Is prepping more mainstreaming the US than here?

[TheBitterBoy]

I watch a fair bit of you tube related to home organisation etc, mainly US based like Jordan Page, She's in her apron, etc. and I've noticed they all have a number of videos on 'emergency preparedness'. They are not the kind of US bunker preppers you see on Stacey Dooley documentaries, they seem more 'normal' people. As I've found their videos useful I thought I'd see if I could find any UK based vloggers on the same theme, but all the UK ones are by slightly odd older men stashing spam . Is prepping considered more normal elsewhere?

I think there's religious element. I used to work with a Mormon and during a discussion about Brexit she mentioned that she had a "stockpile" at home as it was a requirement of the religion. She was very normal and didn't think of her stockpile as anything out of the ordinary.

Ah, maybe that's part of it. Jordan Page is Mormon, but there are many other mainstream US you tubers with prepping type videos

Is it just because they have more space? Not quite the same but I was watching the home edit on Netflix and for kitchens they all mentioned 'back stock' which I would love to have somewhere to store but can only dream! I presume Costco shopping etc is a bit more common there too because of the ability to be able to store it. So not necessarily prepping but just having more 'in stock' than we would consider normal?

Yes, that's why was looking for the UK version of these ladies because it would be the UK experience. But they don't seem to exist.

I think lack of space is a major factor in the lack of UK preppers.

Also, obviously stereotyping, but I notice how Americans expect to have lots of prepared products and to only have those exact ones. Just look at US recipes where they are supposedly cooking from scratch and you see lots of packets/tins of stuff we wouldn't recognise. My family in the US comment how much less we have in our stores while I bemoan how I can't get the basics in theirs. I think this fear of not having the right tins of spiced pumpkin puree etc make them keener on prepping.

@killerofmen

I think there's religious element. I used to work with a Mormon and during a discussion about Brexit she mentioned that she had a "stockpile" at home as it was a requirement of the religion. She was very normal and didn't think of her stockpile as anything out of the ordinary.

Ahhh this makes sense now. My friend here in the US is a Mormon and she has a massive cupboard built into the eaves of her house absolutely stocked with supplies

I think a lot of rural Americans will have stockpiles because the weather is more extreme and going to the shop might be a once a month sort of thing. So you'd be sensible to have several months worth of stuff in just in case.

I agree, they do seem to use a lot of pre-prepared stuff in recipes, a relative in the states makes the most amazing toffee cookies, but when I asked for the recipe it was no good to me as it depended on having a very specific boxed cake mix.

The US have a lot more areas at risk of extreme weather conditions, so I get that they need/want to be prepared for more serious situations.

It is quite common across the rest of Europe, too. I have never quite understood the British aversion to prepping and it also seems to be one of few countries that use "prepping" to describe what would be considered normal stock-rotation elsewhere. Most of central and northern Europe have had advice on "emergecy stocks" they should have in at various points since WW2, so it is just what people are used to.

To be fair, I think capitalism is partly to blame. Just as an example, waterbath-canning is generally a safe method to preserve most things (you'd need a pressure canning pot for meat but pretty much everything else is safe to can in a water-bath). Canning is also still quite common across Europe, as are widely available allotments, so it just makes sense to preserve any food you cannot use straight away. That stuff then needs to be stored somewhere, which is - to some degree - factored in in terms of space (e.g. basement storage for flats). Apparently, in the UK, canning was generally discouraged as unsafe in the 1950-70s, in favour of commercially available foods, which makes prepping on a lower budget difficult.

That wasn't the case in the US, which always seems to be at war with at least one other country. From what I understand, people were generally encouraged to have a good stock of everything in in case of war or natural disaster so they did and do. The UK goverment on the other side seems very keen to pretend that everything is and will be fine and appears to view advice for preparedness as admitting to being weak or something akin to that.

I think it is more mainstream in the US mostly because of reasons mentioned above by several pp's.
However I've done lots of 'canning' both water bath and pressure canning (with a proper American style canner) but I'm under the impression that what
CoffeesndWhisky says

"Just as an example, waterbath-canning is generally a safe method to preserve most things (you'd need a pressure canning pot for meat but pretty much everything else is safe to can in a water-bath)."
is not strictly safe and that only acidic fruits & tomatoes (with citric acid/lemon juice) can be water bath canned safely. Anything else in the pressure canner.
I certainly wouldn't chance it any way.

if only 1% of the population believe their government might declare war on them at any time, so keep enough food, water and ammunition to fend them off, that's still 3.3 million.

Agree weather plays a massive part. I stayed a year with family in a tornado corridor and when there was a weather warning we didn't leave the house so needed to be prepared.
I must admit that I am shocked by the amount of people that only have the food they need in the house (so would run out in a couple of days - and I don't mean those that are financially struggling, but people with disposable incomes) I've always kept a decent supply of longlife food, and it doesn't have to be expensive.

Mormons are encouraged to have 3 month's supply of food, water, and cash as well as a "long term" supply.

It's what caused the popularity of Tupperware.

As Ifailed states, there's a larger number of them as the population is much larger than ours to start with. Add to that the numbers living remotely and some of the weather conditions then preserving is more commonplace anyway.

I'm from California. We all stockpiled growing up because of earthquakes (the possibility of losing water and power for days meant most people had at least one cabinet full of the necessities, which included foil blankets, bottled water, and a good first aid kit). We stockpiled but to be honest, we would do it once every few years. It wasn't a 'thing' the way it is over here. Britain takes it to another level. I think it's that post-war mentality that's still lingering. DH is 62 and over the course of our marriage, he's calmed down a lot. But when we first lived together, I was like, "Really? You went to Tesco's, cleared the shelves, and brought home a lifetime's haul of Heinz mulligatawny soup, UHT milk, and tinned pears as our weekly shop?? I'm going to get us some real food. Hold my beer."
It's funny because both my parents were young in the war. My dad grew up in Nazi Germany and starved. He was in a concentration camp in his teens until his 20s and he never stockpiled a thing. Stockpiling was my mum's thing. But living in earthquake country, it made some sense. California is better known for its wildfires than its earthquakes nowadays. Now, I'd be more inclined to have a thoroughly decent car that could get me the hell out of dodge in case of the need to evacuate (with a survival kit inside!). You learn to pack quickly growing up there. We always had a 'fire escape' plan and a box ready to take with us. We faced evacuations a few times due to fires, but back in the 70s and 80s, these wildfires came every few years. Nothing like today. But then, the State wasn't as developed or populated the way it is now.
You have no idea how much I love being away from those threats. It's scary growing up in the shadow of natural disasters.

I used to work with a Mormon (U.K. based) and he said his religion required him to have 6months of food and supplies at all times.

Sorry, I shouldn't have capitalised the word State... I meant the state as in California. California wasn't as populated/built-up, is what I was trying to say, back in the 70s/80s (less wildfires- though still a threat back then).

We have had a months store for years now as my husband is self employed and some months have been very lean so it always made sense to buy extra when we've had the cash to do so .
It's just become habit now so we don't have to panic buy . It's just the way we live

I’m in the state of Utah and we are massive preppers, mostly because the LDS church really really encourages it (we’re Episcopal) so I’d say a good majority of people prep here. I lived in Ohio for years and if there was any kind of prepping going on I never heard about it. I used to prep as in getting ready to bug out - and we still could but I’ve come to the conclusion I do it more for things like this pandemic and weather reasons than I do it for actually needing to leave the house.