Food Security for the Faint of Heart

Simple techniques for securing your food supply in an insecure world.

There are books you merely read. There are books you read, recommend to others and pass along. Then there are those books you read, lay aside, jump to your feet, throw your hands in the air, and holler, “Yes!!” Food Security for the Faint of Heart is one of the latter.

Robin Wheeler has managed to extract logic from hysteria, package it with a strong environmental perspective, an abundance of practical suggestions and enough good humour to make this a must-have for every soul interested in surviving whatever natural disaster comes along.

Wheeler wastes no time in addressing the central theme of her book: Anything can happen so you better be prepared–and here’s how. In her impressive list of “Good Things to Have in an Emergency”, she catalogues essential items, including lesser touted items such as cooking oil and salt.

If Wheeler has done anything by writing this book, she’s pulled thr proverbial rug from under our feet when it ocmes to excuses for not eating well through any disaster.
— Reviewed by Linda Wegner, Country LIfe in BC

Where would you find your groceries if your supermarket’s shelves were suddenly empty? The threat of earthquakes, trucker strikes, power outages, or a global market collapse makes us vulnerable like never before. With spiraling fuel prices and unstable world economies, individuals and communities are demanding more control over their food supply.

Food Security for the Faint of Heart is designed to gently ease readers into a more empowered place so that shocks to our food supply can be handled confidently. As well as acquiring new skills and ideas, there are other compelling reasons to get better prepared. The local economy gains support and encouragement to expand, in turn boosting food’s taste and nutritional value, along with the health of people and ecosystems. Community support helps low-income families eat higher quality food, and the preparation provides a psychological edge in an emergency.

Chapters are devoted to useful, transferable skills, including:

• Preserving garden food
• Saving freezer food during a power outage
• Managing through an earthquake
• Preparing quick herbal medicinals
• Foraging for wild food

A humorous treatment of a sometimes threatening topic, this book will appeal to both long-time food security advocates and newcomers to the topic who are wary of it all and would prefer to avoid it.

Robin Wheeler teaches traditional skills, sustenance gardening, and medicinals at Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), a nursery and teaching garden in Roberts Creek, British Columbia. She is also the author of Gardening for the Faint of Heart (New Catalyst Books).