Nov 1, 2023·edited Nov 1, 2023Liked by Gavin Mounsey
Hi, Gavin! (Warning, a crazy-long comment seems to have emerged from me ... I hope someone(s) here finds it interesting enough to read through, as I predict anyone who opens the book I share about here will be glad they did.)
I was on the editorial team that published a rich lifework penned by ecological biologist David Blume, owner of permaculture.com, for whom I worked several years afterward.
"Alcohol Can Be A Gas! Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century" is a 600-page reference tome on every aspect of producing our own liquid solar energy (ethanol), using permaculture principles, and the CSA (community-supported agriculture) business model (community-supported energy).
It's also a riveting historical commentary on Rockefeller, Henry Ford, the American Petroleum Institute (the public relations arm of "the Oilygarchy"), and so much more. And it's filled with slices of Americana, including apt political cartoons and wonderful human interest stories such as when the author and astronaut Gordon Cooper thought their expensive new emissions gauge was broken when the air coming out the tailpipe of an ethanol-fueled jet engine tested cleaner than the ambient air (it wasn't broken, and we did a press briefing in 2010 with board member/actress Daryl Hannah, to encourage the EPA to rule in favor of higher ethanol fuel blends, based on their undeniable environmental benefits.)
The book is a stunning reveal, evidencing without doubt that we could be energy independent essentially overnight, using a model that does NOT benefit from economies of scale. Local production of our own fuel, at the community scale, is where all the earth-shaking possibilities lie.
That's right -- any fuel-injected vehicle, including yours and mine -- can run nearly 50% ethanol TODAY -- with ZERO conversion and (despite propaganda to the contrary) only benefits for the engine and for performance ... a fact "they" certainly don't want you to know. (And we can power everything -- not just cars.)
During my time at the author's nonprofit, the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture, I worked on a proposal for Sandia Labs, outlining a groundbreaking world-class demonstration center and teaching facility for our permaculture-based small-scale "integrated food/energy farm model. The facility we proposed would have proven that our model presented a fiscally, ecologically, and politically elegant solution to many of our nation’s most pressing problems -- including peak oil, food supply, food & energy safety, climate change, air and water pollution, topsoil erosion, water supply, waste management, sewage treatment, and poverty.
Here is an excerpt from a review of the book, by "Ecotopia" author Ernest Callenbach:
"There is no real scarcity of land to grow fuel. There is a scarcity of independent, original thinking, and Blume’s book provides plenty of it, along with ample doses of amazing, startling, and sometimes scary information—ecological, technological, and political-economic. This is a vast, detailed compendium drawn from decades of experience by an alert, smart, and skeptical hands-on thinker. Blume has given us his biofuels bible, and we can learn from him and survive quite nicely—or follow what he calls MegaOilron into oblivion."
Of course, the Powers that Be control the narrative, causing the entire world to believe all manner of hogwash (as valid as "safe and effective") when it comes to the topic of fueling our planet with liquid solar energy. Although it crushed the other contenders at the 2008 Real Goods/Solar Energy Center's "Alternative Fuels Smackdown," and has the potential to positively affect most everything that matters, the solution described in this priceless book has been buried, not unlike the fate, and the promise, of hemp.
I could spend several hours sharing the broad strokes about what I learned working for the Alcohol Can Be a Gas! project. I often listened in on phone calls from scientists and educators from all over the world, who would repeat the baseless objections that society had taught them to swallow whole cloth without question. (Over those years, I never heard a valid downside to alcohol fuel produced with permaculture principles as described in the book. In fact, even Cornell professor David Pimentel, arguably ethanol's most vocal detractor, had to admit in a private meeting that he could not argue with the premise outlined in the book.)
I can't recommend this great work highly enough. My contribution to its excellence is among my proudest and most meaningful accomplishments.
Here is a link to a very new announcement (less than a month old!) that a DIGITAL VERSION of the book has just been released!
David Blume Releases Digital Version of His Classic Alternative Fuel Book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
Whew! I haven't called up all this passion for the topic in many years ... I certainly didn't expect to write a treatise here; my apologies if anyone has gotten this far.
