Letter Re: When Alaskan Salmon is Chinese

Hi, Jim:
Every few weeks I buy a couple cases (of 24 cans) of canned wild Alaskan salmon canned by Bumble Bee selling for $1.99 per can (a 14.5oz can), and a quality gold tinted tapered can. Recently it has had a 2015 expiration date. In my estimation, wild salmon is an excellent unadulterated protein source with a lengthy expiration date, especially when compared to canned tuna (with traces of mercury) and canned chicken.   

Well, yesterday I went in to the same discount supermarket (the kind of no-frills market where you bag yourself and pay extra for the bag) and went straight for the salmon.  It was there at the same price but they had changed brands.  So I checked expiration date: 2012.  Yikes.  I looked closely at the can: poor quality, not evenly coated and some apparent rust at edges where can meets lid.  Then the kicker: It was marked both "Wild Alaskan Salmon" and "Product of China"   What the h*ll are the Chinese doing fishing salmon in our waters?  How can this be?  needless to say I left without buying any.  You really need to pay attention to the details, these days. – John E.

Letter Re: Antibiotics for Serious Wounds

A reader wrote to ask: “Dr. Koelker, you explained what each of the antibiotics is good for, but one major concern was unaddressed. In a TEOTWAWKI situation we may be faced with having to treat gunshot wounds. And just as likely, if not more so, we may need to treat serious lacerations, such as accidents with sharp, dirty tools. I think, as am I, the readers of this blog might be interested to know which antibiotics are the most effective in preventing infections if/when we sustain such wounds.”  

Doctor Koelker Replies:  As usual, such answers come in a short and a long form.  At the moment I won’t address details of wound cleansing, closing, cauterizing, likelihood of infection or fatality, etc., etc. 

Here is the short answer: The microbes that are likely to have been introduced into a wound determine the choice of both prophylactic and/or treatment antibiotics.  When antibiotics are given before a visible infection is apparent, the assumption is that the wound still contains bacteria in low numbers (most of which have hopefully been washed away by appropriate cleansing). Killing off these remaining microbes should prevent infection in most cases – although prophylactic treatment is not always effective.

Where do these germs come from?  This depends on the body part that was penetrated, the environment, and the source of the projectile.

Injuries that pierce the skin carry the risk of contamination from common skin microbes, primarily staph and strep germs.  When orthopedic surgeons place pins and screws in bones, they pierce the skin.  Despite careful antisepsis, perhaps a few bacteria might still be introduced into a bone, where infection can fester, causing permanent damage, limb loss, or even death.  Though in a surgical setting the risk of infection is low, the potential consequences of infection are so high that prophylactic antibiotics are standard – one dose before surgery, and one to several doses after surgery.  The intravenous antibiotic Ancef is most commonly employed (which is most similar to cephalexin, see below). 

Of the available oral antibiotics previously discussed, the best choices would be cephalexin, Augmentin, Avelox or Levaquin.  Less potent alternatives, if the former are unavailable, would include the erythromycins (including clarithromycin and azithromycin), tetracyclines (including doxycycline), or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX).  Amoxicillin, penicillin, and ciprofloxacin are much less likely to be effective.  Normally IV antibiotics are preferred due to their immediate bioavailability and high blood concentration.  If oral antibiotics are used pre-op, they should be given on an empty stomach with water only, about two hours prior to surgery.

The other large class of potential contaminants is that of intestinal bacteria, especially gram-negative bacteria and anaerobes.  If the source of contamination is external, as an explosion in a cesspool, a person might live without surgery.  If the source is perforation of one’s internal organs, death is likely without emergency surgery. 

But say surgery is an option, or you’ve cut your hand deeply while cleaning out a septic tank – you’ll probably need a combination of antibiotics to avoid or treat infection.  The first should be either ciprofloxacin, Levaquin, or Avelox, whichever is available (ciprofloxacin is the only inexpensive generic in this class).  Second line alternatives for these would be Augmentin or TMP-SMX.  Additionally, metronidazole should be added to cover anaerobic bacteria.  Basically, the same antibiotics useful for diverticulitis or other intra-abdominal infection are indicated for intra-abdominal wounds. 

