H. Burke Peterson, 1975

Ensign » 1975 » November

The Welfare Production-Distribution Department
Bishop H. Burke Peterson
First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric

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Bishop Peterson talked about a survey done in 1975:

....let us look at the results of a recent survey conducted by Utah State University among LDS people in Utah. The four basic food groups were surveyed: meats, fruits and vegetables, grains, and milk products.

The study revealed that only about 5 percent of our Church members had a year’s supply of meat products. Only 3 percent had a year’s supply of dried or canned fruits or vegetables. Approximately 18 percent had a year’s supply of grains. In the milk group, only three families in a hundred had a year’s supply of canned or powdered milk. On the average, about 30 percent of the Church had a two-months supply of food; the remainder had little or none.

These survey statistics indicate that most Church members are not prepared to meet month-to-month problems and future economic trials. Clearly, in this area of home production and storage, it is extremely important that priesthood and Relief Society leaders and all Latter-day Saints place greater emphasis on home storage—on obtaining and carefully storing a year’s supply of food, clothing, and, where possible, fuel. In the area of home production, we would hope that members would heed the admonition of the prophets and, where possible, grow a garden, sew their own clothing, make household items, and, in general, become as self-sufficient as possible to prepare against the days to come....

In the blog post of yesterday, I mentioned how there are some members of the Church who are not storing food, using the excuse that the Church will take care of them. Here is an interesting quote by Bishop Peterson:

...We now have 143,000 acres in production. We are following the Savior’s counsel to provide food for our poor and needy brothers and sisters. This acreage is only sufficient to meet the current requirements to care for the poor and the needy in areas served by commodity storehouses. Under more difficult circumstances, at current levels of consumption, our food production projects will not be able to meet the needs of those who require assistance. Therefore, family preparedness, with home production and storage, must be the way the majority of our families take care of themselves.