What to store before a crisis: water, food, medicine, tools, seeds, knowledge

Build in steps: 14 days of water and light, a month of food, a real first-aid kit, basic tools, a seed set of open-pollinated varieties, a small solar kit, and two copies of an offline library. Each step helps on its own.

Part of Day Zero, the plan for an AI-related crisis that gets out of control. Why it exists. General information, not medical advice: how these guides are reviewed.

Prepare in steps. Each step is useful by itself, and you can stop at any step and be better off than you were.

Step 1: water and light (one weekend)

• Water: 4 litres per person per day for 14 days, in food-grade containers. A filter (ceramic or hollow-fibre) and unscented bleach or tablets.
• Light: torches and a head torch with spare batteries, candles, a lantern.
• Warmth: blankets, a sleeping bag for each person, warm clothes.
• Fire: lighters, matches in a waterproof tube, a ferrocerium rod.

Step 2: food for a month (one month)

• Rice, oats, flour, pasta, lentils, dried beans, sugar, salt, oil, powdered milk, tinned vegetables, fish, fruit, nut butter, honey. Eat and rotate it so it never expires.
• Multivitamins and iodised salt.
• A camping stove and fuel, a pot, a can opener, a hand-crank grinder.

Step 3: medicine and hygiene

• A real first-aid kit: bandages, gauze, tape, tourniquet, scissors, tweezers, thermometer, gloves, antiseptic, burn dressings, oral rehydration salts.
• Your own prescription stock as far as the law and your doctor allow; ask the pharmacist how to store it.
• Soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, bin bags, a bucket with a lid.
• A printed medical guide (for example Where There Is No Doctor).

Step 4: tools

• Axe, handsaw, hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, wrench, file, utility knife, tape, wire, rope, nails, screws, tarp.
• Gardening: spade, fork, hoe, trowel, watering can, buckets.
• Sewing kit and spare needles; a sharpening stone.

Step 5: seeds, the long-term food

Buy open-pollinated (heirloom) varieties suited to your climate. Hybrids (F1) do not produce seed that grows true. Ask local gardeners and local seed banks which varieties do well where you live.

A seed set that covers calories, protein, vitamins and storage:

Role	Plants
Calories	potatoes (tubers, not seed), maize, wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, squash
Protein	beans (bush and runner), peas, lentils, chickpeas, soya where it grows, sunflower
Roots and storage	carrots, beets, parsnip, turnip, swede, onions, garlic, leeks
Greens	kale, cabbage, spinach, chard, lettuce, radish
Fruit crops	tomato, pepper, cucumber, melon where the climate allows
Oil and fibre	sunflower, flax
Herbs	mint, thyme, sage, calendula, chamomile, yarrow, basil

• Keep two to three growing seasons of seed in different places.
• Storage: dry, cool, dark. Seed with a few percent of moisture, sealed in jars or foil with a desiccant sachet, in a cool room. Most vegetable seed keeps 3 to 5 years; onion and parsnip seed 1 to 2; beans, peas and tomato often longer. Test germination every year on damp paper and replace what fails.
• Learn seed saving now, in your own garden: it is a craft.

Step 6: energy and communication

• A small solar panel, a charge controller and a battery; a hand-crank or solar radio; rechargeable batteries. See reader power.
• A handheld radio with the local emergency frequencies programmed. See communication.

Step 7: knowledge

• Put the Downloads kit on two drives in two places, with a small low-power device and a spare charger that can read them.
• Print the pages you cannot lose: first aid, water, food preservation, seed saving, basic tools, maps of your area.

Step 8: practise

• Once a year, spend a weekend without mains power, water or shops. You will find what is missing for less than it costs when it matters.
• Learn first aid with a certified course. Learn one craft from a person.