What's a Prepper?

As the world economy continues to show signs of weakening and our leaders fail to solve the problems that confront us, the whole idea of personal and family preparation is gaining credibility. More people are joining the prepper ranks daily. Maybe preppers should do some advertising, using the old soda pop jingle.

I'm a prepper, he's a prepper,

She's a prepper, we're a prepper,

Wouldn't you like to be a prepper, too?

But exactly what is a prepper? It’s someone who believes in and practices self-reliance and independence through advance preparation for any and all foreseeable contingencies, including man made or natural disasters.

The extent of those preparations (hence the word “prepper”) depends upon one’s mindset and financial resources. Some choose to prepare for the “minor” hiccups in life: a power outage, some negligible flooding or a few broken dishes in a minor temblor. Others look for and prepare to deal with “major” calamities: tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, epidemics, financial collapse and anarchy. Either way, they’re preppers.

Prepping traces its modern roots back to the dark days of the Cold War and bomb shelters in the 1950s and 60s. Worried by visions of mushroom clouds rising over once populous, urban landscapes, people began prepping for a nuclear holocaust. There was really only one threat and one response to it.

With the end to the East/West ideological struggle in the 1980s, preppers breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn’t last long. After only a brief hiatus, the modern scourge of terrorism raised its foul head, culminating in the horrific events of 9/11. And in more recent years, preppers have discovered—seeing various devastating earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes—that there is a plethora of menacing possibilities that may overtake them. Not the least of these are rising economic problems, political and cultural chaos.

All this sent preppers back to the drawing board. Today’s crop must consider far more than the one-threat, one-response mindset of their predecessors. The threats confronting today’s preppers demand a much broader and comprehensive response. These include infrastructure failures, pathogen-driven epidemics, terrorist activities, food supply contamination and a whole host of natural disasters. As a result, preparations must be more thorough, thoughtful and inventive.

By all accounts, today’s preppers are equal to the task. So, if you intend to join the prepper community, prepare yourself for a bit of culture shock and a steep learning curve. It’s a measure of the times we live in.

Augason Farms likes preppers, major or minor. We’ve been working to fill their emergency food storage needs for over 40 years, updating and improving to meet changing needs. We provide an invaluable service by furnishing excellent food with great longevity, food that can be depended upon to keep your family fed and nourished in a time of need.

By Anthony E. Larson
Augason Farms Copywriter

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