Lastly, we seldom think of tetanus except to get vaccinated when we’re injured.  If you haven’t been immunized in the last five years, then do so now.  The new TDAP vaccine includes immunization against diphtheria and pertussis as well.  If a wound is deep or contaminated with rust, treating with metronidazole (or penicillin) may decrease the number of tetanus-toxin producing Clostridium tetani bacteria, but these antibiotics do nothing to counter the toxin that has been produced, and which may cause muscle spasms that constrict the airway.  Without immunization, risk of death is very high.   (Doctor Koelker is SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor. She is also the editor of ArmageddonMedicine.net.)

Economics and Investing:

Thor sent this bit of news on the global food supply: Planet could be ‘unrecognizable’ by 2050, experts say

Luis (At Sea) sent us this link to Seeking Alpha: Case-Shiller: Home Price Declines Continue. Luis notes: “Notice that Washington D.C. had the only positive number, and even that was marginal.”  

Several Items from Kevin S.: A Tipping Point Is Nearing  

Food/Financial Crisis of 2011  

The Collapse of America’s Labor Force  

Items from The Economatrix:

How Much More Demand Can Silver Handle?  

Despite Oversupply, US Gasoline Prices Leap  

Oil Surges 6% as Libya Tension Intensifies  

Fear Of “Catastrophic” Crash Rising Despite Bull Market 

Libya Unrest Rattles Markets; Oil Prices Jump  

Oil, Gold Jump On Middle East Fears  

Oil Price Shock:  Pandora’s Box is Open  

Odds ‘n Sods:

Pierre M. sent: CDC: Deadly Superbug “C-Diff” Spreading

   o o o

Avalanche Lily spotted this: Since D.C.’s handgun ban ended, well-heeled residents have become well armed.

   o o o

Patricia F. flagged this: Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid?

   o o o

A reader suggested HP LaserJet Tough Paper for printing key references that might be used in the field. It is not paper. Rather, it is a plastic material that can be laser printed. It is waterproof, so it would be ideal for printing specialized maps and pages for field notebooks.

   o o o

Mike in Texas mentioned: “If you need soil, fertilizer, or garden amendments, never pay full price. Lowe’s, and many other major retailers, take 50% off for any kind of broken bag. Check frequently because I’m told they accidentally break bags almost daily. I even have my local Lowe’s store call me when they stack some up.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another." – Milton Friedman

Notes from JWR:

A Kindle-version of the SurvivalBlog.com Archives 2005-2010 is now available for $9.99, via the Amazon.com store. It is more than 7,000 pages long and text-to-speech enabled. It also has more than 20,000 links to external web pages from your Kindle reader. (Available only if you are connected to the Internet while reading.) Anyone with a Kindle can download a free 700 page (10%) sample of the archive, for a “test drive”.

Meanwhile, for folks with laptops, we are nearing release of the 2005-2010 archive of SurvivalBlog on CD-ROM (in both HTML and PDF). Both file formats will have links to external sites as well as all of the blog’s static pages. It will sell for $19. It should be orderable at our Cafe Press store within two weeks. (To explain: there was a production glitch in the recent Beta testing that caused a delay.) Thanks for your patience.

—

I’m scheduled for a one hour interview with call-in questions from listeners tomorrow (Wednesday, February 23, 2010) on EMPact Radio. Please feel free to call if you have any preparedness questions that would be of interest to the majority of listeners. If you miss hearing the show, it will be available as a downloadable podcast.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 33 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Affordable Preparedness, by Phil in East Tennessee

I enjoy reading SurvivalBlog each morning as I prepare for my day. I have only been a reader of the blog for six months, and enjoy all the varied insights. So I feel compelled to share some of my experiences. Let me start off by saying I was raised in a Christian preparedness household.  Both my parents suffered through the Great Depression as children and my mother was deeply impacted by the possibility of being hungry and cold again. As a teenager in the mid-1970s I remember we had a basement full of Neo-Life brand long term storage food, thousands of pennies in ten pound cans, water, silver, gold, but no guns or ammo that I knew of.  I have been involved with long term provisioning all my life.  When the fuel crisis hit in 1973 my mother was sure it was the beginning of the end of America (she was an avid reader of the “The Ruff Times”). As it looks like we are nearing the end of life as free Americans I’m ashamed to say that I gave my parents a hard time over their “crazy” desire to provide for us “come hell or high water”.  

