PROPHETS SPEAK

Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-Day Saints

by Neil H. Leash

4/6/1857  Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball both counseled the men to build strong storehouses and store grain enough for 7 years.

5/1857 President Heber C. Kimball:  “we can wake up more, and keep waking up. Store corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, buck wheat…. for you will see a day when you will want it, when the US have not any food.”

7/1857 President Brigham Young: prepare for the future that is prophesied.

7/1857 President Heber C. Kimball:  you will wish you had laid up grain.

1859  President Heber C. Kimball:  If you do not lay up (grain) and keep it, you will be sorry for you will see hard times.

1860 President Heber C. Kimball : after the harvest store up enough grain for 1, 2, or 3 years.

1864 President Brigham Young: store up grain 5-7 years worth.

5/1864 President Brigham Young : you have come here the last 12-15 years, and have been told all this time (at least once a month) to lay up grain. And yet I don’t believe there are 7/8ths of you that has breadstuff (grain) to last 2 weeks.  You have all peddled off your grain and made yourselves destitute!

Store grain, don’t use it, then store more in 1865, 1866, 1867. .  until you have a 7 yr supply. You will be able to withstand a famine, or to feed thousands who are hungry.

7/1867 Elder George A. Smith: some of you are used to living “paycheck to paycheck”   We have been counseled to store up food,  yet we are apt to neglect it, for the sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go and we expect every year to bring plenty.

8/1867 President Brigham Young: if you will heed the counsel of the Lord to store up grain, you will never see famine.

10/1867 Elder George A. Smith:  3 yrs. ago we were told by Brigham Young to start storing grain. How may now have a 3 yrs supply of grain?

5/1868 President Brigham young:  I now have stored grain laid up.

7/25/1868 President Brigham Young: there will be no famine for the obedient if they have stored up grain. “We must learn to listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, and the counsels of the servants of God…. “
“Who is deserving of honor or glory from God? Those who have preserved their substance or those who have wasted it?   Those who preserved it; for they know how to preserve those things which the Lord places in their hands.”

1874 President Wilford Woodruff : There are certain events awaiting the nations of the earth as well as Zion; and when these events overtake us…we will be preserved if we take the counsel that is given us and unite our time, labor, and means, and produce what we need for our own use; but without this we shall not be prepared to sustain ourselves.

1875 President Wilford Woodruff : I want to ask you if you ever heard brother Kimball tell about laying up wheat?  “Yes” say some “we have heard him, but the famine has not come yet.”

(Is that our attitude?  It hasn’t happened yet?!!)

He goes on:

…Let your wives and daughters go for awhile without ribbons and ornaments. Let us try to get along with old coats and old hats, and keep the wheat….   (in other words, don’t sell your wheat, take the money, and spend it on things you can’t eat.)

7/21/1878 President George Q. Cannon: Do not forget …the teachings you have heard and which have been repeated … for so many years: the saving and storing of grain ...many of you will wish you had …

1879 President Joseph F. Smith:  talked about being so self sufficient that the saints could make their own clothes, equipment, furniture, and everything they would need to live,  “That when Babylon fall, we may be prepared for it, and not be found among those who shall wail and lament because “no man buyeth her merchandise any more.”

11/1891 President George Q. Cannon:  It seems scarcely possible, in so fruitful a land as America that there should be famine….sooner or later this country…may be visited by famine…  he states every wise man and woman should act, especially those who have faith in the predictions of God’s servants.

8/1893 Elder John Morgan:   …the world is moving very rapidly. It does not take years to bring about a crisis, financially, politically, socially, or otherwise.  How easily these things can come upon us! Are we prepared for them?

1893 George Q. Cannon: Many may think this will never come, that it is folly to talk about famine in this land….it is a wise precaution to keep a year or two’s bread stuff on hand.

1916 Elder Charles W. Nibley: Do not sell all the wheat you have….Be wise in these temporal things.

1936 President David O. McKay: During the last few years practically all the world has been passing through a critical period of depression. People in this inter-mountain region have been hit in some respects, more severely than others…when the mines closed, many men were thrown out of employment. When the springs and rivers dried, products of farms shriveled and died. The price of cattle dropped below the cost of raising them. As a result many people are worried and disheartened. They have lost not only their farms or business interests, but also their homes. Day by day men have vainly searched for honest work…..

4/19/1937 President J. Ruben Clark: what may we as a people…do for ourselves to prepare to meet this oncoming disaster, which God in his wisdom may not turn aside from us?  Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing and where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead.

1942 Message from the First Presidency (President Heber J. Grant, President J. Ruben Clark, President David O. McKay) As the Church has always urged since we came to the Valleys, so now we urge every Church householder to have a year’s supply of essential foodstuff ahead.

1953 President J. Ruben Clark: …where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.

10/1966 President Harold B. Lee: Perhaps if we think not in terms of a year’s supply of what we normally would use, and think more in terms of what it would take to keep us alive, in case we didn’t have anything to eat, that would be very easy to put in storage for a year.

