Last Updated on 2024/10/22 by BrieferBob
Food Insurance Disaster Relief?
![Food Insurance _Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887, source: [4]](https://www.shoppersbriefer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/800px-Apocalypse_vasnetsov.jpg "Food Insurance _Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887_CLICK to ENLARGE_ source: [4]")
Why would anyone think of something like food insurance anyway? What could be the usefulness of such an idea?
Food Insurance is what it sounds like: insuring against an unexpected food shortage, spreading the risk of loss that could show up with a major life event affecting those in its wake. But what food insurance really provides is peace of mind, knowing that it’s taken care of.
Most people don’t plan. Who would ever think of putting together something like food insurance? Well, forget the apocalypse, the end of the age cataclysmic event of all time! If that actually occurs on the scale described, chances are real good you won’t survive it anyway. You’ve probably wasted a lot of time and money putting together that survival kit. But you might consider more recent life changing catastrophic events that have occurred lately that could affect your ordinary way of life if you found yourself in the middle of it.
Emergencies Can Occur!
Consider the March, 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. It’s an untold devastating story no longer on the front page of any news outlet. The full impact has not been completely disclosed. But let’s keep it at home. Remember Three-mile Island?
In recent months, FEMA has declared disasters in Utah, Alabama, and Massachusetts due to severe storms, hitting Alabama particularly hard by adding tornadoes, strait-line winds and flooding. Nevada experienced wide-spread devastation caused by the Washoe fires.
According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the nation’s “scorekeeper” of severe weather and climate events, revealed that the U.S. has sustained an estimated 114 natural disasters over the past 31+ years.
In August, 2011, Hurricane Irene alone knocked out power for over seven million homes and businesses and recorded forty-five deaths. The spring and summer of 2011 ushered in the Mississippi River flooding. Taking its toll, the Missouri and Souris Rivers forced evacuation of 11,000 people.
Let’s not mention the many droughts that have occurred over just the last few years, reaching from California to the Atlantic Coast, in which both water and food supplies where diminished greatly within the communities directly affected.
Most of all, what isn’t mentioned in NCDC reports is the impact on people who are left without food and water for extended periods of time. They don’t even begin to estimate the numbers affected! From my perspective, food Insurance, or a survival kit, is all about a self-sustained food & water disaster relief program.
The Cost in Real Dollars
If we were to measure natural disasters in terms of real dollars, the cost is staggering. Statistics published by the Insurance Information Institute show losses in U.S. dollars exceeded $330 billion in 2017. That figure was up from $184 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. Hurricane Irma, alone, cost $32 billion dollars in losses. Both Hurricane Harvey and Maria were close behind at $30 billion dollars each. Continue Reading
