According to leading scientists at the National Emergency Briefing, we should be stocking up on food because they are too..
Prof. Paul Behrens talks about keeping extra supplies in his pantry. He also knows not everyone can afford this. He discusses the prosocial reasons we prepare like this. His approach is rational; he isn’t buying food to bank for his neighbours, as Rupert Read describes. “It’s very prosocial to have because ultimately at the moment we’ve got a situation where we don’t have very good understanding of where these critical risks are, and we don’t have a lot of that regional planning that we really need. And so actually, a lot of the storage we have in our place is for neighbours; it’s a prosocial thing, because if you do get these impacts and then people do have to run out and grab some food, as we saw during COVID. You are not putting extra stress on the system because you have a buffer. If you have the resources or extra income, then do it.” Paul Behren, National Emergency Briefing.
I am so grateful to hear a scientist who understands the problems we face articulate what Solidarity Prepping and prosocial preparedness mean, rather than undermining one of the few non-fascist preparedness information sources.
“According to Rupert Read, Climate Preparedness starts on your street. He says he is buying food for his neighbours, meanwhile Caroline Lucas, along with Manda Scott (Influential Greens) & Podcasters, claims that stocking up on food is undesirable or unhelpful. At the 2026 Tunbridge Wells Climate and Nature event, Rupert Read told the interviewer about his preparedness plans and, when asked where people could get more information, he referred them to the Climate Majority Project.” Solidarity Prepping: The Climate Majority Project website has nothing on prosocial preparedness or buying food for your neighbours. The documents Mobilising Silent Majorities and Climate Popularism are policy documents, not preparedness how-to’s
Most Greens have preconceived ideas and prejudices about preparedness, which I have discussed extensively on this blog. I question why a citizens’ assembly doesn’t define preparedness, rather than people who reject learning any actual survival skills, let alone reading common sense on this blog. The general consensus among many influential Greens seems to be that stocking up is somehow undesirable and formulaic in leading to a selfish bunker mentality, and they will literally make stuff up to justify their opinions: “Caroline Lucas: “We’ve had the minister Angela Eagle just recently suggesting we all kind of hunker down with a year’s worth of baked beans and loo roll. You know that is not a very attractive prospect for survival of difficult times to come.” I have just preserved the green tomatoes and pumpkin in chutney, dried the beans, and stored the pumpkin seeds and black corn grain. The Greens’ approach to preparedness isn’t scientific; it ignores history; it’s opinion-based, and the people holding those opinions aren’t qualified to hold them. This is why they ask questions like this: “Are you someone others will want on their team?” (Rainbow Prepping) and then state, “In rapidly changing situations where we don’t have a standard answer or routine to follow, we will benefit from people around us being able to decide what is the best thing to do in a particular situation, and then do it with capacity and determination.“(Rainbow prepping) Having either excluded, ostracised, and/or insulted us first.
Not Only Should We Stock Up If We Can Afford To, But We Should Also Have A Strategy For Hungry Neighbours.
Not only should we stock up if we can afford it, but we should also have a plan for household water sovereignty and for how we help our neighbours. Rupert Read’s version of Solidarity Prepping is undermining and unhelpful. No one will be attracted to the idea of buying food to store and bank for a neighbour you might not know. Of course, it’s important to get to know your neighbours now, before things get really difficult.
A good strategy for feeding hungry neighbours is to share food you have cooked and have on the table, rather than food from your stores.
You Should Stock Up Not Only On Food, But Also Water, as Well as Harvest Rainwater For the Garden & If Required, Long Term Drinking After Processing
How much drinking water is enough? 2 litres per person per day, plus 2 additional litres/day for 2-4 people to cook with. One way to assess your cooking water needs is to measure how much water you use to cook a normal family meal.
Rainwater Harvesting is something every household should do at a scale of 500 litres or more. I have a 2000-litre capacity in an MDPE food-grade barrel with airtight lids.
Options for Off-Grid Cooking.
Severe weather can lead to power outages. If your primary cooking method at home is electricity, you need a second or 3rd option during a power outage.
Gas camping cookers like the CADAC offer high-quality options that can be used indoors.
NOT FOR INDOOR USE: Alternatively, the Kelly Kettle and hobo addition offer an outdoor, backyard option. The Biolite company offers a variety of stoves, including fan-assisted models that can charge your phone. I run my mini Biolite on pine cones. Biolite also make some great-looking rocket stoves.
The Trangia was the 1st mountain stove I was trained with. It was so windy that it was almost impossible to pour the meth into the burner. We had to peg the stove down! This stove can heat food in a howling gale. I have also used a Trangia indoors on top of my normal cooker during a power failure.
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