I recommend that people not only have freeze-dried “prepper” food as their only food storage all the time. It’s just for completely different reasons.
Freeze-dried food is expensive compared to other food storage items and needs water to rehydrate and cook. That’s why I tell people not to rely solely upon it.
It should still make up a part of your food storage.
Freeze-dried food provides diversity and flavor. Two things can keep you going in an otherwise horrible situation.
It also lasts for a long time. This means you have food that you don’t need to worry about.
Focus on the worst-case scenario
I come from a background where you always assume the worst. That way, you’re prepared for anything. Telling people to ignore the worst-case scenario is completely counterintuitive to me.
The assumption they made here is that if you’re preparing for an EMP, you’ll ignore electronics since they could be destroyed in an EMP attack.
When starting to prep, you should get the most important things first. Then prepare for the most likely disasters as you progress to what you believe is the worst-case scenario.
Just because you assume the worst doesn’t mean that you’re ignoring everything else.
Stockpile wheat
The assumption here is you or a family may become gluten intolerant or develop the Celiac disease, so stockpiling wheat isn’t a good idea.
While it may be true that someone will eventually become unable to eat wheat, it makes no sense to ignore wheat as a whole because of what may happen in the future.
Wheat is a great source of cheap calories that lasts very long. To discount that fact makes no sense to me.
Conclusion
It’s not always easy to read an article and know what the writer thinks. As I was reading the article in question, I thought several times that these assumptions were more for the article’s sake than any other reason.
Sometimes it isn’t easy to come up with unique ideas for articles. Sometimes something you write misses the mark and comes off as something other than what you meant. I understand that.
I want to urge people who have taken it upon themselves to help the prepper community fully think through their suggestions. (This goes well beyond the article in question.)
Again, I’m not slamming anyone with this article. I just wanted to address something I read over the weekend.