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.
Thank goodness that wars only last for 3 days exactly.
72 hours of food is just grocery shopping
I’m definitely not prepared.
Without water, gas or electricity, there’s not really much left in essentials I can use from my grocery shopping.
I don’t know about you, but I usually buy fresh food that needs to be cooked, and drink water from tap.
worst case ill just eat my poop
72 hours, the average length of a special military operation.
My grandma lived through WWII and rationing. After she died, we were cleaning out her house to find she had hidden cans of food stockpiled everywhere: behind the washing machine, in the pit in her garage, in the corners of her loft, everywhere.
If rationing ever came back in, she was more than ready for it.
That has been the recommendation for civil protection for a while already. Not so much because of the risks of war, but e. g. floodings, power outages, storms etc. And most importantly you should stockpile water, because at a power outage, there will be no tap water anymore. That’s the most important bit people here seem to forget. So nothing new here, actually.
Given how quickly supermarket shelves emptied at the start of COVID, this is good advice generally for a crisis.
True. We had a pretty big storm here a couple of years ago and the next day the supermarket shelves were almost empty. We really don’t usually think about how fragile the supply chain is when it comes to a crisis.
72 hours of food is crazy to me. I would be making a trip to the store when down to maybe a week or two.
Guess Europe really does shop different.
I have half a dozen supermarkets in 10min radius by foot. multiple more if I use a bike/scooter.
There’s really not much use in stocking huge amounts of food at home, especially when you want to cook fresh stuff.
Non-perishable things like canned and frozen meals is mainly used as a fallback in case of lazyness (ignoring canned stuff for ingredients)
I go to the supermarket at least once a week. normally 2-3 times
Completely depends on how you live.
Someone who lives in a house with plenty of storage and a 30 minute drive to the nearest store will have a lot of food at home. Whereas someone who lives in a tiny apartment with a five minute walk to the store will not.
In general, places like American suburbs, with huge single-family homes, no stores and complete reliance on cars, are rare in Europe.
I don’t live in the states, but the reliance on driving here is real. Small towns are lucky to have one grocery store and are usually very expensive.
I prefer eating fresh food, which means that I usually have to go to the store roughly every other day. If I buy more than a couple days of food, it just means more crap in the fridge and more spoilage.
And if my food did last longer than a few days without spoiling, then I’d really start to question what it was made of…
Editing to add that this is easily possible because I have several stores within a short walk or ride on the transit, as it was also pointed out in a sibling comment.
I guess where I am there is limited fresh food available anyway. Other then breadstuffs and the odd tomato/lettuce the stuff I get at the store has to last at least 2 weeks. Also might be why I appreciate my garden so much.
A lot of us shop once a week or so too, but most things people want are fresh baked goods, fruits, vegetables, milk and other fast-spoiling things.
I read that as 72 days at first and thought something serious was expected soon. Oh, 72 HOURS. Who doesn’t have that?
Also unless you are on the border, how useful is that likely to be? What would the expectation be, only short term supply chain disruption so shops may run out of something in the first few days but after that food supply will adjust to it?
I don’t think the preparation is meant for full blown war. It’s for disruptions.
Russia won’t be able drive tanks all over Europe any time soon, but they are capable of cutting cables to attack energy distribution, hacking payment methods and other infrastructure dependent on networks.
Remember the start of Covid? There was plenty of toiletpapir, hand sanitizer and test kits for everyone, but nobody could get it in stores for a long time because everyone wanted it at the same time. It’s better if everyone stock up over a longer period of time, so it doesn’t crash the supply chain when it is needed.
That makes quite a bit of sense as to how it would be useful.
Germany’s advice for normal times is to be stocked up for 11 days. 3 Days compared to that is laughable even so it is better than 0.
Its not really something I think of because I am going to have easily days worth of food without even having to think about it. Stuff like pasta, rice and flour.
11 days not so sure on, if I had just been shopping at the start of the 11 days then easily, but if it was from just before I go shopping then its harder to say. I would most likely be able to ration out what is left to cover 11 days but its going to be pretty basic by the end of it. Like fried rice with salt and pepper kind of thing.
If your food needs water to be eaten then you need to store that extra water, which is by far the largest part you need to keep.
I have rainwater collection, boil it and it should be safe to drink.
Boil it without electricity?
Fire
I have tablets for purifying and rainwater, but that needs rain, and in winter it means fuel.
Food for these days should not be dependent on water.
Unlikely to get that cold here that everything completely freezes, usually keep enough wood dry to boil a fair bit of water and I can easily go out to get more of necessary.
That’s good, then can you read your original comment and see that other people are in other places with other situations? 😌
I don’t have 72hrs of food at home, because I have almost no self control. 2 days of food can very easily also be one day of food haha
72 hours means you go to the store on Monday and then again on Friday. I thought this was kind of the norm for everyone? I mean, not for me, I go once every 10 days but surely 3 days is not that big of a deal?
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what about fasting? I bet we have enough fat to fast couple weeks at least
It’s not about having something to eat for 72h, it’s about resilience.
may be is start of ww-3; winter is coming
Hopefully
Develop minimum preparedness criteria for essential services such as hospitals, schools, transport, and telecommunications.
I hope they are taking this point seriously so that privatized welfare no longer gets special treatment.
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EU is trying to stimulate spending. Get their GDP numbers back up.
