this could sound like a dumb question, but would having the capacity to produce dry ice be helpful in an off-grid event? i would think your average home refrigerator could be turned into a giant ice chest by adding some blocks of dry ice. I have no idea how much you would need to cool each cubic foot. i saw a guy on youtube make it with what looked like a pillowcase, a fire extinguisher, and duct tape. After a 10 second burst, he had a handful of packed "snow". If you could keep your fridge going you could use up whatever you had in it before starting on your short-term (canned) supplies and then your long-term (freeze dried) stuff. A few years back we had a hurricane here and lost power for several days. our local supermarket was open with emergency lights, selling canned and dry goods (no meat, produce, dairy, or frozen) to only customers who had cash, since the debit/credit machines didn't work. Anyway, even though we were super careful about opening it, we still lost most of what we had in the fridge and its freezer. we weren't prepared then, and ended up eating cold cereal with canned milk, peanut butter on crackers, and box macaroni and cheese cooked on the camp stove. how about it, folks? i figure if anyone would know the answer, it would be someone on here!