Unsettling Times Call for Unusual Solutions

The instability of the modern world is frightening, and it makes me think about my family’s future in less-than-rosy terms. Sometimes, and increasingly often, my mind wanders to grim, unlikely scenarios: another pandemic, a zombie apocalypse, war, food-supply disruptions, and other disasters. I am no coward or paranoid conspiracy theorist, but in my almost half a century I have lived through quite a few of these things: the collapse of a country, wars, terrorism, financial crises, bank failures, sanctions, companies leaving Russia, and all kinds of spectacular shitstorms. So whether you like it or not, you start wanting a safety net.

This week’s idea concerns my family’s food security. I thought it would be sensible to keep an emergency food supply at home, enough to last a while. Simply buying sacks of buckwheat, as many of us did during COVID, does not work. The approach has to be smart and, as far as possible, scientific.

A stockpile by itself is worth little if you do not manage it. When you actually need it, you may discover something is missing, some food ran out ages ago, some has spoiled, and other products were bought in quantities nobody could possibly eat before expiration. So what do we do? That is how Home Stock was born: a mobile web application, designed to run locally, that knows what is stored at home, where it is, how much is left, when it expires, and how many days the available supplies will last for the family.

When evaluating food reserves, I decided to consider not only the quantity or total calories, but also the household’s composition: each person’s age, sex, and activity level. This allows supplies to be measured in calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and eventually vitamins and minerals as well.

I also compiled a list of products worth keeping in reserve: foods with a reasonably long shelf life, decent nutritional value, and, crucially, foods the family actually eats regularly. That matters: the stock should rotate continuously, not sit on a shelf for ten years waiting for the end of the world.

I also looked at advice from people who had really spent long periods living through wars, crises, and disrupted supply chains. Interestingly, the advice is about much more than food.

You need water, toiletries, cleaning supplies, batteries, candles, lighters, power sources, basic household items, and all the little things you barely notice in normal life until they suddenly run out.

So Home Stock gradually evolved from a “food inventory” into a small household warehouse and a system for managing family self-sufficiency. I have now built the Home Stock mobile app, which already includes:

a catalog of food and household products; household members with age, sex, and activity levels; storage locations and individual shelves; product cards with essential specifications and nutrition facts; inventory management; expiration-date tracking; consumption and disposal records; and a shopping list.

New items can be entered manually or added by scanning their packaging and barcode. The app tries to identify the product, fill in its details, and help you find a place for it in the household inventory.