(As an aside, permies were sadly poisoned, decades ago, with an entirely twisted and libelous mostly false story about Blume and Mollison back in the day, but his work is unparalleled, and he did not deserve the ostracism and ugliness that ensued. Mollison actually spontaneously invited the (entirely self-taught) Blume to teach the farming portion of his first PDC, because it was clear that he knew more than Mollison did on the topic. I mention this in hopes of eliciting an open heart and mind, should any lingering bad blood surface as a result of this share, as I have the other side of the story.)
Dang, you have some real money invested in your library. Mine is small but precious, as I weaned down for relocation. I like to also think of all the support for the authors, and try to buy directly and not with Amazon. Mr. Bezos doesn't need my money.
Ok so regarding Amazon/Mr. Bezos (and his friends at BlackRock and The Vanguard Group) in theory I completely agree with boycotting the corporatocracy and avoiding leaning on the services of degenerative (digital ID/CBDC prison planet pushing) companies like Amazon but having just self-published a book (and taking on the steep learning curve of planning for printing costs, packaging and shipping logistics while also working fulltime) I can also see the other side of this thing and understand why some authors choose to go with Amazon as their shipping and/or printing service.
In many cases, first time authors and/or indie/obscure authors cannot afford to throw 20 or 30 grand at a reasonable sized printing run to self-publish and then distribute their own book so they end up going with POD (print on demand) services with companies such as Amazon. Also, even if one manages to scrap together the fiat currency required for those printing, packaging and shipping costs and the author gets their book shipped to them in bulk (as I have done) that still requires taking on the full time job of packaging and shipping out the books (and it adds on a significant extra cost for both the author and the customers buying the book) as independent authors likely do not have wholesale price contracts with massive shipping companies so their shipping costs end up being like 5 times higher than Amazon's.
Thus, Amazon is the only way to "buy directly" from some authors. However, if the author does have a publishing company that ships directly or a book store, or they are shipping out their own books themselves (like I am) I definitely would advocate for using the non-Amazon purchasing method wherever possible.
Then there are those who are not self-publishing and have signed contracts where the publishing company has discretion of where the book will be sold (which likely includes the omnipresent Amazon in that case). I was discussing the moral conundrum of that aspect of dealing with Amazon (as a fellow author looking to expose corporate corruption and offer more decentralized and local community centered ways of living) with Joe Allen a while back here: https://joebot.substack.com/p/corrected-dark-on-preface-and-table/comment/39272699? Joe Allen's book is about exposing the dark side of the transhumanist agenda and I was asking him how he reconciles selling his books on Amazon with the fact that Bezos is a transhumanist. I appreciated his candid response and and relate to some of the challenges he is facing (though I face different ones as someone that self-published my book).
In the end I may have to make the decision of going with Amazon for shipping my books as tryna hold down a full time job while also tryna keep up with packaging and shipping out books takes a toll. Not only physically and mentally but it also means added shipping costs for those buying my book. I charge people between 25-30 CAD for shipping depending on where the book is headed (and I cringe thinking of people having to pay 90$ CAD for a book to get into their hands but in many cases the shipping ends up costing way more than that on my end and I have to pay out of my own pocket in order to get them their book(s), and that is not viable for me in the long term). If I was to have a company like amazon handle shipping of my books then a huge chunk of those shipping fees disappears for most people who want a physical copy of my book, and it also means it can get to them faster (as Amazon has a bunch of robots and some humans dedicated to shipping things out fast).
So, yes, Bezos does not need our money, and I would rather avoid giving any to him wherever possible, but in many cases authors (and people looking to buy books) have to weigh out other variables and make the hard call of dealing with corporate beasts like Amazon.
Thank you for the thought provoking, candid and evocative comment.
Yes indeed, I made a promise to my self about 7 years ago that I would buy one book (that contains material which can enrich my life in a meaningful way in the present while also helping me effectively prepare for an uncertain future) per paycheck and I have kept that promise to my self (though some weeks I could not afford it and so I had to do a double or triple book purchase down the line to catch up). I certainly spend more money on books than I do on cloths, digital technology/products or travelling and I have more money invested in books than I do in fractional reserve lending institutions.
