Right outside my house is the drain and in here is a natural spring that is routed past my front door. Obviously of no use in a flood scenario but suddenly my water storage challenges feel a little less challenging.
Why Marmite? You might say.
Firstly, I'm not pushing a brand here, for non-Vegetarians you could take Bovril or Oxo spread (South Africa), it could be Vegemite, Cenovis, Vitam-R, Vegex depending on where you live. Even in my taste test with the jar opened since 2019 I actually preferred the taste of Oxo for a stock but the Marmite on toast.
Like many of us I've often gone looking for stuff and found there's a better product far more readily available in America, but not this time, in the States you have to hunt for it in health food shops whereas it's readily available in most European supermarkets, so you probably walk past it each time you go.
The main element of a yeast based product like any of these is nutritional yeast* high and fortified with Vitamin B12 which as most people know is usually found in meat, fish, eggs, plant based milks and some breakfast cereals, all of which will very quickly be consumed in most scenarios and also all of which are bulky and difficult to keep for any length of time.
According to the wiki most adults need about 2.4 micrograms of Vitamin B12 daily and of course as part of any prep you should store Vitamin pills to meet nutritional requirements, note, older adults actually need even more up to 10 to 12 micrograms to ensure adequate absorption as your body is less efficient with age.
Putting Bovril and Oxo aside here both of which contain meat (and a lot of salt) and I'm also not sure if they keep as well, I'll stick to Marmite because it's more widely available across Europe and may become even more readily available after the recent (slightly troubling), take over by McCormick last March, notice it lost the Royal Mark.
The storage efficiency and meal supplement benefits of these products with their meaty flavour make them an ideal addition to any preppers stash.
Love it or hate it, who cares?
Some of you (or most) might say "Yuk I hate that stuff", love it or hate it, as they say, Marmite and similar yeast based spreads provide preppers with an abundance of choices to add extra taste and essential vitamins to their survival food choices, as a prepper you surely have to like it?
Similar to other foods with low water activity like Soy Sauce and Honey, Marmite stores well, but unlike those others it's stays stably for years even after being opened (2019). On the fanbase website they say, biology speaking its very hard to kill.
My all time favourite prep food use to be Carnation Milk, another heritage brand and another British Army ration issue from World War 1 and 2 with a proven track record. I fell in love with Carnation Milk drinking it while backpacking in Asia with coffee well before I realised it's prepping benefits, "Kopitiam please".
If I was only allowed one it would have to be Marmite and so I'd find myself dumping my cans of Carnation, also Marmite is a lot lighter with more punch for pound. Talking of pounds a jar of Marmite currently costs £3.15 or 4 euros for 250g, also talking of milk, Marmite makes a great hunger defeating drink, far more nutritious than coffee, just add hot water to taste and treat like a broth, great with dipping toast. Talking of toast you can make Marmite bread which requires less yeast and less salt due to it's inherent properties.
As an essential flavour supplement.
For me I can see that carefully stored mountain of rice, lentils, couscous and chick peas might take forever to get through and keep me going but how is it going to taste if I find myself pulling on it constantly eating it day in and day out when everything else has gone off or has been consumed and I have nothing left for flavour or to add any food value to.
A close third, with almost as much value especially if you need fats is Ghee (Vits A,D and K) with the added bonus of providing oil for cooking, but again, if I had to I would drop Ghee for Marmite due to it's weight to value. Like Marmite both of these you probably walk past every time you go shopping.
Acquiring a taste.
Flavouring up boring dried vegetable soups and pulses with the right combinations and some trial and error you may find yourself using Marmite in a way that is more suitable to your tastes even if you were not originally a fan of consuming the spread straight out of the jar.
It's interesting that so much ideal prepping food items can be found from products that have been around before refrigeration like Marmite, Ghee, Carnation Milk, Treacle, Maple Syrup, Spam, Corned Beef etc that are still widely available every day in our supermarkets.