I have been blessed to have had two great careers, first as a financial planner, and then as a commercial Pilot. In both situations my employers invested large sums in training me. In every instance there are rules to follow. Every six months we fly the simulator and practice every possible type of emergency and hazard with the aircraft. When a problem comes up in real-time, there is never a hesitation. We have trained to respond without pause so we are ready. How can we approach protecting our families any other way than to plan, and practice?
  Growing up I was paying attention to what my folks were doing, and these are the lessons I’m sharing now. Even though things never really broke down the way my parents expected, their planning didn’t go to waste.  The food, barter items, and silver all got used or saved. If nothing else they are great investments that have had excellent returns. Their planning did no harm, financially or strategically to our family in fact we are still benefiting from decisions they made 40 years ago.

[JWR Adds: People who bought gold in 1975–soon after it was first re-legalized in the U.S.–and who have held on to it since, have done very well. Gold was selling for $145 per ounce in October of 1975. When I last checked (February 19, 2011), it was $1,389 per ounce. That is a 1,043% gain. For comparison, if someone had just left their earnings in cash (so-called “mattress money”) in 1975, it would have lost about 75% of its purchasing power by 2011. ($145 worth of groceries in 1975 would cost $593 in 2011.) Granted, stocks on average listed in the DJIA have seen a gain of 850% since 1975. (But of course you could have picked a bad stock like Pan Am Airways–now worth zero, or a more consistent blue chip stock like GE.) But the beauty of gold is that it provides both a long term hedge on inflation and insurance against a full-scale currency collapse, which we may soon experience. When that happens, nearly all U.S. dollar-denominated investments will suffer tremendously.]

 So you want be prepared? My mother would say get your financial house in order.
 Myrtle’s Rules:

  1. If you do have to borrow, get the shortest term possible. The Highest payment you can afford, will force you to buy fewer things that you don’t need. Get you out of debt quicker with less interest = lowest total cost. This forces you to live by a budget and to waste less on impulse purchases.

Example: When we bought our present home in 1991 we took out a five-year mortgage. The payments were almost out of reach and we barely qualified for the loan. We did little for the next 60 months but make sure the bank was paid on time. It was tough. My young children did not think it was cool that we drove 5 and 7 year old cars (that were paid for) and had no television.  We paid off the house in 1996 right on time and then transferred the title to a “Family Trust” to remove it from our personal estates and ownership. It’s hard to imagine a situation where the house could be taken from us, other than non payment of property taxes.   By the way we paid less than $12,000 in interest to the bank!

  1. Don’t worry about saving until you are out debt.  This is a big issue. Get your home (retreat) and cars paid off; otherwise you are just renting them from the lender. Once your house is really yours the freedom it creates is unbelievable! I know about all the tax advantages from mortgage interest, and savings in your 401k with employer matching. In eight years most people can be debt free. Then you will have ability to save and invest most of your earnings. It’s amazing how fast you can create wealth when your partner isn’t the bank.
  2. Stay married: this is a big factor that defeats many of the people I counsel. I observe countless examples of unhappy dissatisfied people blaming their spouse for all the problems.  I’m not a marriage counselor but I sure get tired of hearing it’s the other guys fault. Grow up. If you are looking for someone else to make things right in your world you will end up broke and alone. Be a team; involve your partner in your plans and prayers. You want to prosper during the coming times? Plan together…you can’t do it alone.
  3. Buy Silver: Metals are the future and paper is paper. A gold coin that may be worth $5,000 USD in the future is not a good medium of exchange.  Silver dollars and silver rounds are about $30 each right now and will be very practical for commerce down the road.
  4. Plan for the worst, Hope for the best. Yes, I have a few guns, and plenty of ammo and the best offense is a killer defense (no pun intended) but I pray that we will never have to take a human life. I know this sounds naive but as a family we want to minister to the needy, it will be much tougher after we’ve put a few holes in them.
  5. Be generous with your time: giving of yourself is not the same as writing a check. Our tithes and offerings are a command, but true giving as a form of worship that means giving of your physical self. If you need further explanation: read a chapter of Proverbs every day, it is a wealth of practical knowledge and wisdom.               (31 chapters/ 31 days: coincidence…. I think not)
  6. Learn a new skill: One new hands on, sore back, stiff knees dirty nails skill every year, when you know enough to teach it to another you’ve got it. NOTE: we will need many more diesel and small engine mechanics down the road. We have raised a whole generation that can’t find the dipstick.
  7. Partnerships don’t work: A week seldom goes by that someone doesn’t ask me to underwrite, finance, partner with, or otherwise join in some grand scheme. My wife and I made a deal when we got married …. No partners. I am married to my partner, Period. No others allowed. Think about the difficulties of communication in your marriage. My wife and I have a great marriage and we still after all these years still have miss communication. We have the same goals, ideals, morals and yet there are still days we fail to connect. Throw another family in the mix… their needs, problems, differing belief system and you can see why 98% of all business partnerships fail within two years.

