When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes

by Cody Lundin

  —Lester Glick, June 25, 1945

  During the refeeding phase, as had been the case for some of the men who had binged during the experiment, some continued eating to the point of vomiting, only to start all over again after the vomiting ceased. After three months of normal meals the men still complained of increased hunger after eating. Some men, whose daily estimate of calories topped 10,000, would start snacking within a half an hour of eating. After more than five months of refeeding, most of the volunteers reported somewhat normal eating patterns but some continued to eat much greater portions than when the experiment began.

  Today Jim and I made a routine visit to a restaurant to watch people eat. We bought our usual black coffee and directed our attention to a well-dressed lady who had ordered a beautiful pork chop dinner. She tinkered with the chop, eating less than half of that wonderful looking tenderloin. She nibbled at the string beans, embellished with nuts and bacon. Finally she ordered a fantastic coconut cream pie, which appeared to us as God's prize creation. She pushed off the wonderful whipped cream on the top, nibbled daintily at the filling, leaving the crust untouched. What a stupid woman! She paid her bill and left the restaurant, with Jim and I close behind. Jim stopped her and proceeded to lecture her on world hunger and how she was contributing to it. She shrieked an exclamation and took off running.

  —Lester Glick, July 6, 1945

  Most of the psychological changes such as collecting and hoarding continued, as did the total preoccupation with food. Although the men were chosen for their more than average psychological stamina, most experienced severe emotional breakdown as the semistarvation progressed. Depression, apathy, irritability, anger, and radical mood swings, along with the inability to function overall, dogged the volunteers relentlessly. Anxiety in once-stable men increased as nail-biting and smoking were chosen to combat hypersensitivity and nervousness. Humor between the men disappeared and they became socially withdrawn from each other, visiting friends and family, and the facilitators. The men showed signs of impaired judgment and alertness, along with impaired concentration and comprehension, as well as poor motor coordination, reduced strength, hair loss, decreased tolerance of cold, headaches, added sensitivity to noise and light, ringing in the ears, and spots in front of their eyes. Their body's physiological processes seemed to slow down across the board, from body temperatures to heart rates, including a drop in their normal basal metabolic rate (BMR) by nearly 40 percent. Upon refeeding, those who consumed the most calories also had the biggest gain in their BMR.

  Cannibalism, death through starvation, grass salads, and eating garbage are more than fleeting thoughts. We are told that we are starving so that thousands of starving people might be fed. Such thoughts are fleeting, and I'd give them up in a minute for a few slices of bread.

  —Lester Glick, July 8, 1945

  The Minnesota study proved the body's amazing ability to adapt in times of food shortages. In times of dire need, everything, including the sex drive, takes a back seat toward the goal of obtaining more calories. The study should make it glaringly obvious as to the benefits of a well-thought-out food storage plan, and hopefully your ability to improvise gathering calories should your "plan" disappear. I've included the study here not just to encourage you to store food, but to have you realize the psychological, not just physiological, ramifications of a forced low-calorie diet. If your family finds itself with limited food opportunities, and starts acting a bit weird, you will have been forewarned.

  Epilogue

  A few years ago, sixteen of the thirty-six original participants who were still alive were interviewed. Despite all the hardships and suffering they endured, all of them said that they would do it all over again, saying the study was the most impactful experience of their lives. After the original study ended, many of the participants worked at rebuilding the war zone of Europe, working in ministries and diplomatic careers. Survivors of the study living in Florida still meet regularly. All continue to be strong advocates for human service programs, promoting justice, peacemaking, and concerns about world hunger.

  What about Living off the Fat of the Land with Wild Edible Plants and Game?

  There is perhaps no quicker way to ruin your day than by putting the wrong thing into your mouth and swallowing it, and I speak from experience. There are many variables when using wild edible plants and game as part of a survival plan. The more variables a plan contains, the more moving parts there are, the more Murphy's Law is liable to act, and that which can go wrong, will go wrong. Some people reading this have read other survival books in which many wild edible plants were shared. A few of you have taken field courses on wild edible plants taught by knowledgeable and enthusiastic instructors, a few of who are probably friends of mine. I have attended plant walks where the instructor stated confidently to mesmerized students that the instructor could live off the seeds of one plant alone for many months, although they had never attempted to do so for even a day. Some readers will gaze into their backyards or back forty and see endless amounts of wild edible plants: cattails, watercress, prickly pear fruit, and others. Some no doubt feel confident that nature's bounty will be there in their time of need, oblivious to potential drought, flooding, fire, insect infestation, human or animal exploitation, premature cold snaps or warm spells, chemical contamination, dubious nutritional and caloric values, limited palatability, odd preparation requirements for edibility, and seasonal availability. All wild game, both large and small, have their share of challenges, legal and otherwise. Hunting and trapping are true arts and require much practice, the right equipment, and the proper area to be successful. That said, some people in the United States could live on roadkill alone and I do envy you. On the positive side, rats and mice are easy to catch but most of you will quickly exhaust your supply.