I will copy paste something I shared with another subscriber recently as I feel it is pertinent here. Some say that one should prioritize gathering precious metals, cash and cryptocurrency in the context of emergency preparedness (and those are great) but those things do not have intrinsic value, thus their value in a survival situation pales in comparison to knowledge and skills in natural medicine, emergency shelter building, water purification, food cultivation, foraging and preservation skills.
Assuming one actually reads the books (such as the ones I shared above) and learns to apply the techniques and perspectives they offer in the real world through hard work (inner and outer) those books translate into knowledge and skills that become a permanent asset in one's life. After that point, one could have the books stolen from them, loose them in a fire or a flood etc, but the knowledge and skills they provided will remain in the mind.
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, natural medicine, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations.
Prioritizing buying (reading and mastering the techniques in practical books) is among the ways I attempt to prepare for multiple types of emergencies and stack functions in my emergency preparedness efforts (and in a way that is joyful and enriches my life in the present as well, regardless of if one is facing an emergency or not).
(I will address the Amazon aspect of your comment in another comment)
I have lots of gold and silver. I buy stuff. Recent purchase was a pressure cooker. My freezer doesn't work when the electricity goes out. So far I have experimented with chicken and beef. My butcher will be getting some big orders soon. I have enough glassware to call it a chemistry lab and I am going to look closely at some of those books you listed about natural medicine.
I despise Amazon and use them only when I can't find an alternative.
Precious metals are a better bet (with regards to the stability of their perceived value throughout history) than fiat currency for sure (especially when combined with self defense skills and/or self-defense tools). The only thing worth considering in that equation is that there is always gonna be someone out there with more firepower and/or more martial arts expertise so holding onto that material is not guaranteed 100% (well unless you have a massive fortified underground military grade bunker or something haha). 99.98 percent of the time gold and silver will retain some degree of perceived value, though I can think of some situations when having seeds, food, knowledge, skills and durable tools would be extremely valuable and having gold and silver would be practically worthless.
Please do not misunderstand my comment above, I do invest in durable tools (especially preserving, building, water purification and cultivating tools) and some of those are high tech (though I prefer to lean more heavily on low tech and sweat vs high tech and easy) for this https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-100-year-storms and other reasons. I invest heard earned money in forged steel chef knives, as well as cast iron pots, pans and baking dishes, I saved up to buy a whole set of solid steel shovels, carving knives, axes, carbonite tipped chisels, hammers and a range of other high grade (low tech tools). I also put good money into a camera and some survival gadgets that I store in a faraday cage. So I buy stuff too, just not what most people prioritize buying. I value buying books that can teach me to build, cultivate, preserve, heal and perceive deeper levels of truth about my own being and the universe I reside in above most things for I can access the knowledge and awareness those books cultivate in the garden of my mind regardless of the situation.
Tractors, pressure cookers, steel cooking tools, shovels, knifes, and survival equipment are valuable in a great many situations (I would say in a much wider range of situations than both fiat currency and precious metals would be). Do pressure cookers operate based on electricity only? Or can you get one that could work with a wood stove?
I fell behind on my typical annual crop plantings this year but thankfully the many perennial crops I had established have been filling in the gap. Preserving for me this year has been leaning on my freeze dryer and freezer more than I would prefer (I like to ferment at least half of our harvest so I do not lean on high tech to much if possible). I have not used a pressure cooker before as it always made me think of the Katz quote about the value of preserving (and propagating life in our food) rather than killing it.
“The problem with killing 99.9 percent of bacteria is that most of them protect us from the few that can make us sick.
Given the 'War on Bacteria' so culturally prominent in our time, the well-being of our microbial ecology requires regular replenishment and diversification now more than ever.
Wild foods, microbial cultures included, possess a great, unmediated life force, which can help us adapt to shifting conditions and lower our susceptibility to disease. These microorganisms are everywhere, and the techniques for fermenting with them are simple and flexible.
To ferment your own food is to lodge an eloquent protest--of the senses--against the homogenization of flavors and food experiences now rolling like a great, undifferentiated lawn across the globe. It Is also a declaration of independence from an economy that would much prefer we were all passive consumers of its commodities, rather than creators of unique products expressive of ourselves and the places where we live.
