Although I am not a fan of cooking with charcoal, I am a fan of Dutch oven cooking and preparing for emergencies.

A few years ago I remember seeing on television people waiting in long food lines after the San Fernando earthquake hit California. Many of the people in the damage zone spent hours in breakfast lines, then long lines for lunch, then a repeat for dinner. They had to spend many hours a day in food lines because either they had no food reserves or had no means of cooking their stored food. A little preparation can go a long way in preparing for emergencies. Had these good people stored a little food, fuel and invested in a good quality Dutch oven, they would be set for cooking in their back yard instead of relying on Federal troops to supply their family's nutrition.

Good quality Dutch ovens (Lodge, of course) are fun to use, food always tastes great, and they're invaluable in emergencies.

The only problem I see in using Dutch ovens is the large amount of charcoal needed to cook meals. Charcoal is basically unfriendly to trees (what isn't?), because it takes seven pounds of wood to make one pound of charcoal. In many areas of the world trees are being cut down at an alarming rate to make this much needed cooking fuel. A perfect example is Haiti and Dominican Republic. The small island which is host to these two countries has already seen a huge amount of deforestation and still suffers from continuing tree loss. Haiti is 99% deforested, providing little wood-fuel to the populace. D.R. still has forests, but they are depleting rapidly, mostly because charcoal is being made to supply Haiti's needs.

I mention this because the