eMJA: A food “lifeboat”: food and nutrition considerations in the event of a pandemic or other catastrophe

To the Editor: The article by Haug and colleagues on household food stockpiling is a useful contribution to a neglected aspect of disaster planning.1 However, rather than providing a guide to what foods should be stockpiled, it may be more valuable to encourage families to increase the amount and rotation of the non-perishables they currently purchase. The authors seek to promote a balanced nutritional diet, but encouraging a family to continue their usual purchasing patterns when stockpiling for a pandemic or other disaster is a simpler, more sustainable, and possibly more effective way to promote household food stockpiling. We must assume that the family currently survives, for better or worse, on their current food purchase pattern.

NB: If you are registered with the eMJA, your username is the email address you have provided.
AMA members can login using their AMA username and password.

If you don't have a login, click here to register for immediate free access

The Medical Journal of Australia eMJA

Username:
Password:

Password forgotten? Click here What is my username?