  I'll let you in on a little survival instructor secret. There is a great yearning by many to live off the land, wild and free, perpetuated by movies, television, outdoor magazines, and all aspects of the media. Whether it was cowboys and Indians, Daniel Boone, Grizzly Adams, or Jeremiah Johnson, the illusion of forever successfully living from the land has long ago been hammered into the human psyche. The concept has reached mythological proportions, containing a certain glamour and mystique equaled only by the romance of martial arts or the Navy SEALs—both highly exaggerated by the media as well. When a survival instructor works with innocent, wide-eyed students eager to place the instructor upon a pedestal and/or the media, whose bottom line is selling a product at the expense of truth, a change can happen. The instructor may start believing his own BS. In other words, you might be taught survival concepts and skills that don't have a snowball's chance in hell of working under the real-life pressures of a true survival scenario. Along with the cool "wild" things you can eat, your survival instructor should also mention the extreme psychological and physiological stress your body, mind, and emotions will be under, and that your fine and complex motor skills, including your cognitive skills, will have gone to hell in a handbasket, seriously compromising your hunting and gathering abilities. But hey, that reality just ain't no fun, and it don't make very good TV neither.

  Thanks to Rambo, clueless TV producers and magazine editors, testosterone, and lots of ego there is great pressure for survival instructors to make magic and prove themselves at all costs, including honesty, to be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat regardless of circumstances. History has proved this to be a lie, as many indigenous peoples, depending upon the life zone in which they lived, died young while living off the fat of the land. The truth is, for much of the planet, there isn't a whole lot of fat left, at least not in my area. In summary, closely scrutinize survival teachings through a fierce lens of discretion and realism. Even if you possess the needed training and resources to do so, take a serious look at your situation to see if harvesting calories from the land is realistic for your survival setup. Gathering wild plants and animals for food may be the icing on the cake for your survival plan, but I would
strongly caution you against it being the "cake." In the end, if you're still determined to "play Indian," be willing to accept death as a possibility.

  This snippet is in no way meant to discourage you from learning and practicing what indigenous food resources you have in your backwoods or your backyard. Learn all you possibly can about your area and what type of calories, if need be, can be harvested or hunted. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is not a wise move with any of your family's resources, especially food.

  So Glad to Have You for Dinner!

  "THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS, EVEN YOUR OWN FAMILY, LEAVES YOU COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR BELLY. YOU ROB RUTHLESSLY; YOU WOULD EVEN KILL."

  —HYOK KANG

  In our planet's history, famines, both "natural" and man-made, have caused people to literally eat anything they could shove into their mouths. In the twentieth century alone, more than 70 million people died from starvation around the world. If you have the mind-set and the will, history proves that nothing is taboo to eat when extreme hunger knocks at your door. The following true examples, which are just a smattering of scenarios that have occurred, are not meant to gross or bum you out. They are meant to knock you out of American complacency and encourage you to take your food storage program seriously. They are also meant to inspire appreciation within you and your loved ones to be grateful for the food you eat now, and hopefully in the future. Have the "picky eaters" in your tribe read this section twice. Bon Appetit.

  Egypt, AD 1200–1202

  A drought prevented the Nile River from its annual flooding, preventing people from growing their crops. Approximate death toll was 110,000, due to starvation, cannibalism, and disease.

  Europe, AD 1315–1322, the Great Famine

  Bad weather and crop failure caused the death of millions of people by starvation, disease, infanticide, and cannibalism. At that time in Europe's history, famines were common and people were lucky to survive to the ripe old age of thirty. It seems that hard times knew no economic boundaries. In 1276, official records from the British royal family, society's wealthiest people at the time, recorded an average life span of thirty-five years.

  Ireland, 1845–1849, the Great Potato Famine

  Potatoes, the mainstay of the Irish diet, were inflicted with a potato blight that killed the crops. Local grain and livestock were owned by the English, and laws prevented the Irish from importing grain. The combination of crop disease and politics caused the death of 1.5 million people by starvation, cannibalism, and disease.

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  BLOATED BUREAUCRATS

  In its 2006 yearly report that measures Americans' access to food, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 12 percent of Americans, some 35 million people, could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Of these, 11 million reported going hungry at times. Regardless of this, the USDA has chosen to phase out the use of the word "hunger" in its reporting, instead choosing to use the term "very low food security." Mark Nord, a USDA sociologist and lead author of the change, said that, "hungry [is]. . .not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey [and]. . .we don't have a measure of that condition." A panel recommending that the word "hunger" be dropped from the USDA vocabulary said the word "should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation." Could they be serious? Seeing as how USDA reports indicate that the number of the hungriest Americans, whoops, I mean Americans that apparently aren't yet starving, but who are simply experiencing the "usual uneasy sensation" has risen over the past five years, wouldn't it be a better use of tax dollars to take some action about "very low food security" in our nation? For all the overfed bureaucrats (who doubtfully have ever had a "usual uneasy sensation") who chose to spend their time and our money helping to wipe out the word "hunger" instead of hunger itself, this "Famine" section is for you. It proves that we do indeed have a measure of "that condition" called hunger.

