Everyday Prepping, The Filipino Way

I encountered the terms Prepping and Prepper a long time ago. Whenever I see articles about prepping and prepper people, I always see articles made up for people living in western countries.

It may be my browser and YouTube settings, but I have not seen a prepper coming from an Asian, Latin American or African country. This is why I encourage you to inform me if you know of people prepping from these countries because I have not seen one yet online.

If you asked me, the word “prepping” and “prepper” simply associates to people living in the western countries, though I must admit that I see traces of people who are not westerners exhibiting such behaviors.

Simply stated, a prepper is a person who is preparing for a major disaster or cataclysm when there is currently none. These disasters and cataclysm could be natural disasters, wars, societal meltdown and so on. Prepping is the act of doing so.

You might see some of these people around you. The people who always stocks up on grains, canned food and other emergency supplies. These people are exhibiting the traits of a prepper. But a real prepper does not only overstock on groceries, they have stock volumes that can last up for years.

As I have said, when it comes to my browser and YouTube search results, I can only see example of prepper people coming from western countries, predominantly Americans. So they are the examples of what I can point you into.

If you Google the search keyword “is prepping popular”, you would be taken to a lot of articles which indicate that prepping is not only becoming popular in America, but perhaps is also becoming mainstream.

I wish that this would happen also in other countries like in the country where I currently reside which is the Philippines, but I know this is not likely to happen as critically here unlike in America.

Sure, in Philippines there are also people who stock up on groceries, but there is a dual purpose to it. One of the reason why people stock up on groceries is to avail of the low prices whenever there is a sale around.

The second purpose has to do with prepping. There are people who are concerned that there could be a food shortage that they stock up on groceries. Food shortage does happen in the Philippines, but not as extreme as what other impoverished countries are suffering.
br> Here, when there is a food shortage, the food does not fortunately disappear, but rather, the food price unfortunately gets more expensive. This is the reason why if our household can afford to buy several months worth of groceries like canned goods, we buy them.

This is actually a good move, if ever there is a food shortage and food actually disappears, at least we have supplies of canned goods which could stay edible for several years in their unopened tin cans.

My mother always tells us that it doesn’t matter if we don’t have much money as long as we have a supply of food. She tells us that money is useless in times of disasters, but food actually becomes more important in times of disasters.

The average Filipino and many other people living in Asia as well as people living in Africa and Latin America have a disproportionately large appetite for rice. It is a basic part of almost all their meals.

Three good things about rice is that you can store it relatively easily and for a long time, it is easy to cook, and it could be cooked in a variety of ways. This makes it ideal in times of disasters.

Easy and Long Term Storage:

Rice is easy to store. All you need is a cool place and dry container to store it in. The container must also be well secured so that rice eating insects would not be able to enter it. These requirements are easy enough, there are a lot of cool places and dry and secure containers that can be found just about anywhere.

Now, for the important question: “How long can a grain of rice be stored?” According to the Utah State University (USU), rice can be stored for almost three decades. Here is their article regarding how long rice can be stored:

Article: Storing White Rice

But if you are in a hurry and can’t read the entire article, here is the summary given by Google’s search results itself:

“The best temperature to store grains, including rice, is 40°F or below; however, rice stored at a constant 70° F with oxygen absorbers will store well for up to 10 years. In cooler storage areas rice sealed in oxygen-free containers can be stored for up to 30 years.”

Compare this to wheat stored at ideal conditions. The same university, USU, recommends that stored wheat be used within five years although they also found wheat stored for three decades being edible.

It is clear that storing rice whenever you get the chance is a very good idea not only because you are able to hedge against price increases, but you also get to store food that could last three decades.

Do Not Depend On Your Government For Food Storage:

It is sad, but I feel I must report this. I watched a television expose about the Philippine government letting their emergency rice supply get rotten and eaten by insects. I felt anger as a warehouse full of rice grain is deemed by the government to be unfit for human consumption.

This happened when there was a major disaster which just happened in the Philippines and there were many starving people who were victims of the disaster. If the government can be so inept that it let a warehouse full of rice grain to rot and be insect ridden, then this is an eye opener.