Not enough for two. Partnerships evolve because someone has some cash and the other party has the skill, idea, or product. So from day one there is a disparity in expectations for the parties involved. The investor wants a Return on Investment (ROI) and the inventor/worker/labor wants a paycheck.  A new business that is run very well with a skilled bookkeeping normally won’t turn a profit for two years, so you just multiply the problem with two families trying to eat out of the same trough. In the great book by Michael Gerber “The E Myth” he describes that the desire of owning your own business as follows:
10% dream (idea) everyone has an idea it’s the entrepreneur in us.
10% technician (i.e. the product, service or goods) we all want to work for ourselves.
 80% management. No one wants to do this Job!
We have learned the hard way it’s difficult to wear all the hats that make a small business prosper. Early on I was forced to become a manager, I still don’t like it but I have come to embrace it as the most important part of every business venture.

Good enough to do alone. Most partnerships start because you are unwilling to take the plunge alone; you want to dilute the downside risk. I say if it’s a great project and you’re confident of its chances then raise the money and do it with the partner your married too. Following this rule has saved us many broken relationships, including our own.
What is your exit strategy? People are always amazed when I ask this question. Most reply, “I’m just getting started, how would I know?” If you are going to start something you need to have a plan how to end it. When we start a business we always have a plan to get out, a huge success or a big bust, we still have time limits as well as financial benchmarks to tell us where we are and when to move on, sell, or liquidated.

TIP: Service businesses that don’t have a physical location (brick & mortar) are very difficult to sell. Think in terms of resale value.
Over the last 30 years we have started (or bought) and sold more than 15 businesses. Most were great success (11). A few were bombs (3). One was just more trouble than it was worth. While doing all this we had other income and I had an employer that provided our healthcare coverage. No small thing, not needing to pull income to meet living expenses from a new enterprise. This gave us the time to correct our mistakes and get the right employees trained and in place. I would encourage each family to start and operate a small home business making something. It will teach your children basic business skills, the value of their time to make (Money) while you sleep.

Note: Parents as the Boss and children as “paid help” works best.

I realize this article is merely Business 101 for most readers, and you may question whether it has a place on SurvivalBlog. The feedback I get from many people is that they know they should get better prepared but they just can’t afford to. I have seen a few partnerships prosper and survive long term, but they are few and far between.  Partner with your family, create some prosperity together, you will be richer for it.

The first step in preparedness is your heart and relationship to the Savior, the next is your finances.

To lead in times of trouble, be gracious in times of peace. I say you can’t afford not to.

Letter Re: Funding Your Preparations with the Underground Economy

For many people funding your survival cache/ preparedness stockpile has to come out of your budget. Whether you work for someone every day, draw a pension check or work for yourself you have to find a way to fit your projects into the limits of your paycheck. And with Uncle Sam taking a larger share at every turn it seems to be getting harder to find those extra nickels to put to use. Once most of us pay a house and car payment and then monthly utilities and food there is hardly enough left to worry about buying ammo, additional firearms, food stores or gear unless we put it on credit or save up for our purchases.   Over the last few years though I have found there is another way to supplement not only your income but to build your survival stores easier and less expensively: The Underground Economy, whether you have heard of the idea, see it every day and don’t try to use it, or take full advantage of it, it is available. There are many ways to make a few extra dollars to put to use to help out your dwindling bottom line.  