It's also great on toast or bread sticks for fussy toddlers who won't eat meat and eggs, our house use to get through tons of it.
I'd also like to add that you can even save a bit money now by buying these items as extras to take the edge off further food inflation and try some of these alternatives for yourself now and see what you like, I've no doubt that some of these items will soon become disproportionately expensive in the coming months.
Maybe Marmite is an unusual preppers choice so I wondered if there was any unusual food stuff that you would seriously consider adding to your bug out bag or store which you simply couldn't leave out and why?
https://letsfoodie.com/bovril-vs-marmite/#bovril-vs-marmite-vs-vegemite-how-the-three-compare
https://foodcookingrecipe.com/marmite-recipes/
https://gamescout.co.uk/2023/10/love-it-or-hate-it-marmite-is-now-in-skyrim/
The benefits of keeping chickens are obvious to preppers and I won't bother listing them all here, but there are some others that I didn't realise until I bought my first gang, yep I did use that word to describe my flock.
If an award was ever given out to one animal on earth that is exploited the most, it has to be the chicken, I am no Veggie, but chickens simply are one of the most rewarding creatures you can have, let alone the other benefits.
tdlr go to My favourite reason
I've kept chickens for over 20 years, normally from 4 to about 12 which is more than enough for a normal family and gifts to neighbours (presented as noise apologies).
Firstly to most without a decent sized garden they seem out of reach but some recent designs** have made compact chicken keeping possible and a lot more viable with about 1.5m by 3m for between 2 and 4 birds, even some city balconies and roof tops are larger than that. Think Bantams for space.
Mental Health
When I think back to the dark months of Covid they were a huge advantage not only for the eggs they supplied but also because of their company, seriously, I am sure they help with mental health.
During second Covid I lost most of them to a fox and it was a huge emotional blow, the garden seemed bereft and boring with no drama and chatter, they are hilarious to watch and constantly make me smile when I go out.
Trading eggs for other things is also another great bonus, my daughters first bike cost 30 eggs, but obviously during a squeeze you get other things that are more essential.
Not that I have yet, but could I kill a pet chicken for food if I was desperate? Yes I think we all could if pushed enough. I would look at it like a rabbit or pheasant and try not to remember its name!
This article though is not about killing them though it's about helping yourself and helping them*.
Waste, fertiliser, recycling, the list goes on, even me being healthier!
When we first had kids I put on a lot of weight because I hate wasting food and would eat everything they left. Feeling guilty about food waste is now mostly gone when you have feathered, food recycling machines outside. You should avoid meats ofc but pasta, stale bread, beans, virtually all fruit and veg.
The droppings mixed up ofc. Again during Covid, I had a side hustle. Even two birds can provide enough waste for garden pots if collected and then well mixed and thinned out with soil. Garden centres were closed and so I gifted fertiliser to friends who started repotting their gardens from flowers to veg.
*My favourite reason
We owe chickens big time as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, so if you are thinking about getting your own hens then how about rescue chickens? We all know when egg companies say "Free Range" it's nonsense, a small 1 meter opening in a 200 meter chicken shed means most laying hens never see outside, let alone bully their way to that tiny opening, it's a marketing ploy.
I've rescued about 50 hens over the years and when you first get them they are mostly in an appalling state, seeing them over time discover life and get healthy again is rewarding in itself, back to those mental health benefits again!
Jane Howorth the founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust has so far rescued over a million birds, I've never used any other charity so cannot recommend any others but if you would like to help and get some starter hens (for a small donation) and tons of advice then go to https://www.bhwt.org.uk/
I am sure a quick search will bring up other charities that could find you rescue chickens, you can also become a volunteer, a sponsor etc.
There's also an International Network recommended by the bhwt here, maybe there is one near you?
https://www.bhwt.org.uk/about-us/our-worldwide-impact/
**Best chicken coops for small gardens:
The Omlet Eglu Go is the strongest all-round choice for easy cleaning and low maintenance.
