Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.26-113538/https://www.ft.com/content/eeb1ee80-00b8-4f9f-b560-a6717a80d58d
EU households should stockpile essential supplies to survive at least 72 hours of crisis, Brussels has proposed, as Russia’s war in Ukraine and a darkening geopolitical landscape prompt the bloc to take new steps to increase its security.
The continuing conflict in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic that brutally exposed a lack of crisis response capabilities and the Trump administration’s adversarial stance towards Europe have forced the continent to rethink its vulnerabilities and increase spending on defence and security.
The new initiative comes as European intelligence agencies warn that Russia could attack an EU member state within three to five years, adding to natural threats including floods and wildfires worsened by climate change and societal risks such as financial crises.
Europe faced increased threats “including the possibility of armed aggression against member states”, the European Commission warned on Wednesday as it published a 30-step plan for its 27 capitals to increase their preparedness for crisis and mitigation measures.
72 hours of food is just grocery shopping
I’m definitely not prepared.
Without water, gas or electricity, there’s not really much left in essentials I can use from my grocery shopping.
I don’t know about you, but I usually buy fresh food that needs to be cooked, and drink water from tap.
worst case ill just eat my poop
Thank goodness that wars only last for 3 days exactly.
72 hours of food is crazy to me. I would be making a trip to the store when down to maybe a week or two.
Guess Europe really does shop different.
I have half a dozen supermarkets in 10min radius by foot. multiple more if I use a bike/scooter.
There’s really not much use in stocking huge amounts of food at home, especially when you want to cook fresh stuff.
Non-perishable things like canned and frozen meals is mainly used as a fallback in case of lazyness (ignoring canned stuff for ingredients)
I go to the supermarket at least once a week. normally 2-3 times
Completely depends on how you live.
Someone who lives in a house with plenty of storage and a 30 minute drive to the nearest store will have a lot of food at home. Whereas someone who lives in a tiny apartment with a five minute walk to the store will not.
In general, places like American suburbs, with huge single-family homes, no stores and complete reliance on cars, are rare in Europe.
I don’t live in the states, but the reliance on driving here is real. Small towns are lucky to have one grocery store and are usually very expensive.
I prefer eating fresh food, which means that I usually have to go to the store roughly every other day. If I buy more than a couple days of food, it just means more crap in the fridge and more spoilage.
And if my food did last longer than a few days without spoiling, then I’d really start to question what it was made of…
Editing to add that this is easily possible because I have several stores within a short walk or ride on the transit, as it was also pointed out in a sibling comment.
I guess where I am there is limited fresh food available anyway. Other then breadstuffs and the odd tomato/lettuce the stuff I get at the store has to last at least 2 weeks. Also might be why I appreciate my garden so much.
A lot of us shop once a week or so too, but most things people want are fresh baked goods, fruits, vegetables, milk and other fast-spoiling things.
Just a question for people here who do not have 72 hours of food stored in their homes? Do you go to the supermarket every day? Or do you cook at all? What are you doing on the weekend? What happens when you’re sick and can’t go shopping?
Supermarket daily, mostly microwave stuff.
I eat what I buy. If I buy a days food I’ll eat it in a day, if I buy 2 days food I’ll probably also eat that in 1 day. If I’m sick I wear a mask, if I’m super sick I ask someone to deliver me some shopping but then it is more than a days worth because I don’t want to ask someone to do my shopping every day.
Do you go to the supermarket every day?
There’s 5 food stores <7 minutes away from my apartment,. Why stockpile when you can just walk and pick up fresh food every other day.
What happens when you’re sick and can’t go shopping?
Is that a common occurrence? Just get a friend or family member to shop for you if you’re that ill, or order food delivery.
But don’t you still have some staple stuff like noodles, rice, frozen or canned foods and so on in your house? Combined with the fact that you might buy food in larger quantities (e.g. not just 1 apple, but 6 or maybe 1kg), i’d also imagine that most people have enough food for 3 days in their house.
The imo more interesting thing would be fresh water.
Rice and onions are just about the only thing I have that last more than a few days. I don’t buy frozen food as I’ll just buy what I need at the store, 90% of my diet is just bread, eggs, chicken and rice, and 1.4kg of chicken is gone within 2-3 days.
You could always just lower your caloric intake if food became scarce.
The imo more interesting thing would be fresh water.
Tap water quality is great in Norway so water is something I never buy unless I forgot to fill up a bottle on a road trip. I don’t really know anyone other soda addicts that keep liquid stored at notable quantities.