Let’s look at a few of the ways to make extra money in a pinch:          

Mowing your neighbor’s lawns. Yeah this one could be suited to your teenage son looking to make a few summer dollars or it could put a couple of new rifles in your cabinet over the course of the summer. In almost every neighborhood you look at you see more than a few homes with the grass standing a little taller than those around them, or one with pretty bad “weedeating” done around the edges and those are all possible side jobs where you could earn from $25-50 for a few minutes of work depending on the area and the size of the yard. And all you use is your mower (some people will even let you use theirs!!) some gas and a little sweat. Almost everyone that pays you will pay you in cash.        

Craigslist. There are multiple ways to make money on Craigslist.org. It is virtually like eBay just with no bidding and no fees to pay for selling your item. And if you don’t have an item to sell you can cruise through the free stuff and you might get lucky and find people giving away: old cars, scrap metal, aluminum, firewood, furniture,and more. These are all free for the taking and you can turn around and cash in at the recycler or the junkyard. Or you could sell or stock up the firewood, or sometimes take the other stuff out to the local swap-meet and make a few bucks with it.         

Flea Market: Most locales have a flea market or a swap meet in which you can get an outside spot on the weekends for fairly cheap and set up a table full of stuff that you can sell or in some cases trade for something else that you need. My local flea market charges $8 a day for a spot outside and there are not too many restrictions on what I can sell, being in Kentucky even person to person firearms sales are okay so long as you are not trying to be a full time dealer and selling multiples at a time. (Disclaimer: I deal only in Kentucky and I do not know about elsewhere. Check with your state and local laws for restrictions as to what you can and can’t sell.) Some people set up at the flea market as a business getting a Tax ID so they can purchase bulk items to take there.     

Fairs, Festivals, Bazaars: Now some of these can be tricky to set up at because some of them require you to have a sales tax ID and some do not. If you have a sellable item that you wish to set up with you can make a ton of money, I have witnessed a friend sell out of 500 cases of sunglasses over a 3 day festival which is far better than he does on a weekend basis at the flea market, but he has to keep track of all sales since he buys the glasses in bulk with a tax ID. One of my mother’s friends has set up at craft faires over the years and makes very good money with homemade cards, handcrafted wares and other little items that she or her husband makes.         

Classified Ads: Many areas have some sort of classified ads, some may cost money to sell your things in but many have free sections and with the advent of the internet there are many classified sites popping up online that will let you sell your old stuff off for free. One of them I use is www.kyclassifieds.com. Just like with the flea markets since this is Kentucky, firearms are bought and sold off of this web site on a person to person in-state basis and it can be a good way to find firearms and ammunition less expensively than going to a gun shop or a big box store. Last year I picked up three SKS rifles for less than $200 each from there.     

Forums: With a little digging around on Google or one of the search engines you can find forums of like minded people who will sell, trade and barter with you for items you need or they need allowing you to build up your cache or trade off extras to garner something you need more.         

Yard sales: take a Friday and Saturday in good weather and make a few extra bucks sitting in your own yard. Or you could get a spot in the Corridor 127 Yard Sale which is over 600 miles long. They are also a good way of finding things to take to the Flea Market to turn a profit with. I picked up five boxes of rifle cartridges last year for $2 a box. They were in a caliber that I don’t use but I figured I could make a little profit. After checking online to see what they were I managed to sell them for $12 a box at the flea market. Check with your local authorities first though, my town requires a permit to set up a yard sale and we are only allowed four per year.         

Gun and Knife shows: Every couple of months gun and knife shows pop up around the area and much like a flea market you can get a booth for a price and you can set up and sell off your “collection”, buy new pieces, or trade for things you want. For some of these you must have a dealer license, some you do not. Again, consult your state and local laws. One option is to just walk around many of these shows as a trader. I notice many people who do not want to pay to set up will walk around with a rifle over their shoulder, or a knife booklet in their hand and they will “wheel and deal” without spending any set up money for a table. This works very well in some markets.  

These are just a few of the ways I have found to bring in a little additional income to help out with the stretched budget. You can also consider these as skills to practice now for use in a post SHTF or TEOTWAWKI world in which bartering or trading will be the way to garner the things that you need when a currency has not yet been re-established. You can also make some very valuable connections with like minded individuals when you learn the ins and outs of some of these methods, I have made some very good friends setting up with people over a summer at the flea market each weekend, and while you might think that people out there selling would hold information or not be friendly to their competition I have found quite the opposite to be true as I have found many people willing to help me learn how to sell more or sell better.  

