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As these large scale occurrences always cause people to reflect, I will say this. a) I am wishing I had learned how to grow my own food.
My prediction, based on gut reaction, is that the food supply will stay intact to the extent it won’t be a famine or require rations. But there will be shortages if other nations have significant supply chain problems. We do import food from other countries (veggies, fruit) which could impact us. I did some research on the types of food we import, so there is a possibility those supply chains could be interrupted. However, I don’t see a massive supply chain disruption in spite of news reports — companies will produce to meet demand as the profit motive is still alive and well in the hearts of business owners that can, with conscience, remain open.
Nonetheless, as I’m aging, and gardening seems to take hold of the hearts of the older generation, I feel very ill-equipped to start a garden in my backyard. I live in the tropics, I wish I had prepared myself to answer questions like — “What grows this time of year?”? “Do I have the right soil for it?” How do I protect it from vermin and other pests? And the list goes on.
b) I am wishing my food storage was more diversified.
We have a pretty hefty food storage of long term stuff like wheat, rice, etcetera, but our health needs have changed since we started accumulating food storage decades ago. As a diabetic, I shouldn’t be eating all those carbs.
c) I wish I knew more about how to freeze-dry vegetables and had a huge supply of peanut butter and nuts — a good source of protein and energy without the sugar or carbs.
d) Digression: I feel the biggest risk we have now is triggering a recession. Fortunately, we are well-prepared as our jobs allow us to work remotely and our companies should survive a 3 or 4 month period of social distancing. I don’t see either of us losing our jobs, but who can predict the future?
Any thoughts of any of this? How are you viewing church teachings regarding food storage and home production in light of recent events? What impact do you expect COVID to have on our supply chain? How prepared are you?
I think the church was well positioned for people to have a stockpile of supplies for times like these. Ironically I can’t remember the last time I heard “year supply” being taught. We heard about it just about every conference in the past. Gradually the counsel shifted to a 72 hour kit, then I stopped hearing about preparation altogether. I don’t think the church is well positioned to follow guidelines to socially isolate. Maybe the active population of Mormons lean towards being more extrovertive and social isolation is harder for the extrovert, but I still see leaders at various levels trying to circumvent or ignore the calls to socially isolate. The concerns are more, ‘”How can we still meet for the sacrament?”
Missionaries haven’t been mandated to cease proselyting efforts and of those that have, many are still reliant on visiting the homes of members for meals. It’s a bad time to be a missionary. I know one kid that just left. They’ve looked forward to their mission all of their lives and I know they will be a great missionary, now it may be cut short before it even begins. Those sorts of things make it harder to make the call to completely suspend the missionary program.
We don’t do “be still, and know that I am god” very well. Out and about is ingrained in the culture.
Quote:We don’t do “be still, and know that I am god” very well
This. We are having “sacrament” panic over here. We don’t have it during GC or Stake Conference. I imagine God is super busy with other stuff right now. No one is taking sacrament or church tally’s any where in the world.
I feel that the stopping of the Sacrament in ‘some’ form is faithless. We can not get together but perhaps we could be doing a sort of virtual Sacrament? Our branch just started in January a year long “preparedness” theme. They said something big was coming and we needed to focus on it in the stake for this year. Two months later: Quarantine! The worst part? Now they are never going to shut up about the revelation… (Sarcasm going to get me to h 
It has made me grateful for the prepper parents that I have. I feel blessed to know how to grow food, can goods, ferment veggies, hunt, etc. I was feeling a little upset last year about how I have spent my whole life feeling like the end is just around the corner. When I was a child, I figured I would not ever have a career and especially would never retire because Jesus would come LONG before that could happen. My perspective has changed slightly in that even though I now have a 401K, I also enjoy self reliance. It has given me a lot of peace during this time and lots of prayers of gratitude have gone up. That has helped keep depression at bay as well. Gratitude is really such a beautiful thing.
That being said, though I am no master gardener, I am happy to share what knowledge I do have. Look up heritage seeds or heirloom seeds which will produce seeds for future crops.
I had a similar experience with the needing to reevaluate long term storage reserves. We have lots of white flour but supplemented with whole wheat and brown rice. My husband is also diabetic so we ended up gifting the white rice we did have to others in need. It is hard to keep up with the dietary needs to be honest. I do sourdough and try to convince everyone that real sourdough is better for diabetics so we can use the rest of our white flour.
You sound like you have the knowledge I need to grow our own food! Regarding sacrament, our Bishop authorized all priesthood holders from priest up to bless and pass the sacrament at home. There wasn’t much discussion about worthiness, he just announced it…
So, you can watch the Spoken Word and BYU TV and still have the sacrament and spirituality.
I wonder what will happen to church membership and church attendance after this is over? I am sure people are loving having their Sundays to themselves!
SilentDawning wrote:
I wonder what will happen to church membership and church attendance after this is over? I am sure people are loving having their Sundays to themselves!
From what I’ve gathered from my faithful friends, they either don’t see this as unique because they are too faithful to care “how” or “where” the sacrament is done, or they have been treating it as a trail of their faith to avoid temptation while at home. Either way, it’s crazy the mental gymnastics my friends my age and older are pulling strings to justify this occasion as not a big deal.
SilentDawning wrote:
I wonder what will happen to church membership and church attendance after this is over? I am sure people are loving having their Sundays to themselves!
I think that by the end of this people will be so bored and starved for social interaction that things will be back to business as usual.
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