Resistance takes place on many planes. Occasionally it can be dramatic and public, but most of the decisions we are faced with are mundane and private. What to eat is a choice that we make several times a day, if we are lucky. The cumulative choices we make about food have profound implications. Food offers us many opportunities to resist the culture of mass marketing and commodification. Though consumer action can take many creative and powerful forms, we do not have to be reduced to the role of consumers selecting from seductive convenience items. We can merge appetite with activism and choose to involve ourselves in food as co-creators.”
― Sandor Ellix Katz
That being said, if a pressure cooker can operate without electricity, I think it would be a very practical and universally applicable tool worth investing in for diversifying my preserving methods (regardless of the fact that it pasteurizes the food).
I know you are fermenting veggies too so it sounds like you have invested in a range of things (knowledge, tools, experience and skills) that I would say have intrinsic value.
When you combine fermentation with natural medicine/herbalism is takes ones resilience and emergency preparedness to a new level. Medicinal anti-cancer Meads, anti-viral veggie preserves and nootropic kombucha.
You could run a pressure cooker over a fire. It would require supervision but there is no reason why you couldn't use fire. The plan is to can a year of food, my butcher is awesome. He has cows, not dairy cows but he says he can get me some raw milk when I'm ready to experiment with cheese. Don't know if anyone is familiar with these stored food bundles. I ordered one, I figured I could use it for camping. It's just carbs with processed flavourings that I wouldn't eat unless I had to. I have lots of carbs stored, I prefer to store food that I would eat anyway. (A book on fermentation just arrived)
And I am investing in books. I like books, paper ones.
I have glassware for a chemistry lab, I like chemistry, I haven't used it yet. Currently on pressure cooking, I have a ton of books coming on medicines so that will be next.
I have a CnC (that needs to be reassembled) a 3D printer, tools, I can fabricate stuff.
I have a kickass computer on the way.
This end of the world shit is actually a lot of fun. I expect to be murdered by a Bolshevik, I'll try to take one with me but in the meantime I'm learning tons of new stuff.
Very cool! I am gonna look into a pressure cooker for this winter as I do not like depending on my freeze dryer for preserving our food into a shelf stable format as much as I do (given the fragility and electrical dependence of the tech). I have managed to preserve over a year worth of ready to eat meals for my self and my wife (as well as powerful medicines and seed supplies) using our freeze dryer, so at this point it has paid for itself but still the high tech aspect makes me uneasy going forward for preserving our harvests.
Yes we also use our freeze dried meals for camping. I keep making and freeze drying new ones as we harvest from the garden and then we bring the two year plus old ones on camping trips to cycle in newer preserves into our emergency supply.
Cool! What book on fermentation did you get?
Chemistry eh, right on! That is a really useful skillset, there are plenty of instances where one can use that knowledge in a low-no tech situation in nature to identify and create very useful substances.
3d printing is interesting, I can think of some cool ideas for functional garden objects that one might be able to create with one of those.
haha end of the world shit is fun, you crack me up! Ya it can be if one strategizes for preparing in a way that is creative and fun for enhancing life in the present as well.
One thing I don't like about the 3D printer is that the better filaments gas. I do not like chemicals. They also like to be warm, so no putting it in the shed. I've built a plexiglass enclosure for it and have all the elements for an exhaust blower, that will give it a nice warm environment and me a poison free atmosphere. I'll probably finish that after I finish canning these (cheap and flavourful) stewing hens.
So that's the only real downside of a 3D printer, you should be aware of it. It is pretty handy. Will it pay for itself? Meh, who cares.
Thanks, dear Gavin, for compiling this extensive list. I see some favorites of mine there and lots to add to my wish list. Hope you are well. Much love from your soul sister in New Hampshire 💚
You are most welcome Sister! <3 I am well thanks and I look forward to hearing which book from the above list you acquire first and what you think of it :)
Ah! I am set for LIFE. Thank you :)
Hi, Gavin! (Warning, a crazy-long comment seems to have emerged from me ... I hope someone(s) here finds it interesting enough to read through, as I predict anyone who opens the book I share about here will be glad they did.)
I was on the editorial team that published a rich lifework penned by ecological biologist David Blume, owner of permaculture.com, for whom I worked several years afterward.