All in all, the Underground Economy is a very viable way to supplement your income and to earn the extra money to spend on your projects. In the three years that I have really started trying to prepare I would not have been at all able to put five guns in my cabinet or 3,000 rounds of ammunition on my shelf without finding an alternate source of funds to assist me outside of the household budget.

The best part of learning these methods, is that they are all cash based and in many cases you can find gold, silver, coins, ammo, guns and survival gear far less expensively than you could purchase them in a store, a market exchange, online or from one of the mass market retailers.

JWR Adds: Of course keep all of your sales and purchases legal, and keep track of the requisite taxes.

Letter Re: List of Countries by Real Population Density

James,

I have been playing with the numbers based on the population figures and wanted to give you this update.

I did a study of the total land under cultivation in 2002 (rather than just the potentially arable land, and not including grazing land).  42 of the 50 states exceed the figure of 245 people per square kilometer.

[JWR Adds: States with less than 600 people per square kilometer of active-worked farm land might pull through a societal collapse, with plenty of sweat and by God’s grace. But anyone who is planning to survive whilst living in a state with a higher population density is probably in trouble. You must prepare to be very well-armed and deeply provisioned in order to hunker down in total isolation through two winters, sheltering through a major population die-off. Dr. Hugh’s table (below) clearly illustrates the over-population of the eastern states and California that I’ve warned about for many years. ]

State

Population

(2002)

Sq. KMs
of Farmland

(2002)

 Pop. per Sq. KM
of Farmland
WY 498,703 13,366 37
MT 909,453 21,903 42
ND 634,110 15,220 42
SD 761,063 16,997 45
NE 1,729,180 17,924 96
NM 1,855,059 16,997 109
KS 2,715,884 18,311 148
IA 2,936,760 12,593 233
OK 3,493,714 13,134 266
ID 1,341,131 4,597 292
CO 4,506,542 12,091 373
TX 21,779,893 50,606 430
MN 5,019,720 10,971 458
AR 2,710,079 5,640 481
MO 5,672,579 11,512 493
UT 2,316,256 4,481 517
OR 3,521,515 6,644 530
AZ 5,456,453 10,237 533
MS 2,871,782 4,249 676
KY 4,092,891 5,254 779
NV 2,173,491 2,627 827
WI 5,441,196 6,142 886
WA 6,068,996 6,065 1,001
IN 6,159,058 5,949 1,035
IL 12,600,620 10,701 1,178
VT 616,592 518 1,191
TN 5,797,289 4,520 1,283
WV 1,801,873 1,391 1,296
AL 4,486,508 3,438 1,305
LA 4,482,646 3,110 1,441
AK 643,786 355 1,811
OH 11,421,267 5,679 2,011
GA 8,560,310 4,249 2,015
VA 7,293,542 3,361 2,170
SC 4,107,183 1,854 2,215
HI 1,244,898 556 2,238
NC 8,320,146 3,515 2,367
MI 10,050,446 4,018 2,502
ME 1,294,464 487 2,659
CA 35,116,033 10,701 3,282
DE 807,385 216 3,732
PA 12,335,091 2,975 4,147
FL 16,713,149 3,940 4,242
NY 19,157,532 2,936 6,525
MD 5,458,137 811 6,728
NH 1,275,056 158 8,050
CT 3,460,503 139 24,883
MA 6,427,801 216 29,713
RI 1,069,725 23 46,509

Yes, the preceding is based on land in current farm production and the cited “245 people per square kilometer” is a worst case average. As was pointed out in some of the follow-up letters, if you have an area with higher yields per acre, such as rice producing regions, this figure can increase, but it should give us an idea of how bad the dislocations are going to be once the naturally produced fertilizer hits the solar powered air mover.

Important Note: I took out grazing lands, CRP lands, etc. and only had square kilometers of land under actual cultivation.  This is based on a USDA estimate since exact figures are not kept except on a county by county level.  This is why the “final” number is square kilometers is much less than it would appear to be on the surface. 

I know that here in Colorado for example a piece of land I am looking at — 160 acres — only has 10 acres under active cultivation.  The rest of the section is either open range grazing land or CRP land.

I then applied some math [on demographics] to the chart…

[JWR Notes: Some detail deleted, for brevity]

I ruled out the original colonies and adjacent areas.  (Those have the figures shaded light red.) I ruled out the states west of the Mississippi River but with population densities that are far too high for sustainable agriculture. (Those are shaded dark red.)

