John Maher

The Mojave Desert lake bed seemed desolate two years ago as the Wolper Productions crew set up to film a sequence for its "Primal Man" series. The footage would document man's early quest for food and survival in a barren waste land. During a break in the filming, a hairstylist for the crew explained how she had begun preparations for her own survival when the "inevitable" riots erupted in America's streets. Her hedge against even greater paranoia was a two-year supply of survival food and a plan to arm herself for an escape to the hinterland.

Today a majority of the purveyors of survival foods and related survival plans would love the public to believe that the hairstylist was in the vanguard of a now booming movement. In its February 1 issue, Forbes magazine reported that thousands of people are "biting" at what is called the latest scare craze promoted by survival food dealers. A few weeks ago, the San Diego Daily Transcript reported in a front-page story that survival food sales were booming at local outlets.

However a number of these same San Diego retailers, contacted through telephone and personal-contact interviews, reported varying results.

There are about a dozen survival food retailers in San Diego, and each of them has a different view on the scale of their business and the approach that should be taken in dealing their wares. Although they deny using scare tactics, many of them do nothing to dissuade preconceived fears of inevitable catastrophe.

One of the more frank retailers is an employee of the Beehive Supply Co. who wished to remain anonymous.

"Many of the companies that sell survival foods play up the scare tactics," he said during an interview at the store in Clairemont Mesa. "I have seen the tactic used in this store, but usually the customer starts it. I don't lie to play up any fear, because it causes more harm to the country than good."

The Beehive employee said he thought sales were "holding steady," after a rapid growth of about 500 percent a few years ago when Beehive was a subsidiary of Deseret Supply Company, which is now defunct.

"About 30 percent of our business is with Mormons, the rest with conservative groups," he said. "A good percentage of our sales are with backpackers and just the curious."

Beehive, which has four stores in the are, devotes its promotional efforts to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Evidence of that effort can be sen in the wall-long rack of religious literature that is on display in the store.

One of the tenets of the Mormon faith, as prescribed by Brigham Young and current prophets, is that church members store food and become adept in skills that would aid survival. About six percent of the faithful actually do so.

The Clairemont Mesa retailer said conservative groups did not start purchasing at his store until the early 1970s when organizations like the John Birch Society began promoting self-sufficiency programs.

One of the retailers who offers survival food and a complete survival plan for the political conservative is Walt Mann III, the owner of Survival U.S.A.

Mann, who has sold survival plans for 11 years including three in San Diego, is an arch-conservative who considers the John Birch Society "the kindergarten of true knowledge." He describes himself as a "Christian and middle-of-the-road Constitutionalist."

Mann claims a clientele of 3,000 who make individual purchases valued from $500 to $5000. He said one person has spent as much as $100,000 for his services and supplies.

These services include suggestions on investments in precious metals, selection of survival clothing and weaponry and the sale of survival food distributed by Sam-Andy, Inc., a major producer of such products.

Mann said his business, which is located in El Cajon, has leveled off. Despite what he called a growing knowledge of the need for survival preparation, Mann said tight money is hindering the onset of a boom.

Americans are reluctant to react to danger, but they are really "lions in cattle clothing," he said. "Only after great suffering and bloodshed will the 'sleepy silent majority' come alive and save America."

He said those that have awakened are not the doctors and lawyers, as he would expect, but the "middle class, hard workers – like plumbers, who know what is wrong with this country."

Mann said he does not believe in scare tactics. Most of the 3,000 persons who purchase his products are scared before they come in, he said.

Bill Weaver of the San Diego Coin Exchange, which is San Diego's largest dealer in survival foods, serves about 100 to 200 persons a month. He said his figures are based on a sudden spurt that occurred a few months ago, but now appears to be declining.

"Survival food is only a $30 million-a-year business and is an extremely small part of the multi-billion-dollar food business," Weaver said in a telephone interview.

In its February article, Forbes magazine agreed with Weaver. It said about 20 to 30 little national distributors of survival foods would share in the $30 million this year.

The survival foods business is not booming in San Diego, according to Weaver, because "people are not all that scared."

"The American people are complacent," he said. "They are not much for planning."

Weaver claims to use "soft sell " rather than scare tactics. "We don't preach gloom and doom," he said. "We urge people to purchase with logic and with a need for it."

Although claiming a monthly clientele of 4,000 to 5,000, Usher of the Grub House said sales are only "holding their own."

