There is a wealth of knowledge about emergency preparedness in books, videos, classes, conferences, government sponsored organizations, private organizations, and other media outlets. The trick is to find the simplest, most straightforward basics of emergency preparedness in one place. What is needed is a family preparedness handbook that is extremely well organized, informative, and user-friendly. What is available is exactly that! James Talmage Stevens, author of Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook has recently revised his emergency preparedness book with 260 additional pages of new information, charts, tables, and recipes. James’s mantra is “keep it super simple”. So, although James’s wildly popular, best emergency preparedness book on the market is packed with so much information– everything from food storage to fuel storage to financial preparedness to the organization of critical documents to self reliant living to supplementation, and emergency action plans, James’s best emergency preparedness book (over 760,000 copies sold, and in its 11th addition!)– sticks to its title, mission, and purpose of Making the Best of Basics. Quite frankly, the best of anything is basic and easy to understand, especially in the case of emergency preparedness! If emergency preparedness is made to be too complicated an issue, it is abandoned by most people (and causes a whole lot more deaths!). Indeed, James understands this principle because his creation of the best emergency preparedness book available takes a reader from kindergarten to college in regards to family preparedness.

A quick glance through the Table of Contents of Making the Best of Basics should convince the reader that James really is serious about his “basic” premise– to keep things simple! Among his chapter headings you will find the likes of “Basics of Whole Wheat Cookery”, “Basics of Honey Use”, “Basics or In-Home Drying– Dehydrating Fruits and Vegetables”, “Basics of Dairy Products from Powdered Milk”, “Basics of Battling Stress”, “Basics of Supplementation”, and on and on– everything is basically basic! The recipes are even basic (I’m game for that!). That’s why I’m tooting James Talmage Steven’s horn for him, and calling it the best emergency preparedness book, because he lays it all out– all of the important emergency preparedness considerations and information is covered a baby step at a time. You have lists of the necessaries, and you can take on emergency preparedness with confidence by utilizing his charts, checklists, and tables. You can photocopy the checklists and use his emergency preparedness handbook as a workbook, becoming an active participant, much like you are taking a class, but at your own leisure (but don’t wait too long!). Not only that, but James is a storyteller. He illustrates practical application of what he teaches through his fun little parables and makes it easier and less laborious reading material. Just be careful that you not enjoy the best emergency preparedness book out there so much so that you don’t get around to doing anything but reading it! Prepare to flourish, not flounder!

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Our civilization is quite advanced, making it even that much more important to prepare for any number of things that could go awry, and calling upon the use of something as simple as food storage. See, when any system gets so far advanced and inclined towards such high levels of technological specialization in so many varied facets, it becomes increasingly more susceptible to a breakdown or interruption, because when just one part of the whole becomes dysfunctional it creates a domino effect throughout. Just as happened with the housing market. And to make an analogy most can appreciate, how helpless do you feel when your car gadgetry malfunctions? When you car windows won’t roll up nor down with just the click of a button, do you sometimes long for the manual window-roller-uppers?

Although not caused by a defect in the normal “man”-aged workings of society, we can see how a “change” in the status quo will cause mass chaos, as witnessed by a series of big hurricanes a few years back. What happens? Many basic essentials are the first to fly off the store shelves, and this surely includes food. Food storage, water storage, 72 hour kits, and other emergency supplies collected far in advance could prevent this mad rush to a grocery store—only to find that crowds of people made it there before you did, leaving very little left of the significant items for you to purchase. Remember, this is not an apocalyptic event, just nature taking its course. Recall also the pictures on television those people who waited until the last minute before evacuating and being stranded on freeways for hours at a time because of overtaxed capacity. If you are going to get out of Dodge, do it before everyone else decides to!

In his book, “Making the Best of Basics,” author James Talmage Stevens speaks of an in-home food storage convenience store. Aside from disastrous situations, how nice would it be to never “run out” of an ingredient needed for a recipe, not having to run to the neighbors for an item to complete the mix? What if you should forget that you have no more diapers in the home and your baby has a bout of diarrhea? Even if the store is close, it’s nice to have a backup supply.

We have learned in recent years that the unexpected can and does happen. “Nobody saw it coming!” was the common refrain in response to the economic crisis. In times of volatility and uncertainty, could there be a trucker’s strike, or exceedingly high gas prices that cause a disruption in the supply chain delivering food to the marketplace? This and many other unforeseen scenarios could happen, thus bringing to the forefront the need for food storage and emergency supplies. With the advanced JIT (Just-In-Time) concept of inventories, it is said that grocery store shelves could be emptied in 3 days or less. But, if you have an in-home food storage convenience store as part of your wise and prudent emergency preparedness efforts, you’re not among those who panic. We’re not talking about Armageddon or the Apocalypse here. We’re just talking about good, old-fashioned common sense.

Food really can go missing from grocery storage shelves as attested to by even recent articles found here and here. Got food storage?

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