“I get frustrated reading these articles, because I’m no where near prepared for such a situation and for one big reason: I live in Florida. It’s often very humid, water gets into everything over time, and storage of things like rice, beans, and pasta is often measured in months and not years.”
If you get professionally hermetically sealed cans or buckets, like from Walton Food, and keep them in your air conditioned house, they will be fine. You couldn’t store them in a garage, of course. I am in more southern Texas humidity and mine are in my house. They stay cool and dry.
A person can buy the silica crystals drying gel by the pound at Amazon.
Also, the “Hot Hands” hand warmers are basically the same as the industrial oxygen absorbers.
And usually much cheaper.