"Alcohol Can Be A Gas! Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century" is a 600-page reference tome on every aspect of producing our own liquid solar energy (ethanol), using permaculture principles, and the CSA (community-supported agriculture) business model (community-supported energy).
It's also a riveting historical commentary on Rockefeller, Henry Ford, the American Petroleum Institute (the public relations arm of "the Oilygarchy"), and so much more. And it's filled with slices of Americana, including apt political cartoons and wonderful human interest stories such as when the author and astronaut Gordon Cooper thought their expensive new emissions gauge was broken when the air coming out the tailpipe of an ethanol-fueled jet engine tested cleaner than the ambient air (it wasn't broken, and we did a press briefing in 2010 with board member/actress Daryl Hannah, to encourage the EPA to rule in favor of higher ethanol fuel blends, based on their undeniable environmental benefits.)
Hannah brought the Trans-Am that Quentin Tarantino had gifted her after the "Kill Bill" movie, which our mechanic had converted to be dynamically optimized for any gasoline/ethanol blend up to e85. (Here's a story about it https://energy.agwired.com/2010/03/25/daryl-hannah-promotes-e85-in-california/)
The book is a stunning reveal, evidencing without doubt that we could be energy independent essentially overnight, using a model that does NOT benefit from economies of scale. Local production of our own fuel, at the community scale, is where all the earth-shaking possibilities lie.
That's right -- any fuel-injected vehicle, including yours and mine -- can run nearly 50% ethanol TODAY -- with ZERO conversion and (despite propaganda to the contrary) only benefits for the engine and for performance ... a fact "they" certainly don't want you to know. (And we can power everything -- not just cars.)
During my time at the author's nonprofit, the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture, I worked on a proposal for Sandia Labs, outlining a groundbreaking world-class demonstration center and teaching facility for our permaculture-based small-scale "integrated food/energy farm model. The facility we proposed would have proven that our model presented a fiscally, ecologically, and politically elegant solution to many of our nation’s most pressing problems -- including peak oil, food supply, food & energy safety, climate change, air and water pollution, topsoil erosion, water supply, waste management, sewage treatment, and poverty.
Here is an excerpt from a review of the book, by "Ecotopia" author Ernest Callenbach:
"There is no real scarcity of land to grow fuel. There is a scarcity of independent, original thinking, and Blume’s book provides plenty of it, along with ample doses of amazing, startling, and sometimes scary information—ecological, technological, and political-economic. This is a vast, detailed compendium drawn from decades of experience by an alert, smart, and skeptical hands-on thinker. Blume has given us his biofuels bible, and we can learn from him and survive quite nicely—or follow what he calls MegaOilron into oblivion."
Of course, the Powers that Be control the narrative, causing the entire world to believe all manner of hogwash (as valid as "safe and effective") when it comes to the topic of fueling our planet with liquid solar energy. Although it crushed the other contenders at the 2008 Real Goods/Solar Energy Center's "Alternative Fuels Smackdown," and has the potential to positively affect most everything that matters, the solution described in this priceless book has been buried, not unlike the fate, and the promise, of hemp.
I could spend several hours sharing the broad strokes about what I learned working for the Alcohol Can Be a Gas! project. I often listened in on phone calls from scientists and educators from all over the world, who would repeat the baseless objections that society had taught them to swallow whole cloth without question. (Over those years, I never heard a valid downside to alcohol fuel produced with permaculture principles as described in the book. In fact, even Cornell professor David Pimentel, arguably ethanol's most vocal detractor, had to admit in a private meeting that he could not argue with the premise outlined in the book.)
I can't recommend this great work highly enough. My contribution to its excellence is among my proudest and most meaningful accomplishments.
Here is a link to a very new announcement (less than a month old!) that a DIGITAL VERSION of the book has just been released!
David Blume Releases Digital Version of His Classic Alternative Fuel Book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
https://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/david-blume-releases-digital-version-of-his-classic-alternative-fuel-book-alcohol-can-be-a-gas/
Whew! I haven't called up all this passion for the topic in many years ... I certainly didn't expect to write a treatise here; my apologies if anyone has gotten this far.
