Not many people are talking about Dehydrating food, or its use in all kinds of emergency or outdoor activities.
Making your own DIY / Homemade meal packs.. not MRE(meal ready to eat) but meal package that requires minimal tools and time to prepare.

For example.. dehydrating rice and beans an putting them in air tight/food saver (air removed) bag with some seasoning and spices. It's a meal ready to eat after couple minutes soaking in water.. preferably hot water.. but in emergency room temp water works fine.

By making your own dehydrated travel/emergency meal's your saving on lots of packing space and weight. Saving money.. and some dehydrated food can last for 30+ years.. and if placed in freezer temps, food can last indefinitely.. far more Superior then bulky can filled with beans. Also in my opinion more superior then MRE.. for reason of shelf life. MRE's are definitely useful in emergency situations, especially extreme situation where person can't get to water, MRE in those situations would be more ideal.. but for long haul I'd suggest people look into old fashioned dehydrating food.

To make your own, person doesn't need anything fancy. Anyone can dehydrate food using just the sun on hot day, or camp fire, but if can get access to stove or actual dehydrating machine that would be easy route.. using stove it takes 2-6+ hours on Lowest setting for your stove 140-150f°. Also cheap to do..