My message here is that you should not depend entirely on your government for emergency food supplies. If this happens in an Asian country like the Philippines, I imagine the same thing happening to other countries with poor government governance.

Easy To Cook:

Rice is also very easy to cook. All you need is to boil it and it would be cooked and ready to be eaten. It also cooks within just minutes, so it is very handy. All you need is a kettle or any container to cook it and it would be cooked.

There is no need for any special kitchen tool or equipment to cook it. Some people may comment that you need an electric rice cooker to cook rice. But almost everyone knows better, before the popularity of rice cookers, rice was just cooked in kettles and similar kitchen tools.

You can even cook rice inside a bamboo trunk. The cooking method is similar as when you have proper cooking tools like a kettle. You simply add water to your rice and place both inside a bamboo trunk and it would still cook nicely.

Can Be Cooked And Eaten In A Variety Of Ways:

What the paragraph title suggests is true. Rice can be cooked in a variety of ways, from simple to complex. I have personally not eaten a boiled rice by itself alone, but I have seen Japanese cooking videos and articles where the Japanese make rice balls out of boiled rice which they just flavored with salt.

When I was young as well, we don’t have boxed cereals for breakfast. We only put milk and sugar in our boiled rice and this was already breakfast to us. As you can see, this breakfast is more nutritious if not as nutritious as compared to boxed cereals which are not natural food.

Compare this to bread which you need flour and yeast to cook. I tried baking bread using only flour and the results were not good. For the large amount of flour I made, I was only able to make a small cookie sized bread.

Animal Fat:

When I used to live in Australia, I have a bit of culture shock when I bought meat. One of the things which surprised me was that Australian butchers would remove the skins of chickens and remove the fat from pig meat.

I understand that the Australians are just trying to be as healthy as possible by eliminating the fat in their diet, but if ever there is a global meltdown that happens, fat would be one of the most important food in terms of food supplement.

That is why in such countries where fat is available for sale to the average consumers, the people there would thrive during the lean periods and especially in disasters. Fat is an energy food and people need energy food during disasters.

Animal Heads and Entrails:

I also noticed in Australia that other parts of the chicken and pig are not readily available for sale. In the Philippines, chicken and pig heads can be bought from the butcher, but in Australia I cannot see such animal parts being sold in butcher shops.

These animal parts may not be popular in western countries, but in some countries like the Philippines, animal heads are considered a delicacy. One of the more famous dishes made from pig’s heads is called “Sisig” and is a popular dish best served with beer.

Besides animal heads, there are also many Filipinos who eat chicken and pig intestines, liver, kidneys, heart and so on. As can be seen, no part of both animals goes to waste. The same is true for other animals like cows, goats and so on.

It seems that Filipinos and other people from developing countries were food is expensive and may be scarce have automatically become some sort of a food prepper by being able to eat just about any part of the animal.

This ability to be able to eat all parts of an animal and even all kinds of animal have automatically prepared many Filipinos and similar races to have the prepper trait. Sure, a prepper may be able to eat his bought food supplies, but it’s the ability or willingness to eat anything that is the trait of a true survivor.

Dried Fish And Meat:

Besides having a regular meal composed of rice, canned goods and almost all parts of an animal, Filipinos and many other people from developing countries have a regular meal composed of rice and dried fish or meat.

I noticed it twice during my stay in Australia, whenever an employee brings in dried fish for lunch, many of the other Australians would complain about the smell of the fried fish. It’s as if their senses revolted from the smell of dried fish.

But dried fish and other dried meats can be stored for several months without the need for refrigeration. Hence, they make good survival or prepper food. But in the many prepper videos and articles I saw and read online, I can’t find a mention of dried fish.

Westerners may be preparing for the big disasters and major societal breakdowns. But there are many people from developing countries who already have the traits of a prepper without even trying due to their circumstances.

By taking advantage of all the financial opportunities that they can get and not wasting food that many westerners would take for granted or even ignore, the Filipino has a better chance of becoming a better survivalist when it comes to food.

Cuban Ingenuity