*The Unforeseen Benefits to Storing Food*

*The Unforeseen Benefits to Storing Food*
By: ThePiedPiper
24 March 2007

For those of us who store what we eat and eat what we store, buying extra food is second nature. When we go to the store, we pick up a little extra. When canned foods we like come on sale, we buy lots of extra. We then store it. We put the newly acquired items in the back and use the older items first.

And so it was that, when the pet food contamination story broke, I was not concerned. At worst, I knew that any tainted foods were stored in one of the back stacks of "Mount Slurpy," the name I've affectionately given the stacks of cases of cat food I keep. I was lucky. My myriad Mount Slurpies, thus far, are completely devoid of tainted foods.

But more to the point, even had I acquired some of the offending product, I wouldn't have fed it to my pets and they'd still be safe. Why? Because I store more than three months worth of cat food. Hence, I wouldn't have gotten to the poisoned items by the time the news about the contamination broke.

So what we see here is yet another positive externality of storing food for the long term. By storing months of food, you have a buffer zone between you and potentially contaminated foods. Even if a company like Menu Foods then drags its feet, i.e. engages in unconscionable delay before revealing the problem to the public, pets belonging to those who store and rotate food for the long term are safe.

If it turns out Menu Foods discovered the problem in January or February, but failed to reveal it until March, think of how many people bought the contaminated food AFTER the company knew it was contaminated. Even if they could recover a lot of money for their lost pets (which they probably can't, due to the laws in our country), that won't bring those beloved pets back. What could have saved those pets was building in a buffer zone.

Storing enough food for several months makes sense for many reasons. Corporate misfeasance, malfeasance and plain ole greed have now risen to a higher level on the list of those reasons. Protect yourself and your loved ones, including your pets, by establishing a buffer zone. It's just a question of time before the next company announces a recall.
ThePiedPiper

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