Jon McGregor - This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You

Food Production: iii

Already well established but dependent on imported supplements. Missing elements inc: cooking oil, sugar, salt, herbs/spices, flour, nuts, staples eg pasta/rice, pulses, other soya-substitute products. Plans for resolving shortfall, to be put to Food Production Group:

— Cooking oil; production would be land-intensive/time-intensive, therefore suggest doing without.

— Sugar; M already researching use of sugar-beet w/ v. mixed results. Likely to be land-intensive. Will recommend extra stores, plus consider alts e.g. honey from beehives? (Controversial, see below.)

— Salt; stores. Trading might be feasible once crisis matures, but in early stages reliance on stores only option. Suggest acclimatising to significantly reduced usage now. (Propose w/ appeal to health lobby, esp. N .)

— Herbs/spices; some already in production. Balance high demand for land against use of herbs/spices in reducing demand for salt, also maintaining appetite.

— Flour; land-intensive & energy-intensive to produce, also energy-intensive to use (baking bread, cakes etc). Recommend other staples in place (primarily potato, also poss. oats). Concede to including some flour in stores; purchase chapatti flour ‘in error’ as this then has dual-purpose & could be transferred to PWG5 if required.

— Nuts; include in planting plans.

— Staples; pasta & rice unviable. Switch to potato as main staple.

— Pulses; increase production of runner beans/peas, harvest and dry for stores.

— Soya products; M has already researched soya-milk production, with good results (altho taste an issue). Recommend production of soya, as important source of protein. Also not attractive to raiders, could be used at point of greatest visibility as deterrent/decoy.

Other food production well in hand; fruit trees, fruit bushes, vegetable beds, potato beds, salads etc in polytunnels. Transfer ‘leisure’ sections of site to food production, eg lawn, children’s play area, wild flowers etc. (Children req. to work at time of crisis anyway.)

Concern over visibility of food production; address this with reference to PWG. Note risk of aerial surveillance, altho obv. reduced risk of this at time of crisis.6

Obv. gap in food-production plans = animals. Chickens for eggs & meat, bees for honey, poss. pigs for meat; wd be low-input in terms of time/land/feed requirements and high-output in terms of protein (& pig meat v. storable, ditto honey). BUT v. unlikely to be passed by group as currently constituted; majority opposed to animal use, despite apparent awareness of risk posed by coming crisis. Possible negotiating strategies to include:

— advocate bee-keeping ‘only’ for pollination purposes, later to suggest non-harmful harvesting of ‘small’ amount of honey.

— arrange ‘rescue’ of chickens from other locations, near end of laying period. Ensure cock ‘accidentally’ included in this group. Advocate using eggs as they appear; also allow number of successful hatchings. Allow natural lifespans/natural deaths; at later stage, arrange accidental deaths + advocate use of meat.

— ditto ‘rescue’ of young pigs.

— Alternative to above: gradual reconstitution of group membership to one with more practical approach to coming crisis. (See Group Analysis, below, esp. recommendations re fewer young children/old people.)

Food Reserves:

Stores already being built up; continue & accelerate this process. Note need to include multi-vitamin supplements, emergency feed rations, and medical supplies (see Exit Strategies, below).

Calculate level of stores req. to cover approx 24 months supply, eg equiv. 2 failed/stolen harvest seasons. Develop secure and/or concealed storage sites within main property. Also consider poss. secondary storage dump (v. well concealed) adj. to exit point of tunnel, to be utilised in event of escape from siege situation. (Need to be minimal, eg 1 x backpack per escapee.)

Energy:

Wood-fuel for heat & cooking. System already in place, but currently reliant on import. Obv. need to a) build up large store in advance of crisis, this store to be v. well hidden & poss. rigged for defence; b) increase planting of coppice wood, eg willow etc, also pollarding of nut trees etc. Also clear need to reduce wood-fuel requirement by eg additional insulation measures, move towards predominantly raw-food diet, reduction in size of group.

Electrical energy generation already being researched and implemented, with R taking lead. Reiterate need for v. low-tech/low-maint. solutions; all parts/skills for repair must be available on site! Bring this up again at next meeting; PV7 impractical for this reason?

Remember crisis will reduce energy requirements anyway: computers/phones/TV become redundant. (Non-networked electronic entertainment wd be negotiable.) Main req. wd therefore be lighting: may need to adopt blackout policy anyway, to avoid drawing attention to site or property.

(General note: will need to balance appearance of dereliction & unattractiveness with not actually looking abandoned enough to encourage occupation attempts. This will need to be improvised by reference to local properties. But blackout likely starting point.)

Water/Waste:

Compost toilets already fully functioning. Obv. need to ensure high hygiene standards maintained — any digestive illness wd be disastrous at time of crisis. Recent lapses in hygiene practice have been noted — to raise at next meeting.

Need for additional rainwater collection & storage. Cd be most important (& overlooked) aspect of crisis — energy restrictions will wreck mains water system. Also prone to sabotage by vested interest and/or forced medication by authority (eg emergency population reduction?).8

Relations with other Groups/Community:

Strong policy trend within group to building greater links with local community and with other s/s9 groups regionally. Need to argue against this. Risk of spreading resources too thinly, + raising awareness locally of resources here, + risk of exploitation and/or betrayal. (Theft, bad faith, attack, occupation, information-passing, etc etc.) Also risk of undue emotional attachment which would impact decision-making at time of crisis.