I evaluated the states west of the Mississippi that are adjacent to “basket case” states with high population densities, and shaded them yellow.

This leaves us with a list of  only 11 states (shaded in green) that would make a good retreat/relocation area, so long as you choose wisely within the state itself.

[JWR Adds: For example, Dr. Hugh rates Wyoming high on his list, but if limit your criteria to only areas that are in the milder climate zone west of the Great Divide, then that leaves only parts of the western third of Wyoming. Similarly, he rates Montana highly, but if limit your criteria to only areas upwind of nuclear targets and that are in the milder climate zone west of the Great Divide, then that leaves only northwest corner of Montana. He also discounts Oregon and Washington, but the eastern halves of both of those states are very lightly populated.]

The new [short] list is then:

State

Population

(2002)

Sq. KMs
of Farmland

(2002)

 Pop. per Sq. KM
of Farmland

Rawles

Rank

Dr. Hugh

Weighted

Rank
MT 909,453 21,903 42 2 1
WY 498,703 13,366 37 5 2
ID 1,341,131 4,597 292 1 3
SD 761,063 16,997 45 7 4
ND 634,110 15,220 42 8 5
NE 1,729,180 17,924 96 11 6
NM 1,855,059 16,977 109 15 7
KS 2,715,884 18,311 148 12 8
CO 4,506,542 12,091 373 10 9
OK 3,493,714 13,134 266 17 10
TX 21,779,893 50,606 430 13 11

Since I currently live in Colorado I plan to relocate sooner than later outside of the state if I can not find a suitable location within the state.  – Dr. Hugh

Letter Re: Investing in Nickels, in Quantity

Dear Mr. Rawles,
Regarding people eventually mailing U.S. nickel [5 cent coins] in bulk, you had asked: “Is there a box manufacturer that makes a sturdy corrugated cardboard box that fits tightly into a Medium size Priority Mail Flat Rate corrugated cardboard box?” At ULINE you can get a box to fit nicely inside the corrugated Medium Flat Rate Box (“FRB1″, with dimensions 11″ x 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2”). It is item #S-4517. It measures 10″x8″x5″. These boxes cost 54 cents each in lots of 25. (OBTW, leave it to the government to make two “medium” flat rate boxes. The longer, narrow one, “FRB2”, is made of thinner material.) 

I buy my shipping material from ULINE and find them to be prompt and accurate in filling orders. A human always answers the phone. Their order line is: 1-800-295-5510.

Of interest to preppers, ULINE also sells sand bags, plastic bags, burlap bags for storing green coffee beans, all sorts of storage containers, and rolls of “Faraday Cage” static shielding material. Take Care, – Bill at BallisticClipboard.com

JWR Replies: Thanks for that useful information. OBTW, I recently added that, as well as some information on fitting rolls of nickels into .30 caliber ammo cans in the latest edition of my static page on Nickels.

Letter Re: Legalities of Prescribing Long-Term Antibiotics

A reader wrote to ask: “I have talked to a local doctor who is sympathetic about giving prescriptions for antibiotics but he is concerned about the legalities of supplying anyone with excessive amounts of any drug.  Does anyone out there know the proper process to undertake this acquisition?  I’m not worried about buying stuff outright and am willing to use multiple pharmacies but he is worried about getting in trouble and wants to know the legalities.  Any wisdom you or your readers can share? “

Doctor Koelker Replies: Doctors prescribe long-term antibiotics for many different problems, including conditions as simple as acne, to those as complex as HIV disease.  In 20+ years of medicine, I’ve never had a pharmacy question the need for a prescribed long-term antibiotic, other than issues of allergy or cost.  In this era of mail-away prescriptions and pharmacy pricing wars, it is not uncommon for a physician to prescribe 90 days of medication, even an antibiotic.      

It also isn’t that uncommon for a doctor to write an antibiotic with the understanding that a patient will use it under certain conditions.  For example, severely asthmatic patients may be advised to begin an antibiotic every time they get a cold.  A woman with frequent urinary tract infections may keep a sulfa drug on hand for use as soon as symptoms occur.  A missionary traveling to Africa may be prescribed long-term ciprofloxacin for a periodically recurring prostate condition.