"There is no sign of super-duper rises or falls," he said. He noted a recent trend to purchase only six months' instead of a year's supply of food.

Mostly John Birchers, members of the Independent Party, Mormons, and Seventh Day Adventists make purchases at the National City Store, according to Usher.

Taken as a whole, these San Diego merchants seem to be saying that despite the lack of a boom, there is at least a steady market for their product.

Although their products are sold under different brand names, the basic substance is the same. About 150 different items can be purchased, including fruits, grains, vegetables, beverages, animal n plant protein such as beef, chicken, eggs, beans and peas, seasoning, and other supplementary items.

These foods, except the honey and some brands of peanut butter, are dehydrated or freeze-dried and vacuum-packed in No. 10 size tins. Inert gases like nitrogen, and in some cases, artificial additives have been added to the products to maintain their storage life, color, and flavor.

The tins may be purchased individually, in cases of six or in sets pre-designed for an adult to survive from three to 15 months.

A year's supply, geared to provide a nutritionally balanced diet, would include about 10 to 15 cases at a price varying from $375 to $730. The price depends on the variety and content of the set chosen.

Forbes magazine found national prices to be a little higher, with prices varying from $414 to $749.

Locally a single tin of fruit such as apricots can cost as much as $20. A case can cost $115, so there is a savings in buying the pre-designed sets.

I tasted peanut butter, cheddar cheese, bananas dipped in honey, apple bits and "ham" chunks.

The peanut butter had the most natural flavor The cheddar cheese had a taste reminiscent of Cheeetos.

The banana chips, a favorite with backpackers, melt in the mouth like a tasty treat. But the apple bits, treated with sulphur dioxide and odium bisulfate, tasted a little like cardboard.

The "ham" had poor flavor, and its ingredients leave much to be desired. The so-called ham consists of soy flour, textured vegetable protein (TVP), salt, cellulose, spices, monosodium glutamate, flavoring, calcium oxide, whey solids, dextrose, and U.S. certified color.

All of the retailers I interviewed except one claim these foods offer complete nutritional balance and quality. The Beehive employee recommended supplemental vitamins to compensate for losses caused by long periods of storage and heat.

Betty Bankhead, San Diego distributor for Sam-Andy, claims the Beehive merchant is wrong. She said there is "no need for vitamin supplements," because survival foods have "excellent nutritional value."

She bases her evaluation upon findings made by her daughter and daughter-in-law, who she said are home-ec teachers. Bankhead said she uses the foods, which she prefers to call"moisture-removed foods," all the time and finds them to be excellent.

A home economist with the Cooperative Extension of the University of California, which serves the Federal government, the state, and San Diego County, disagrees with Bankhead.

Dorothy Wheeler, home economist with the Cooperative Extension, said she agreed with the Beehive employee that survival foods lost their vitamin content.

"All foods deteriorate," she said in an interview in her office. "Nothing is as good as it is today or as it was yesterday."

She said there was a dramatic loss of vitamin C over a short period of time.

Literature provided by the federal government indicates that foods stored at 65 degrees F will have a ten percent loss of vitamin C over a period of a year.

The pamphlet, Home and Garden Bulletin, No. 77, further states that higher temperatures cause even greater deterioration. Twenty-five percent of a product's vitamin C will be lost in a year's time at a temperature of 80 degrees F, the pamphlet said.

Wheeler said that despite vitamin loss, "there is nothing really wrong with survival, but it's not a good bargain."

The retailers of storage foods prey on the low-income and poorly educated with scare tactics, she said.

For those who insist on purchasing survival foods, Wheeler offered the following information provided by specialists in her field.

Most dried foods can be safely stored for a period of years depending upon the efficiency of the container in preventing vapor from escaping. Specialists recommend storage at 55 to 60 degrees F. with relative low humidity for best results, but foods may be retained at 75 degrees F. for lengthy periods.

When stores at 75 degrees F., dried beans and peas will last about three years. Rice and macaroni products will last for about a year, but brown rice will only last six months. Dried fruits may be stored at this temperature for two years and honey, sugar, and salt will last up to five.

This information should aid those who believe they must have a supply of survival food for a sense of security. Yet such security is tenuous at best.

The Wolper Productions hairstylist, for example, will never need her preciously guarded supply. She died in a plane crash a few months after filming was completed in the Mojave Desert.