You have a zombie hoard shuffling down the road towards your house. What do you do?
Do you get your baseball bat and start knocking off heads… wait, you get your Glok and start putting a round precisely in their temples… wait, you get your M16 and you use controlled bursts to thin out the crowd, hoping they will run off… wait you get your belt fed M60 and mow them all down…
Well they aren't really zombies, they're just HAngry (hungry + angry). And they need food.
So, you bring out lots of food, and feed them all… except now, the Angry mob stays, and eats all your food, and then kills you because you are obviously holding out on them. You have your own stash, and they know it.
There are few good options at this point. The best is to have a mountain of food, and an army to gun down any who want to take more than you give them. And it goes down hill from there.
All the good options are in the past. So, before we get there, lets talk about them
If you don't have a years worth of food stocked, you're wrong
In the olden days, everyone had a years worth of food (AT MINIMUM) cause you had to make to next years harvest. There was no grocery store. There was only your neighbors, and they were usually in the same boat as you.
In this time of plenty, why doesn't every person have a years worth of food stocked in their pantry? It is the simplest thing. You can even get 25 year lasting, freeze dried packages and stuff them in a dark closet.
Since that time when everyone grew their own food to now, everyone has gotten used to grocery stores. More, we have gotten used to fresh fruits year round. When it was, and still is, a seasonal thing. A few weeks, once a year.
Today we just expect fresh apples in the winter.
This is an illusion. And Capitalism and the ruling class want to keep this illusion in place. You are on the verge of starving to death, and you don't even know it.
In a Communist country, you only have seasonal produce, they don't hide that. But the scary thing is, what is on the shelves may be all that there is.
So, have enough food to get yourself to the next harvest.
What about EVERYONE?
When talking about "everyone" today, we are talking about govern-cements. And govern-cements #1 priority is to maintain govern-cement. "Continuity of Government" (COG) is the DOD's plan for crisis. Not, the "Feed everyone" plan. It is the, keep us in charge plan.
Capitalistic govern-cement wants everyone to feel like they have lots of food, while secretly being on the verge of starvation. You can't control someone with food, if they have a years worth of food stocked up.
Communist govern-cements work hard to get enough food grown. But, since they have no incentive structure to grow extra, all they can do is decide who gets to starve.
We cannot rely on govern-cement to feed everyone. They don't know how, and they are firmly set against it.
The only larger scale than family, i have seen work is closely integrated community.
And it isn't a "group-at-top" works out how to feed everyone system. It is like the opposite and upside down of that.
It starts off with everyone has to have a place to grow food. Everyone has to learn to grow food. Every persons has to manage their growing. The "people above" are there to help each individual do each of these steps.
This is all good, but you still have to stomp out grasshoppers. (The Ants and the Grasshopper) The only way a person gets to not grow their own food is that a person, or a group of people promise to take on that responsibility. A person who still refuses to, or half heartedly, grow their own food needs to be kicked out of the community.
(The best way is to not kick them out, but to let them starve, however that is horrible to watch. And takes a long time. It is not good for the community)
Growing food is easy
Never has it been easier to grow food. We have LED grow lights, and you can grow fresh lettuces in a closet or a corner of your kitchen. With automatic timers for watering and lighting (plants need to sleep too) it is almost completely automated. Just plant and harvest. (and that can be automated too, but becomes much more complicated)
We can do the same on a larger scale with greenhouses.
We have hydroponics systems. We have aquaponics (add fish, and now you have protein) systems.
We have a REALLY OLD system called Food Forests. Where you make an entire ecosystem. Each layer providing food to humans and nutrition for the other plant layers. Canopy trees for shade. Fruit trees under that. Fruiting vines. Fruiting bushes. And ground cover. There are Food Forests that are generations old. They do not require much work once set up. But the Food Forest is relying on you for water and nutrients.
In the future, the thing that replaces govern-cement will realize how important it is for every person to have their spot to grow food. And, in many places will be handing out parcels of land.
From my point of view, finding your tribe, your "family" is as important. Then, as a group, you can find a place where the entire tribe has room to grow food. Finding your "family" should be a high priority, especially as we go forward through these changes. The slow people will be forced into groups out of necessity.
We really should have never let govern-cements form that say that they will provide food to everyone, but do everything to control and limit food. We need people who know about food. How to grow it, store it and ship it. People who also are kind hearted, and want everyone to be fed. No games, no manipulation.
But, this needs to be set on a layer where most people can feed themselves, and this kind hearted group of people can handle the people who have fallen through the cracks. And worse, needs to define if they are going to just keep giving, or if there are limits. Like, "you need to help in the community garden, or no food for you".
Any way they handle it, it will be far better than Communism that CAN'T grow enough food, and Capitalism that wants to keep food prices high by not having too much extra, can ever do.