FOLLOWING the disaster of hurricane Katrina, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued guidelines for “keeping food safe during an emergency”. The bulk of the advice focuses on how to keep one’s freezer cold during power outages, and it includes tips such as: “Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for two days.” This, as Martin Gardiner observes on his website , could present a problem to people who don’t have obliging friends in local hospitals, funeral parlours or heavy-metal rock concert venues.
The USDA has also provided an online question-and-answer system called “Ask…