I spoke with a lawyer about this, and she doubted that specific laws exist that address this question.  If they do exist, they would likely be state by state.  More likely the issue would be one of opinion, or ethics. Would the state medical board (in charge of licensing) censure a doctor for writing long-term antibiotics?  This lawyer agreed with me that keeping a contract in your medical chart outlining the proposed use and limits of liability would be a good idea.  As a physician, I would not prescribe long-term antibiotics for anyone I could not trust.  The patient would have to agree to my conditions as well as regular follow-up for other medical problems.  Of course, it’s not likely that a prepper patient currently has an infection requiring a long-term antibiotic, though he or she may well have some other problem, such as hypertension or diabetes. 

One thing patients, physicians, and pharmacists must not do is practice deception or give the appearance of deception.  The medical record is a legal document and doctors must record transactions such as prescribing antibiotics, including the reason for doing so.  At least in my home state, doctors cannot prescribe for patients they have not seen personally, and must have a chart on file for every patient seen. Going to different pharmacies or physicians may spare the professionals the issue of questionable prescribing, but this puts the patient at risk of being labeled a doctor-shopper or drug-shopper.  You need to be above-board about everything.  If you want antibiotics for an end-of-the-world scenario, don’t say you need it for acne.  Broken trust is very difficult to repair.  And please don’t ask your doctor to lie for you by saying an antibiotic is for a medical problem that you don’t actually have. 

The lawyer also pointed out the ethics of individual versus government responsibility for crisis preparation, as well as the malpractice question, which would not be a problem if no harm had come.

Of course, a doctor could prescribe an antibiotic for TEOTWAWKI, but what happens if a patient decides to share his supply now with a neighbor suffering from a bad cough, and that neighbor subsequently suffers an allergic reaction and dies?  Who is responsible here?  Although it is currently illegal for a person to “share” antibiotics or other prescription medication, therefore putting the onus on the patient, it is not unreasonable to think the prescribing doctor might get snared as a deep pocket in a lawsuit – all the more reason to keep a contract in the patient chart specifying that the medication will not be used unless civilization collapses.

So again, the issue boils down to one of trust.  Would I trust a prepper patient to uphold the agreement not to use an antibiotic supply unless the current medical establishment collapses?  Like it or not, this is an issue to be settled between your physician and yourself, at least in this country.  Another option would be to travel outside the U.S. to obtain antibiotic supplies, but I have no experience in this arena. (Doctor Koelker is SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor. She is also the editor of ArmageddonMedicine.net.)

Economics and Investing:

The short squeeze in silver that I recently mention seems to be on, in earnest. Check Monday’s spot silver chart. That is a 31-year high.

KAF sent us a link to a great piece by Patrice Lewis over at WorldNetDaily: Connecting the dots to anarchy. (SurvivalBlog readers will recognize Patrice Lewis as the editor of the excellent Rural Revolution blog.)

Companies Raise Prices as Commodity Costs Jump. (Thanks to Daniel S. for the link.)

Anthony S. sent this sign of the times: Pan American Silver Shifts Assets to Canadian Dollars

John R. suggested this: Six Charts Which Prove That Central Banks All Over The Globe Are Recklessly Printing Money

Reader C.D.V. sent this: Federal, state and local debt hits post-WWII levels

Odds ‘n Sods:

Josh M. pointed us to a piece of hydrogen fuel cell technology that has finally made it to the consumer level: Powertrekk.

   o o o

Egyptian ‘Net Killed By Intimidation, Not a Switch. (A hat tip to Wade B. for the link.)

   o o o

C.D.V. sent us this dire prediction: Scientists Warn of $2 Trillion Solar ‘Katrina’.

   o o o

Reader J. H. forwarded: Reports coming out of Christchurch, New Zealand, following a magnitude 6.3 temblor are thusfar a bit confused. Please keep the folks there in your prayers.

   o o o

Troubling news: Florida Police Obtain Warrant to Search ‘All Persons’ in Apartment Complex

Notes from JWR:

SurvivalBlog’s traffic continues to grow. We now average more than 260,000 unique visits per week, and we are using almost two terabytes of bandwidth per month. (That is a lot for a blog that is nearly all text!) If we are going to set up an offshore mirror web site (as planned), then it is going to require a fairly capable server.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 33 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.