(As an aside, permies were sadly poisoned, decades ago, with an entirely twisted and libelous mostly false story about Blume and Mollison back in the day, but his work is unparalleled, and he did not deserve the ostracism and ugliness that ensued. Mollison actually spontaneously invited the (entirely self-taught) Blume to teach the farming portion of his first PDC, because it was clear that he knew more than Mollison did on the topic. I mention this in hopes of eliciting an open heart and mind, should any lingering bad blood surface as a result of this share, as I have the other side of the story.)
Peace out! <3
Dang, you have some real money invested in your library. Mine is small but precious, as I weaned down for relocation. I like to also think of all the support for the authors, and try to buy directly and not with Amazon. Mr. Bezos doesn't need my money.
Ok so regarding Amazon/Mr. Bezos (and his friends at BlackRock and The Vanguard Group) in theory I completely agree with boycotting the corporatocracy and avoiding leaning on the services of degenerative (digital ID/CBDC prison planet pushing) companies like Amazon but having just self-published a book (and taking on the steep learning curve of planning for printing costs, packaging and shipping logistics while also working fulltime) I can also see the other side of this thing and understand why some authors choose to go with Amazon as their shipping and/or printing service.
In many cases, first time authors and/or indie/obscure authors cannot afford to throw 20 or 30 grand at a reasonable sized printing run to self-publish and then distribute their own book so they end up going with POD (print on demand) services with companies such as Amazon. Also, even if one manages to scrap together the fiat currency required for those printing, packaging and shipping costs and the author gets their book shipped to them in bulk (as I have done) that still requires taking on the full time job of packaging and shipping out the books (and it adds on a significant extra cost for both the author and the customers buying the book) as independent authors likely do not have wholesale price contracts with massive shipping companies so their shipping costs end up being like 5 times higher than Amazon's.
Thus, Amazon is the only way to "buy directly" from some authors. However, if the author does have a publishing company that ships directly or a book store, or they are shipping out their own books themselves (like I am) I definitely would advocate for using the non-Amazon purchasing method wherever possible.
Then there are those who are not self-publishing and have signed contracts where the publishing company has discretion of where the book will be sold (which likely includes the omnipresent Amazon in that case). I was discussing the moral conundrum of that aspect of dealing with Amazon (as a fellow author looking to expose corporate corruption and offer more decentralized and local community centered ways of living) with Joe Allen a while back here: https://joebot.substack.com/p/corrected-dark-on-preface-and-table/comment/39272699? Joe Allen's book is about exposing the dark side of the transhumanist agenda and I was asking him how he reconciles selling his books on Amazon with the fact that Bezos is a transhumanist. I appreciated his candid response and and relate to some of the challenges he is facing (though I face different ones as someone that self-published my book).
I was also discussing the ethical implications of dealing with Amazon as an author with Tereza Coraggio recently in this thread : https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/stumbling-into-the-ecumenopolis-or/comment/42701660
In the end I may have to make the decision of going with Amazon for shipping my books as tryna hold down a full time job while also tryna keep up with packaging and shipping out books takes a toll. Not only physically and mentally but it also means added shipping costs for those buying my book. I charge people between 25-30 CAD for shipping depending on where the book is headed (and I cringe thinking of people having to pay 90$ CAD for a book to get into their hands but in many cases the shipping ends up costing way more than that on my end and I have to pay out of my own pocket in order to get them their book(s), and that is not viable for me in the long term). If I was to have a company like amazon handle shipping of my books then a huge chunk of those shipping fees disappears for most people who want a physical copy of my book, and it also means it can get to them faster (as Amazon has a bunch of robots and some humans dedicated to shipping things out fast).
So, yes, Bezos does not need our money, and I would rather avoid giving any to him wherever possible, but in many cases authors (and people looking to buy books) have to weigh out other variables and make the hard call of dealing with corporate beasts like Amazon.
Thank you for the thought provoking, candid and evocative comment.
Yes indeed, I made a promise to my self about 7 years ago that I would buy one book (that contains material which can enrich my life in a meaningful way in the present while also helping me effectively prepare for an uncertain future) per paycheck and I have kept that promise to my self (though some weeks I could not afford it and so I had to do a double or triple book purchase down the line to catch up). I certainly spend more money on books than I do on cloths, digital technology/products or travelling and I have more money invested in books than I do in fractional reserve lending institutions.
