If you haven’t seen it, check out the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I gained a lot of respect for that woman that I never thought I could muster.
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I’ve actually eaten the c rations that came in cans with one of these…
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Well. . . his career is based on fear-mongering, it used to be “fear that the Devil will get you”, now it’s “fear of starvation in a burned out world.” That’s his skill set. It’s not like he can start a new career as a welder or plumber, at his age.
I’d say he’s progressing, because before he would have been shouting “Hallelujah” at the thought of the apocalypse. It’s a lot more realistic to want to survive in a bunker with gallons of potato soup, than expect to be one of the chosen few who flies off to heaven while the Antichrist is stamping 666 on everyone’s foreheads.
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Now I bet those are spicy!
I read that as “sacrificial pasties” and was like… Whaaaa?
And I just did a google image search for sacrificial pasties and found this gem, so today is officially the best day ever:
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That can opener was in my backpacking-ready emergency kit for years! God, that thing was hard to use.
There really is something for everyone on the internet. 
That honestly made me snort, which made my big dog howl. It was awesome >:)
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Tell that to every Army surplus store in existence.
You’re thinking of someone else (perhaps Jimmy Swaggart?) – PTL was a pioneer in “prosperity theology.” This latest gig for Bakker is the result of his (finally) reading the whole actual Xian bible while in prison, and realizing that he’d gotten it wrong previously. (Or, at least, that what he says…sometimes I think his new outlook owes more to whatever supplier gave him good credit terms at the start of his comeback; -)
What amazes me most about Jim Bakker v3 is how he managed to rebuild his reputation with carriers – PTL wasn’t famous for paying on time. (Shows like PTL and 700 Club are pay-for-play. When PTL would hit the 90-day-over column, my old cable company would stop playing the tapes. Cue the phone calls: “Where’s my Tammy Faye?” “Why are you keeping Jim Bakker off the air?” etc. We’d explain that we couldn’t air more shows until his bills were paid…and a couple weeks later a nice check would come through, starting the cycle anew.)
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I admit I am heartwarmed that in addition to the expected group disapproval of the post subject there was at least some rudimentary discussion of survival chow.
How to design something that is cheap and edible even after (say) 50 years?
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When I was in the military, I always had a John Wayne with me. I’m sure it’s still stored away somewhere in a misc junk box.
Is that a challenge? Specify your rules of engagement sir.
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Civilian MREs
Just based on the packaging the a-pack ones appear to be the same as the military ones with packaging changes. I’d probably recommend those if anyone is curious. Apparently that heavy plastic bag is important to the longevity. I’m actually starting to wonder if that 3 day ration pack my brother left in the basement is still around. Or if he picked it up.
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I’m not sure about buying survival food at a place called “Cheaper Than Dirt”. Seems to be asking for trouble.
I agree! Such a pain in the ass.
Most of the soldiers I know buy a lot of their shit there. My brother used a lot of shit purchased there while he was in Iraq, so I’d trust it just fine. The other big one was Ranger Joes, we still get the catalogs.
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Do I spot a cynical ploy for more donations?
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You want to have a robust barrier against diffusion of gases, especially oxygen and water. It may not look that way to the civilians but plastics are fairly permeable. (Things can get quite counterintuitive; iron is permeable for hydrogen, helium can get through glass…)
For long-life packaging pouches you want robust plastic with aluminium barrier layer laminated between the polymer layers.
For lower requirements you can get away with thinner plastic without aluminium. Even there, more layers can be beneficial. So you can end up with a big bag with lots of smaller bags inside; common for fun-sized packages of e.g. chocolate bars. Greenies may be all in arms because of “too much packaging”, but the total amount of plastic needed can be substantially lower, for the same shelf life, than if there was only one layer.
The food industry has this mastered fairly well and they have equations that give you the thickness of the plastic needed for a desired shelf life and water/oxygen sensitivity of the class of the product. The books are annoyingly expensive but can be found in the darker side of the Net.
Thought. What about taking ordinarily packed materials and enclose them in soldered cans filled with protective atmosphere (dry nitrogen or CO2) and some desiccants and oxygen scavengers? That, with some overpressurization to make it easy to detect eventual pinholes by the can not having a pushed-out lid anymore, and electron beam or gamma irradiation sterilization of the cans (electrons at couple MeV can go through steel can and then its content with relative ease), could yield quite some longevity. For liquids, large sealed glass ampoules, also followed by irradiation, may also work quite well.
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My mom inherited a load of Wehrmacht-issue canned black bread dating back to the war. Made my sandwiches with it all through 7th grade, forty years later. It was that incredibly dense Vollkornbrot though, which doesn’t really have any way to get stale. Something like this, but round:
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