Belgium is moving more and more to a much better place just because of regulations anyeay
Solar panels and batteries in a shit ton of homes because of energy prices and older government incentives
10000L rain water tanks because government regulations now require rainwater hookups for future toilers and washing machines plus water is expensive here
Induction stoves to not have to put extraction fans in the kitchen to the outside to boost energy EPC ratings (resale value)
We always have a bunch of potatoes and cans of tomatoes and pasta for fries, mashed potatoes, or different pastas (but maybe that is just my family)
A ton of people would be quite OK for a while here I think.
Solar panels and batteries in a shit ton of homes because of energy prices and older government incentives
Yeah, the rise of balcony and roof solar modules here in Germany probably helps us in a similar way.
10000L rain water tanks because government regulations now require rainwater hookups for future toilers and washing machines plus water is expensive here
That on the other hand i don’t think is common and especially in cities i don’t think that’s a thing anywhere. So imo drinking water probably remains the most serious bottleneck, if it were ever compromised.
Might happen at the end of month for me. We go grocery shopping with a car at the beginning of the month, but 31 days are longer than my freezer is big and a backpack can only hold so much. So I respectfully ask Putin not to attack on the 29th.
Do you have 72 hours of food supplies that you can use in case of an emergency? When there is no water and no electricity, and you can’t cook mac&cheese in the oven.
I assumed most everyone had at least two weeks of emergency supplies. Like I have a stock of a couple weeks supply of food and water in the basement in case of emergencies, that’s what my parents taught me was the bare minimum in case of emergencies.
72 hours of essential supplies. Do you have 72 hours of:
- food (cooked, or cookable? see points 2 and 3)
- stored water (taps out?)
- stored power generation (powers out?)
- medicines and first aid (emergency services outages? communications outages?)
- heat in the coldest months? (see point 3) etc.
Yep, I have four supermarkets and two discounters in walkable distance and it makes me walk and leave the house daily. Plus my back’s not the healthiest and I can’t carry that much anymore.
You’d be amazed the lack of foresight most have.
When CoViD hit, I was able to avoid shopping trips for nearly six months, due to having a well prepared pantry. At best, I would go every other week to the store for mostly fruit, which is something I find hard to preserve without requiring huge amounts of sugars, of which I shy away, for personal reasons.
Yes, I live right next to a store.
Meanwhile, here in the Uk our government is making sure we won’t have enough money to buy more than two days of food at a time.
72 hours? No problem. Always have a big bag of rice on hand and you’re done.
and water to cook it and drink, and power to heat it?
I’m happy I’m growing my own food.
Though I don’t think much will happen to Ireland.
Canada here. Same for us in the food department. though I am less enthused about what may happen to us with yam tits raging downstairs.
Yam tits! That is genuinely a new one for me. Excellent.
I’ll never, as long as I may live, get over the utter embarrassment of being born and raised in a country who could support that maniac. I suppose the worst thing I could do is leave. The only way to alleviate my shame is to stay and keep voting for the least insane option.
I freely admit I stole Yam TIts from another Lemmy user and I can’t remember who or I would certainly give them credit. I feel it gets right to the point one is trying to convey.
I’ve almost fully figured out how to live off just cans at this point. I also have a basement greenhouse in the works, although I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the local commercial options.
We live rurally and don’t have much money as I have been disabled for almost a decade now. What we do have is seeds and gardens. Loads of them. A large greenhouse as well. We started a small farm before I got sick with the idea that if it didn’t make money at least we would be able to eat. Then I got sick and we just continued to plant. We are fortunate to have planned early to have space to do so. At first we helped others set up homesteads and growing in our area as well and still do to some extent but guess what…we do eat and are not so beholden to the grocery oligarchs and economic system. Any little bit you can do helps.
Yeah, not too far off from my situation. A full-blown greenhouse sounds awesome, I can only dream of that. How much time do you spend tending it?
Mine is basically just to grow enough leafy greens to prevent scurvy and supply enough to go in sandwiches and maybe salads. Interestingly, parsley has the most vitamin C of non-tropical crops.
We start planting stuff inside and in the greenhouse in Feb/March and go through to November usually. I spend a few hours every day and my wife does as well mid season. She works a real job as well in summer so I’m on my own then. The growing is the easy part really. It’s all the storage and preservation that takes a while.
