Let's remember what we're talking about here. Is it wise to have some emergency food or not?
I vote for yes.
During this post I've learned that an emergency doesn't have to be a nationwide apocalypse to break the normal supply services for weeks, at least not in the US. Guess we live in a much more safe and stable place here, no hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, thunder storms, tsunamis, volcanic activity... There's no need for us to pack food into extra durable packages, a tight jar would be enough to keep dry ingredients dry and pest free. Take this as an apology, I clearly wasn't thinking about the conditions over there.
Every now and then there's a short piece of news in the morning paper telling that there's a power outage in the dense populated areas, fixed in two weeks at the max. Should such happen to me in the summertime, the biggest issue would be eating the contents of the fridge before they melt. I suppose that's the situation with most of the neigbourhood here.
When the Ministry of the Interior published their
National Risk Assessment in 2015, I recall the experts saying that the crucial backup services for the society would be up and running in a couple of days. The main issue for us would be water, but even that would be no big problem, there's a river within less than a mile and the water is drinkable at least when cooked.
As for a useful line of reasoning, didn't the US Army include zombie attacks in their risk assessment? Some of the American preppers I've heard/read about sound like they're preparing for something like the Siege of Leningrad or worse, a scenario that seems very unlikely in the USA.