I will copy paste something I shared with another subscriber recently as I feel it is pertinent here. Some say that one should prioritize gathering precious metals, cash and cryptocurrency in the context of emergency preparedness (and those are great) but those things do not have intrinsic value, thus their value in a survival situation pales in comparison to knowledge and skills in natural medicine, emergency shelter building, water purification, food cultivation, foraging and preservation skills.
Assuming one actually reads the books (such as the ones I shared above) and learns to apply the techniques and perspectives they offer in the real world through hard work (inner and outer) those books translate into knowledge and skills that become a permanent asset in one's life. After that point, one could have the books stolen from them, loose them in a fire or a flood etc, but the knowledge and skills they provided will remain in the mind.
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, natural medicine, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations.
Prioritizing buying (reading and mastering the techniques in practical books) is among the ways I attempt to prepare for multiple types of emergencies and stack functions in my emergency preparedness efforts (and in a way that is joyful and enriches my life in the present as well, regardless of if one is facing an emergency or not).
(I will address the Amazon aspect of your comment in another comment)
I have lots of gold and silver. I buy stuff. Recent purchase was a pressure cooker. My freezer doesn't work when the electricity goes out. So far I have experimented with chicken and beef. My butcher will be getting some big orders soon. I have enough glassware to call it a chemistry lab and I am going to look closely at some of those books you listed about natural medicine.
I despise Amazon and use them only when I can't find an alternative.
Precious metals are a better bet (with regards to the stability of their perceived value throughout history) than fiat currency for sure (especially when combined with self defense skills and/or self-defense tools). The only thing worth considering in that equation is that there is always gonna be someone out there with more firepower and/or more martial arts expertise so holding onto that material is not guaranteed 100% (well unless you have a massive fortified underground military grade bunker or something haha). 99.98 percent of the time gold and silver will retain some degree of perceived value, though I can think of some situations when having seeds, food, knowledge, skills and durable tools would be extremely valuable and having gold and silver would be practically worthless.
Please do not misunderstand my comment above, I do invest in durable tools (especially preserving, building, water purification and cultivating tools) and some of those are high tech (though I prefer to lean more heavily on low tech and sweat vs high tech and easy) for this https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-100-year-storms and other reasons. I invest heard earned money in forged steel chef knives, as well as cast iron pots, pans and baking dishes, I saved up to buy a whole set of solid steel shovels, carving knives, axes, carbonite tipped chisels, hammers and a range of other high grade (low tech tools). I also put good money into a camera and some survival gadgets that I store in a faraday cage. So I buy stuff too, just not what most people prioritize buying. I value buying books that can teach me to build, cultivate, preserve, heal and perceive deeper levels of truth about my own being and the universe I reside in above most things for I can access the knowledge and awareness those books cultivate in the garden of my mind regardless of the situation.
Tractors, pressure cookers, steel cooking tools, shovels, knifes, and survival equipment are valuable in a great many situations (I would say in a much wider range of situations than both fiat currency and precious metals would be). Do pressure cookers operate based on electricity only? Or can you get one that could work with a wood stove?
I fell behind on my typical annual crop plantings this year but thankfully the many perennial crops I had established have been filling in the gap. Preserving for me this year has been leaning on my freeze dryer and freezer more than I would prefer (I like to ferment at least half of our harvest so I do not lean on high tech to much if possible). I have not used a pressure cooker before as it always made me think of the Katz quote about the value of preserving (and propagating life in our food) rather than killing it.
“The problem with killing 99.9 percent of bacteria is that most of them protect us from the few that can make us sick.
Given the 'War on Bacteria' so culturally prominent in our time, the well-being of our microbial ecology requires regular replenishment and diversification now more than ever.
Wild foods, microbial cultures included, possess a great, unmediated life force, which can help us adapt to shifting conditions and lower our susceptibility to disease. These microorganisms are everywhere, and the techniques for fermenting with them are simple and flexible.
