By Victoria Michalek @ Shutterstock.com
Travis Maddox tells Allan Stein of the Epoch Times that “there’s a big difference between prepping and hoarding.” It’s a great point and one that should be remembered by anyone attempting to prepare for the uncertain events of the future. For instance, building a stockpile of rice is great, but if you have no emergency water supplies to go with it, it’s going to be hard (literally) to eat.
But that’s not all there is to it. Stein writes:
While many individual preppers and prepper organizations try to remain anonymous, the number of people preparing appears to be growing. In the last year alone, roughly 45 percent of Americans, or about 116 million people, said they spent money preparing for hard times or spent money stockpiling survival goods, according to Finder.com.
Maddox, however, said there’s a big difference between prepping and “hoarding.”
“Prepping is something most people did all the time” in bygone years.
“Our grandparents were preppers. I suspect if things continue to worsen preppers will be made to be the bad guys,” he said.
In the months following the pandemic lockdowns, online stores that serve a growing number of preppers have experienced record-breaking sales and interest in their products.
Keith Bansemer, president of My Patriot Supply in Salt Lake City, said his business has grown exponentially amid widespread fear of a return to COVID-19 lockdowns, empty store shelves, and forced vaccinations that will limit personal freedoms.
“For those that choose not to be vaccinated, the fear is that it’s going to restrict their access to certain things,” Bansemer told The Epoch Times.
In a word—food.
“Since mid-July, we have seen a [six-fold] increase in orders and are shipping several thousand orders daily from our centers in Utah, Missouri, and Ohio,” Bansemer said.
“Americans are quietly preparing.”
Bansemer said My Patriot Supply has provided over 1 million families in the U.S. with emergency foods, water filtration, and other survival products since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
“We own and operate three large warehouses covering over 500,000 square feet. We spent the last year adding 10 times the additional capacity to our operations to best serve our customers during times of crisis and emergencies during spikes in orders like we are seeing now,” Bansemer said.
“An increasing number of those new to preparing have placed orders recently. They are primarily purchasing our large food kits that average over 2,000 calories per day and last up to 25 years in storage. The most popular item right now is our 3-Month Emergency Food Kit,” he added.
In the end, he said, being prepared isn’t about politics—it’s that “people just need to eat.”
A prepper collects eggs from his chickens which he raises at his home in Sebastopol, California on March 30, 2017. (Monica Davey/AFP via Getty Images)
At South Carolina-based Practical Preppers, a supplier of emergency preparing supplies, President Scott Hunt said COVID is “definitely a driver of increased demand.”
“The social and political divisions are also making people nervous,” Hunt told The Epoch Times.
The Texas ice storm and the Colonial pipeline ransom earlier this year “really caused people everywhere to pursue independence,” he said.
“Electrical independence is very high on everyone’s list. I predict demand will outstrip supply this month or the next. Shipping difficulties play a very large role in this. Port congestion and trucking shortages are contributing to this perfect storm,” Hunt said.
As a seasoned prepper, Maddox said homesteading is the next level preparing for hard times. Both he and his wife and daughter live in a family-built house tucked away in the pristine Ozarks with the goal of living off the grid.
The family raises goats, chickens, sheep, turkeys, and grows a variety of fruits and vegetables including squash, corn, and asparagus in a large garden.
Action Line: The most difficult part of preparing your family is getting going. Breaking through inertia to take the first steps toward preparing for the future can be hard. If you are serious about pushing past inertia, and moving forward on your preparation for personal and financial security, click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive newsletter. I’ll help you beat inertia. But only if you’re serious.
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
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