1969 Ezra Taft Benson:…one can wait too long before he attempts to get his spiritual and temporal house in order. Are we prepared?

10/6/1973 First Presidency Message (President Harold B. Lee, President N. Eldon Tanner, President Marion G. Romney) message prepared by Church Welfare Services Department: Planned storage in the home will assist the membership to be self-sustaining in times of need…the likelihood of such eventualities as accidents, illness, and underemployment face nearly every family at one time or another. Wars, depressions, and famines as well as earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes loom as possibilities to be considered in looking ahead and planning for the care and protection of the family.

Recommended: storage of fabric, needles, fuel, first aid. Four basic foods: grains, powdered milk, sugar or honey, salt.   water 14 gallons per person.

It is better to have food storage sufficient for a few months than to have no storage at all.

12/13/1973 President Harold B. Lee: We are the inheritors of what they (our pioneer forefathers) gave to us. But what are we doing with it?  Today we are basking in the lap of luxury, the like of which we’ve never seen before in the history of the world…

As I read the papers today and the talk about food shortage, energy crises, the talk of war and the possibility of entering into a world conflict if things don’t change, I wonder now if we are beginning to see the tip of the iceberg as it were. I’m wondering if we are beginning to see what the brethren were talking about when they said way back in 1937, to put aside in storage for at least a year food, fuel, clothing and enough to tide one over during an emergency. How many of our saints listened to that counsel?

1973 President Ezra Taft Benson: counseled the saints to store clothes, food, fuel, and medical supplies for at least a year.

1974 President Spencer W. Kimball: We have had many calamities in this past period. It seems that every day or two there is an earthquake or a flood or a tornado or distress that bring trouble to many people. I am grateful to see that our people and our leaders are beginning to catch the vision of their self-help…  Now I think the time is come when there will be more distresses, when there may be more tornadoes, and more floods…more earthquakes…I think they will be increasing probably as we come nearer to the end, and so we must be prepared for this.

1976 President Spencer W. Kimball: …as we become more affluent…there comes a feeling of security, and we feel sometimes that we do not need the supply that has been suggested by the Brethren. It lies there and deteriorates, we say. And suppose it does? We can reestablish it. We must remember that conditions could change and a year’s supply …could be very much appreciated by us or others.

Spencer W. Kimball: I believe that the 10 Virgins represent the people of the Church of Jesus Christ and not the rank and file of the world. All of the virgins, wise and foolish, had accepted the invitation to the wedding supper; they had knowledge of the program and had been warned of the important day to come.

They (the foolish) knew the way but gave only a small measure of loyalty and devotion. I ask you: what value is a car without an engine, a cup without water, a table without food, a lamp without oil?

Hundreds of thousands of us today are in this position. Confidence has been dulled and patience worn thin. It is so hard to wait and be prepared always. But we cannot allow ourselves to slumber. The lord has given us this parable as a special warning. The foolish asked the others to share their oil, but spiritual (and temporal) preparedness cannot be shared in an instant. The wise had  to go, else the bridegroom would have gone unwelcomed. They needed all their oil for themselves; they could not save the foolish. The responsibility was each for himself. (Faith Precedes the Miracle)

Spencer W. Kimball: “We encourage families to have on hand this year’s supply; and we say it over and over and repeat over and over the scripture of the Lord where he says, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”  How empty it is as they put their spirituality, so-called into action and call him by his important names, but fail to do the things which he says” (the teaching of Spencer W. Kimball p. 375)

 

1979 President Marion G. Romney: Now, I would like to repeat what you have heard a thousand times, more or less, about taking care of yourselves. You ought to now, more than at any previous time, make sure that you are prepared to go through a period of stress on the resources you have provided for yourselves. Remember that this is still a fundamental principle.

1980 Bishop Victor L. Brown: … I am afraid some members are laboring under the illusion that in difficult times the Church will take care of them. This is not so.  The fundamental principle of welfare services is that I provide for our own needs.

10/1980 President Ezra Taft Benson: Plan to build up your food supply just as you would a savings account…we urge you to do this prayerfully and do it now. I speak with a feeling of urgency. I have seen hunger stalk the streets of Europe. I have seen women and children scavenge army garbage dumps for scraps of food.

Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.

11/1980 Ezra Taft Benson  The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah. (Ensign)

(what happened to those who did not board the ark?  They died!)

1986 President James E. Faust: strive to have a year’s supply of food and clothing.

1988 President Thomas S. Monson: …the best storehouse system would be for every family to have a year’s supply of needed food, clothing, and…other necessities of life.

1995 Elder L. Tom Perry: 1. Gain an education, trade, or profession. 2. Live within your income and save something for a rainy day. 3. Avoid excessive debt. 4. Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life.
I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness…the instability in the world today makes it imperative to take heed of the counsel and prepare for the future.

I feel that the future is here! Tomorrow will be too late!