Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.26-113538/https://www.ft.com/content/eeb1ee80-00b8-4f9f-b560-a6717a80d58d
EU households should stockpile essential supplies to survive at least 72 hours of crisis, Brussels has proposed, as Russia’s war in Ukraine and a darkening geopolitical landscape prompt the bloc to take new steps to increase its security.
The continuing conflict in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic that brutally exposed a lack of crisis response capabilities and the Trump administration’s adversarial stance towards Europe have forced the continent to rethink its vulnerabilities and increase spending on defence and security.
The new initiative comes as European intelligence agencies warn that Russia could attack an EU member state within three to five years, adding to natural threats including floods and wildfires worsened by climate change and societal risks such as financial crises.
Europe faced increased threats “including the possibility of armed aggression against member states”, the European Commission warned on Wednesday as it published a 30-step plan for its 27 capitals to increase their preparedness for crisis and mitigation measures.
Just a question for people here who do not have 72 hours of food stored in their homes? Do you go to the supermarket every day? Or do you cook at all? What are you doing on the weekend? What happens when you’re sick and can’t go shopping?
There’s 5 food stores <7 minutes away from my apartment,. Why stockpile when you can just walk and pick up fresh food every other day.
Is that a common occurrence? Just get a friend or family member to shop for you if you’re that ill, or order food delivery.
But don’t you still have some staple stuff like noodles, rice, frozen or canned foods and so on in your house? Combined with the fact that you might buy food in larger quantities (e.g. not just 1 apple, but 6 or maybe 1kg), i’d also imagine that most people have enough food for 3 days in their house.
The imo more interesting thing would be fresh water.
Rice and onions are just about the only thing I have that last more than a few days. I don’t buy frozen food as I’ll just buy what I need at the store, 90% of my diet is just bread, eggs, chicken and rice, and 1.4kg of chicken is gone within 2-3 days.
You could always just lower your caloric intake if food became scarce.
Tap water quality is great in Norway so water is something I never buy unless I forgot to fill up a bottle on a road trip. I don’t really know anyone other soda addicts that keep liquid stored at notable quantities.
Belgium is moving more and more to a much better place just because of regulations anyeay
Solar panels and batteries in a shit ton of homes because of energy prices and older government incentives
10000L rain water tanks because government regulations now require rainwater hookups for future toilers and washing machines plus water is expensive here
Induction stoves to not have to put extraction fans in the kitchen to the outside to boost energy EPC ratings (resale value)
We always have a bunch of potatoes and cans of tomatoes and pasta for fries, mashed potatoes, or different pastas (but maybe that is just my family)
A ton of people would be quite OK for a while here I think.
Yeah, the rise of balcony and roof solar modules here in Germany probably helps us in a similar way.
That on the other hand i don’t think is common and especially in cities i don’t think that’s a thing anywhere. So imo drinking water probably remains the most serious bottleneck, if it were ever compromised.
Do you have 72 hours of food supplies that you can use in case of an emergency? When there is no water and no electricity, and you can’t cook mac&cheese in the oven.
I assumed most everyone had at least two weeks of emergency supplies. Like I have a stock of a couple weeks supply of food and water in the basement in case of emergencies, that’s what my parents taught me was the bare minimum in case of emergencies.
Might happen at the end of month for me. We go grocery shopping with a car at the beginning of the month, but 31 days are longer than my freezer is big and a backpack can only hold so much. So I respectfully ask Putin not to attack on the 29th.
Supermarket daily, mostly microwave stuff.
I eat what I buy. If I buy a days food I’ll eat it in a day, if I buy 2 days food I’ll probably also eat that in 1 day. If I’m sick I wear a mask, if I’m super sick I ask someone to deliver me some shopping but then it is more than a days worth because I don’t want to ask someone to do my shopping every day.
I have 2 days worth of food in my home. 4 days worth of lunch. When the 2 days of food runs out, I buy more on my way home. Same goes for when the lunch runs out. Meaning if I’m caught at a bad time, I’ll have 0 food
I grocery shop every 2 weeks and at any given time I have a month of food in stock. because I live in a hemisphere with hurricanes.
72 hours of essential supplies. Do you have 72 hours of:
Yep, I have four supermarkets and two discounters in walkable distance and it makes me walk and leave the house daily. Plus my back’s not the healthiest and I can’t carry that much anymore.
You’d be amazed the lack of foresight most have.
When CoViD hit, I was able to avoid shopping trips for nearly six months, due to having a well prepared pantry. At best, I would go every other week to the store for mostly fruit, which is something I find hard to preserve without requiring huge amounts of sugars, of which I shy away, for personal reasons.
Yes, I live right next to a store.