One more thing I would add to this:

You're going to have grow at least some of your own food sooner or later, most likely. Might as well make the transition sooner.

Thus, when it comes to canned goods, I'd suggest trying to raise a garden and can as much of your own produce as possible, rather than buying store-bought cans. Once you've made the investment in a canner and mason jars, you will be able to reuse them over and over again (only needing new lids, which would be a good item to stock up on); store-bought cans should be recycled too, but it isn't in a way that benefits you so directly.

While you are ramping up production, and even once you've maxed out if you don't have enough space to grow all your produce, you might consider buying in bulk in season at the farmer's markets, and then canning a big batch. In the past, I've considered it to not be particularly worthwhile to do this, but these are not ordinary times.

You'll also want to garden with open polenated seeds, and get into seed storage (most packets will remain viable for several years if stored properly) if not seed saving. What you want to do is to bring the entire cycle home: seed to garden to produce to preservation to consumption to compost & seed.

I would suggest adding some Textured Vegetable Protein, aka meat extender, and buying it in bulk from a reputable health food store. Whole Foods Market price in Dallas is cheaper than web prices, for instance. If you have spare room in the freezer, store it there, and it will keep virtually forever, as it is made from defatted soy. Try some before you have to use it. It could make you a little gassy, but with meats and with most carbohydrates makes for a reasonably complete protein. It does not have to be stored frozen, but it does make for a long term alternative.

I should add, my own opinion is that after the initial hoarding, we will see some semblance of order return and then we will have a slow decline in availability of necessities. But, just in case....

And, you might add a solar cooking alternative, which can be fun anyway and it takes the heat of cooking outdoors.

'just a few minutes ago.. do the neighbors have water?'

You might want to encourage your immediate neighbors to make preparations too. This is the hard part. But if they aren't prepared and you are, you can bet they'll come knocking on your door when trouble hits.

Fixed payments fixed income.

I got my "PO" Garden and composter going last spring.

I went the raised bed route and successfully grew some of my favorite veggies and some mini-watermelons. They were SOOOooo much better tasting than the store-bought, imported from corp farms stuff.

think I do know is that we are rapidly headed toward a situation where you have two choices: produce or perish.

Exactly. Just came back from China. I saw a bunch of sustainable small scale agriculture there. I think their model ,however flawed, will be much better at providing individuals with food post peak post recession. The means of growing food is in the hands of a much higher percentage of the population. Skills and knowledge abound. Yes I know they are urbanizing but much closer to the land and not as car-dependent.

Your suggestion seems to be to be a mechanism by which we might attempt to do the same here.

Keeping with your alliterative scheme: produce, pilfer, or perish.

Another good strategy that will open up for a lot of people once food prices rise high enough: Garden sharecropping.

There are going to be plenty of people out there with yards, but with no gardening tools or know-how or time or energy, but who are going to find their food budgets stretched to the breaking point. You could probably line up several such people up and down your street, and arrange the same deal with each: you raise a garden on their land in exchange for 1/2 of the crop. One person could stay busy enough on this scheme to raise several times more than the amount of produce they need for their own household; this surplus could be sold at the local farmer's tailgate market.

This would work best for someone that had their own place paid for free and clear and had no other debts. You are unlikely to generate enough money under such a venture to pay off a typical modern mortgage, let alone any other debts. However, it might work if you just need a way to earn enough money to cover whatever food you can't grow yourself, plus whatever energy you need to buy, plus property taxes and a few other essentials. Supplement it with some hand crafts that you produce indoors during the winter slow months, and you could set yourself up pretty well.

Hi Jeffrey,

re: "equity". A great suggestion - I'd sure like more "how to" advice. Here are some of my questions about this:

1) I can see a huge potential - for example, in the category of "land slated for development":

There must be many properties already purchased by developers - people "caught unawares" in the housing collapse.

Q: Is it necessary they be convinced about "peak oil"? How long will they "just wait" for the market to "turn around" and/or "pick up again"? (See what I mean?) People usually make boku bucks going from farm use to subdivision - that's why they do it (I mean, historically speaking, of course.) It's especially true - something I've seen a lot - the heirs will sell off to developers. There's just so much money to be made (in times past)...

To convince the owners, or even the new owner/developers that the conversion (farm-to-suburb) is *over* - this seems unlikely.

Or, do you see it otherwise?

2) Do you actually know of anyone who has done this, and if so, may I correspond with him/her/them?

3) If farms/large farm/agribusiness are already in business as farmers - then, it's a matter of "convincing" them of the wisdom of turning to organic and/or more sustainable methods? But in this case, I don't see how they'd be willing to sell.

4) If working farms - do you actually think that many are on the market?

5) Where to find investors (potential investors) who want to buy farmland - and then are you saying this would only be of interest to "peak aware" type of folks? Or, would this involve more "evangalizing" - spreading the TOD/EB word, which I do a lot of already...

Or, do you "make a list" of people w. means and *then* convince them about "peak"? (I want to laugh, but...you know...how unpredictable the reaction to "peak" is...you must know how deep that denial "river" runs...we've all experienced it, in many forms...)

6) And then there's...where to find that energetic young organic farmer...? (able and willing to re-locate? eager to set up a new organic farm? needing labor...from...?etc.)

7) In other words...this would be a nice project (like, say for me) - it's just...hard for me to picture how one might begin.

and then sell the thing to three people, with each of them paying for one third of the cost of getting the small scale gardening/farming operation up and going, carrying you for 25%.

Don't you run into complications of land sub-division, minimum lot sizes, or otherwise resolving title, or associated problems of multiple occupancy and building restrictions?

In Australia there is a long history of disputes with conservative shire councils over these types of cooperative farming / communal ventures. Plus in many cases banks won't lend against a share of the title, whatever the body corporate structure.

Yes thanks. The question is rhetorical and real ..
I don't fear the lack of solutions as much as what people will do when they have no clue as how to proceed.
To have considered some good alternatives along with all the 'givens' like age, health, finances will mean people will be less prone to take up the 'pilfer' side of the triangle and of course (no matter what good remedies we institute personally) it has to matter to us how many are 'forced' to take that path.

I didn't imply we need to be a superpower, what I meant was that we used to be a nation that rested on the foundation of the rule of law, and such peoples are always industrious and responsible. We discovered the concept of something for nothing and now we have just that - nothing.

I agree entirely!