To ferment your own food is to lodge an eloquent protest--of the senses--against the homogenization of flavors and food experiences now rolling like a great, undifferentiated lawn across the globe. It Is also a declaration of independence from an economy that would much prefer we were all passive consumers of its commodities, rather than creators of unique products expressive of ourselves and the places where we live.
Resistance takes place on many planes. Occasionally it can be dramatic and public, but most of the decisions we are faced with are mundane and private. What to eat is a choice that we make several times a day, if we are lucky. The cumulative choices we make about food have profound implications. Food offers us many opportunities to resist the culture of mass marketing and commodification. Though consumer action can take many creative and powerful forms, we do not have to be reduced to the role of consumers selecting from seductive convenience items. We can merge appetite with activism and choose to involve ourselves in food as co-creators.”
― Sandor Ellix Katz
That being said, if a pressure cooker can operate without electricity, I think it would be a very practical and universally applicable tool worth investing in for diversifying my preserving methods (regardless of the fact that it pasteurizes the food).
I know you are fermenting veggies too so it sounds like you have invested in a range of things (knowledge, tools, experience and skills) that I would say have intrinsic value.
When you combine fermentation with natural medicine/herbalism is takes ones resilience and emergency preparedness to a new level. Medicinal anti-cancer Meads, anti-viral veggie preserves and nootropic kombucha.
thanks for the comment
You could run a pressure cooker over a fire. It would require supervision but there is no reason why you couldn't use fire. The plan is to can a year of food, my butcher is awesome. He has cows, not dairy cows but he says he can get me some raw milk when I'm ready to experiment with cheese. Don't know if anyone is familiar with these stored food bundles. I ordered one, I figured I could use it for camping. It's just carbs with processed flavourings that I wouldn't eat unless I had to. I have lots of carbs stored, I prefer to store food that I would eat anyway. (A book on fermentation just arrived)
And I am investing in books. I like books, paper ones.
I have glassware for a chemistry lab, I like chemistry, I haven't used it yet. Currently on pressure cooking, I have a ton of books coming on medicines so that will be next.
I have a CnC (that needs to be reassembled) a 3D printer, tools, I can fabricate stuff.
I have a kickass computer on the way.
This end of the world shit is actually a lot of fun. I expect to be murdered by a Bolshevik, I'll try to take one with me but in the meantime I'm learning tons of new stuff.
Very cool! I am gonna look into a pressure cooker for this winter as I do not like depending on my freeze dryer for preserving our food into a shelf stable format as much as I do (given the fragility and electrical dependence of the tech). I have managed to preserve over a year worth of ready to eat meals for my self and my wife (as well as powerful medicines and seed supplies) using our freeze dryer, so at this point it has paid for itself but still the high tech aspect makes me uneasy going forward for preserving our harvests.
Yes we also use our freeze dried meals for camping. I keep making and freeze drying new ones as we harvest from the garden and then we bring the two year plus old ones on camping trips to cycle in newer preserves into our emergency supply.
Cool! What book on fermentation did you get?
Chemistry eh, right on! That is a really useful skillset, there are plenty of instances where one can use that knowledge in a low-no tech situation in nature to identify and create very useful substances.
3d printing is interesting, I can think of some cool ideas for functional garden objects that one might be able to create with one of those.
haha end of the world shit is fun, you crack me up! Ya it can be if one strategizes for preparing in a way that is creative and fun for enhancing life in the present as well.
Thanks for the great comment.
Ack...
Fermentation for Beginners. That's me.
One thing I don't like about the 3D printer is that the better filaments gas. I do not like chemicals. They also like to be warm, so no putting it in the shed. I've built a plexiglass enclosure for it and have all the elements for an exhaust blower, that will give it a nice warm environment and me a poison free atmosphere. I'll probably finish that after I finish canning these (cheap and flavourful) stewing hens.
So that's the only real downside of a 3D printer, you should be aware of it. It is pretty handy. Will it pay for itself? Meh, who cares.
Thanks, dear Gavin, for compiling this extensive list. I see some favorites of mine there and lots to add to my wish list. Hope you are well. Much love from your soul sister in New Hampshire 💚
You are most welcome Sister! <3 I am well thanks and I look forward to hearing which book from the above list you acquire first and what you think of it :)