Hmm. Is there not enough sunlight Dec/Jan? If you could keep some things ready to harvest all year you wouldn’t have to worry so much about that.
We do keep greens and such here. We have about mid November to end of February where we don’t have enough light. If we have cold weather crops already grown they will almost always hold. We usually keep greens, hearty herbs and such all year round. If we get carrots and beets and stuff under planted they will also hold in the ground. It becomes a humidity and temperature fluctuation problem with them in the hightunnel. Not to mention bugs and rodents. It’s 20’x50’ and unheated so it gets quite cold at night in the winter.
We even grow figs now. Shouldn’t be able to do that here but climate change is real.
Rice pudding comes in cans, so I should be fine.
It’s not very good in my experience, though. Super watery. On the other hand, the canned custard is great.
What brand? Idk if its in canada, but I buy the Ambrosia brand and its very thick.
Hmm, maybe I just got a bad can or something. The custard is definitely Ambrosia. Maybe I bought a cheap generic…
I’m not sure, it was a long time ago, and I only did it once. Maybe I’ll try again.
I guess it helps that Ireland is an island, though our defence is a joke. Our current plan is to rely on other countries for help.
Canada being highly dependant on imports, some items could completely disappear from stores in the even of a global conflict
Absolutely. Our family can grow enough for ourselves and a couple of other families. We have friends we basically coop with. We grow some things. They grow some things. We share. We also hunt fish and trap which helps and raise meat chickens and laying hens.
I could survive 72 hours on the food I have at home at any time, it won’t be grand tho and I’ll still need electricity to make most of it.
Once I move I’m planning on having a small stockpile (cause I’ll finally have space for it) to last about 2 weeks or so, worst case I just need to eat it and restock it later and best case it saves me a lot of hassle in a crisis.
Yeah, if you have the space to store stuff and make a fire for cooking it’s just a matter of recipes and FIFOing your stockpile to keep everything nutritious and (in some cases) not stale. If I was in a confined space it would be much more of a challenge, I might end up going with surplus military rations. That’s basically what they’re designed for, after all.
I don’t enjoy archived links that much, so here is the plan, straight from the EU.
I read that as 72 days at first and thought something serious was expected soon. Oh, 72 HOURS. Who doesn’t have that?
Also unless you are on the border, how useful is that likely to be? What would the expectation be, only short term supply chain disruption so shops may run out of something in the first few days but after that food supply will adjust to it?
I don’t think the preparation is meant for full blown war. It’s for disruptions.
Russia won’t be able drive tanks all over Europe any time soon, but they are capable of cutting cables to attack energy distribution, hacking payment methods and other infrastructure dependent on networks.
Remember the start of Covid? There was plenty of toiletpapir, hand sanitizer and test kits for everyone, but nobody could get it in stores for a long time because everyone wanted it at the same time. It’s better if everyone stock up over a longer period of time, so it doesn’t crash the supply chain when it is needed.
That makes quite a bit of sense as to how it would be useful.
I don’t have 72hrs of food at home, because I have almost no self control. 2 days of food can very easily also be one day of food haha
Germany’s advice for normal times is to be stocked up for 11 days. 3 Days compared to that is laughable even so it is better than 0.
Its not really something I think of because I am going to have easily days worth of food without even having to think about it. Stuff like pasta, rice and flour.
11 days not so sure on, if I had just been shopping at the start of the 11 days then easily, but if it was from just before I go shopping then its harder to say. I would most likely be able to ration out what is left to cover 11 days but its going to be pretty basic by the end of it. Like fried rice with salt and pepper kind of thing.
If your food needs water to be eaten then you need to store that extra water, which is by far the largest part you need to keep.
I have rainwater collection, boil it and it should be safe to drink.
Boil it without electricity?
Fire
I have tablets for purifying and rainwater, but that needs rain, and in winter it means fuel.
Food for these days should not be dependent on water.
Unlikely to get that cold here that everything completely freezes, usually keep enough wood dry to boil a fair bit of water and I can easily go out to get more of necessary.
That’s good, then can you read your original comment and see that other people are in other places with other situations? 😌
may be is start of ww-3; winter is coming
Hopefully
what about fasting? I bet we have enough fat to fast couple weeks at least
It’s not about having something to eat for 72h, it’s about resilience.
EU is trying to stimulate spending. Get their GDP numbers back up.
Including bottled water?
Yes. Don’t forget batteries for torches and a couple of solar charger power banks for your phone.