The Green Frog Designs Small Chicken House is a practical recycled-plastic alternative.
The Cocoon ECO 1500 provides a compact house and covered run, but hens will need additional daytime space.
The Kerbl Emma suits keepers who prefer a traditional wooden house and already have a secure run.
The Aivituvin AIR67 is the best option here if moving the coop around the garden is important.
Do not rely on advertised capacity alone. Breed size, ventilation, perch space and run access all affect how many hens a coop can accommodate comfortably.
From:
What irony, people are prepping with AI when maybe we should be prepping against it!
It seems everything that we read that benefits us about the use of AI there is always something equally awful in the media saying how much it can harm us.
As preppers, what should we be doing extra while we listen to the intensely confusing media hype about it's growing abilities, what will be the outcome, what will it mean for all of us, is it good, should we worry?
When I was younger and a bit of a Sci Fi nut I walked around with a head full of how wonderful life will be when we don't have to work or even think for ourselves anymore, nevertheless at the time it was disturbing to watch films like 2001 and Terminator as a teen but I comforted myself by consigning them to fantasy and naively believing that anybody who could develop AI technology would also be smart enough to protect us from it.
Those seemingly fantastical threats appeared far off and remote but now after recent developments and being armed with a cynical old mans brain I am no longer so sure.
An AI Crisis, so is this yet another thing we need to prep for?
Immediate big and small threats you may need to consider.
It seems to be obvious that the very first threat from AI is an almost unavoidable global financial collapse/crisis, which will be tough on us all regardless of how much technology we depend on, it will be inescapable*.
The AI race has so far involved investments in the trillions with the returns as always being unpredictable, one thing is for certain there will only be a few winners, the losers will fall and trillions will vanish from pensions and other investments causing financial chaos (e.g. Dot com bubble) with investors, companies and even governments losing out. This could have a huge knock on effect, severely damaging everything from the jobs that remain to huge shortfalls in government budgets and spending.
Rippling smaller outcomes are also predicted, with possible power and water shortages** alongside the undeniable environmental damage***, again this might need to be considered by us as preppers, do we need to redouble our energy and water prep?
AI and it's supporting data centres are greedy, growing beasts devouring energy and water in massive quantities, in the race to the top will authorities priorities it's insatiable appetite over your domestic supplies? You could eventually find you and family without water and power for significant periods as utilities are redirected to continue to feed it.
The next threats from AI are more obvious and are covered in the some of the links below, I think some of these are a lot closer than we would like to think, maybe I will write a future article for you guys about some of those, especially the ones we might not consider.
P.S. Sorry for any typos/errors this was not written using AI!
* https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/27/ai-bubble-crash-tech-firms-stock-markets
** https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.09598
*** https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167658
Some useful links
Prepping against future AI advances (prepper site).
An AI crisis
https://thefuturesociety.org/aicrisisexplainer/
BBC Tech billionaires prepping
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly17834524o
AI challenges and solutions
https://www.upgrad.com/blog/top-challenges-in-artificial-intelligence/
https://www.lifewire.com/protect-the-future-how-to-stop-ai-from-overpowering-humanity-7104253
AI already impacting the environment.
https://www.lifewire.com/generative-ai-environmental-nightmare-8601430
Protecting your family from AI now!
https://www.aiplusinfo.com/blog/protecting-your-family-from-ai-threats/
The next pandemic?
For context: This happened to my Mrs. At the time she was surrounded by sales staff, it was getting dark, she was on her own and 30 miles from home. Her car was on 138k miles and had never failed to start or ever became immobilised before. This was at the exact dealership that she had bought this car originally from 13 years ago and it was the first time her car had ever been back.
The keys were taken off her when they were assessing it for a trade in price and this was the exact moment it became immobilised, they then threatened to drag it off their forecourt and asked her if she had another way to get home.