Essential to any complete disaster survival plan is a store of non-perishable food large enough to sustain you and your family for an indeterminate period of time. Canned foods, dehydrated foods, vacuum-sealed seed packets, and MREs often are the primary, if not the only, items preppers rely on to get them though disasters because they can be kept without spoiling for as close to forever as food can get. As practical as these kinds of foods are, however, they are fundamentally unnatural, and without the nutritional value that fresher foods provide. It may seem that there is no alternative to these disaster foods, but recent developments in urban farming, specifically in the Netherlands, may provide a solution for survivalists.
Water & Light
Even the most inexperienced gardeners know that plants of all varieties require two basic resources to grow and flourish: water and light. Many preppers already grow their own food, but their capacity to garden would be greatly diminished if they were forced to go underground during a disaster — and given that most bunkers or other survival shelters are underground (or at least without windows), gardening seems mostly out of the question.
Though providing plants with water would be easy enough, feeding them with the right kind of light would be next to impossible, as they have to have certain specific frequencies of ultraviolet light: the same frequencies you'd find in sunlight, to be precise.
LED Sunrise
Dutch agricultural startup PlantLab is using complex red and blue LED light grids to grow fruit-producing plants underground with no direct sunlight, which opens the door for other independent gardeners (preppers included) to follow suit.
The red and blue LEDs provide the light composition plants require, and PlantLab has the plants underneath a sprinkler system, fully reproducing the natural elements plants need to grow, and providing the optimal environment for getting produce. They grow everything from tomatoes to cucumbers, both some of the most sensitive plants to grow, and have full, natural harvests regularly.
Green Bunkers
Any thorough survivalist will have shelter plans — if you haven't built it yet, include room for a garden that will allow you to continue to feed yourself and your family natural foods and round out your nutrition.
What you'll need:
- blue and red LED lights
- scaffolding to hang lights
- platform for plants
Of course, you'll need electricity to power the lights as well as water, but hopefully you already have those planned! (Of course, you could also construct a well to catch rainwater and bring it to your shelter for the plants, as well.) A disaster doesn't mean you have to sacrifice nutrition or natural foods. It just takes a little more planning, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?
By-line:
Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.
