I've researched ways to stockpile food, and even US military rations only last about 4 years under optimal conditions. Pickled and canned food lasts about two years and most people recommend eating far before that. We had some bulk oats here and those were infected within seven months by little worms.
Can you recommend better ways to preserve food, seeds and etc?
mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Hard, unprocessed grains are best, these have natural defenses (phytic acid) that slow down any bugs that would try to eat them.
Our grains didn't get infected despite being in the same kind of containers and same area. Interesting! Nice tips on the mylar and absorbers :)
MRE's will be edible far longer than that if kept in a cool and dry place.
Canned food lasts indefinitely unless the can is damaged and the seal is broken. That is not always true with canned meats though, so be more careful about them.
Glass jarred "canned" food lasts forever as long as the seals are never broken and they were prepared properly.
Rice lasts a very long time. Buy it, freeze the bag for three days (to kill any pests and their eggs), and then store it in rodent free containers. I recommend cheap galvanized steel trash cans.
Wheat stores forever as well in the wheat berry raw form. Just keep it away from rodents, and keep it sealed and dry. I have 300 pounds of wheat with electric and manual mills. My children will never go hungry no matter what happens.
This is somewhat related to residential security, so I may do a blog post about it. There are simple and effective ways to keep a lot of food in your house without wasting your money.
Edit: I made a post and gave credit to Anarchospace and Zerohedge for originally posting...
https://steemit.com/security/@finnian/got-food-in-venezuela-a-lot-of-people-don-t
Excellent tips. I'll pass this along to my family and we can upgrade our own stores. I'd hate to lose another big load of provisions again.
How did you store your oats? Were they sealed up? Just curious.
Not airtight, they were in a plastic container.