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  The Great Plains of the United States, 1930s

  The United States experienced the worst drought of the twentieth century. The resulting lack of precipitation caused massive dust storms, which dominated the landscape, causing severe health problems while destroying crops and killing livestock. Death toll is unknown. Dust storms destroyed my grandmother's garden several times in a season. As the garden was necessary for the family's survival, she simply replanted, watering the acre-plus garden by hand with a bucket. The subsequent malnutrition and hard labor nearly killed my pregnant grandmother (and my aunt). A couple of times a month my grandfather would bring home "treats" from town, which consisted of two oranges. One orange was split between her two children, the other eaten by my grandmother during the pregnancy of her third child, in which she ate the entire thing, peelings and all.

  The Soviet Famine, 1932–1934

  The Soviet Famine was initiated by Josef Stalin in an attempt to boost industrialization financed by forced collective farms in which grain production fell by 40 percent. His draconian measures included forbidding peasants to leave the country without permission; expelling, killing, or sending rich peasants to labor camps; and forcibly seizing what little food remained to double grain exports to raise cash for his failed plan. The predicted chaos included a report issued by an Italian consul member in the Ukraine reporting "a growing commerce in human meat" and that people were killing and eating their own children. Astute authorities immediately responded, not with food, but by distributing posters that read: "Eating Dead Children Is Barbarism." Due to a national cover-up forbidding doctors to disclose on death certificates that the deceased had starved to death, numbers for the total dead are sketchy but estimates are at 5 to 8 million people, 10 to 25 percent of the population of the Ukraine.

  When the snow melted true starvation began. People had swollen faces and legs and stomachs. They could not contain their urine. . .and now they ate anything at all. They caught mice, rats, sparrows, ants, earthworms. They ground up bones into flour, and did the same thing with leather and shoe soles; they cut up old skins and furs to make noodles of a kind and they cooked glue. And when the grass came up, they began to dig up the roots and ate the leaves and the buds; they used everything there was; dandelions, and burdocks and bluebells and willow root, and sedums, and nettles. . .

  —Soviet writer Vasily Grossman, recording the spring of 1933

  The Warsaw Ghetto, 1940–1942

  Three hundred eighty thousand Jews were confined to a 3.5-mile area that normally housed 160,000. The population eventually reached 445,000 before the Nazis sealed off the area with a ten-foot wall, with the intention of starving all of the inhabitants within nine months. Official food rationing provided 2,613 kilocalories per day for Germans, 699 kilocalories per day for Poles, and 184 kilocalories for Jews in the Ghetto. Tens of thousands died from starvation and disease.

  People of all ages died in the streets, in shelters, in homes, and in hospitals. Nighttime produced a special hazard as even the most courageous or insensitive lost their nerve when, in the darkness of the night, they happened to accidentally step on some soft object that turned out to be a cadaver. The family commonly removed a body from their home onto the street, after removing all evidence of identity. In that way, they might be able to use the extra ration card for a few days. . .. Mothers hid dead children under beds for days in order to receive a larger food ration.

  —Witness account of life in the Ghetto

  Northern China, 1958–1962

  Chairman Mao's failed bid to "industrialize" his nation, along with several natural disasters and drought, killed an unbelievable 30 million people by starvation, disease, infanticide, and cannibalism. Desperate families swapped each other's children to eat, thus avoiding having to eat their kin. The pest reduction campaign to protect crops included the entire country bea
ting on pots and pans to prevent sparrows and other birds from landing until they fell down dead with exhaustion. Without the predation of the birds, insect pests multiplied, damaging crops. During the mass starvation, clueless officials doubled the exports of grain and decreased food importation. Although it was the world's largest famine, it was not revealed to the rest of the world until 1981.

  On the muddy path leading from the village, dozens of corpses lay unburied. In the barren fields there were others; and amongst the dead, the survivors crawled slowly on their hands and knees searching for wild grass seeds to eat. In the ponds and ditches people squatted in the mud hunting for frogs and trying to gather weeds. It was winter, and bitterly cold, but. . .everyone was dressed only in thin and filthy rags tied together with bits of grass and stuffed with straw. . .. Sometimes neighbors and relatives simply fell down as they shuffled through the village and died without a sound. . .. The dead were left where they died because no one had the strength to bury them. . .. The silence was unnatural. The village oxen had died, the dogs had been eaten and the chickens and ducks had long ago been confiscated by the Communist Party in lieu of grain taxes. There were no birds left in the trees, and the trees themselves had been stripped of their leaves and bark. At night there was no longer even the scratching of rats and mice, for they too had been eaten or had starved to death.