Officially on the road and observing the Food System

Its official, Billy and I are now on the road full time in our van, Falkor. We are driving west over the next month to do some exploring and winding down from all of the chaos we had blocking us from the lifestyle we truly wanted, a simple life. Focusing on our own balance and nutrition is very important to both of us and in order for that to be a priority that meant changing the way we were living. New England is a very fast pace way of life, we realized this the more travel we did outside of the area. So many would tell us to slow down, or whats the rush? It was time for drastic change.

Working indoors at a desk was never my calling, I yonder for too much physical activity and the outdoors, that what feels natural to me, I thrive off of it. I also don't believe in shoving processed food in my mouth just to get through a day. I value my time when I am preparing delicious and nutritious food, I know what whole foods do for me and my husband and living a whole foods lifestyle has aided us both and made us even more aware of all the processed, fortified foods and how we feel if/when we consume them. This made living conventionally quite tough, being around so many people, family, friends that have no time in their lives or are in denial about how much food and nutrition really matter. Everyone is concerned with how much money they make, pushing beyond the sanity point at a promotion and the fastest way to complete everything. Its hard to be around people you love who do not know or care or have the time to know what they are doing to their body.I feel that you have a choice and its up to you to make choices, but I do care, I think about it in a big picture and I try to educate where ever possible, mainly on topics that are not fluid in mainstream media to those who will listen.

We are just a few days into our trip west through Colorado, Utah, California and then up to Washington before we head to Hawaii for winter. We are currently driving through the Midwest and the long state of Nebraska and I have done a lot of observing our broken food system. For several hours all you see is fields of wheat and corn and refinery's. The wind is bustling well over thirty miles an hour, not many trees, just flat or slight hills of yellow and brown feilds. All of this "farming" is to feed livestock and create processed foods.

The last decade the puppeteer media by big agriculture and corporate America has cried out for farmers throughout the country.

"We need farmers!"

Of course! They want to tell you what to farm, when to farm and how to raise your crops, down to what exactly you can even grow. This scheme is strictly to increase production of animals to feed humans! The meat an dairy industry consume just about all of the millions of acres for this "farming" to commence. I also noticed that many farmers homes are gargantuan set high on a hill like a castle looking over their land of brown. Incentives to the farmers who bow down to this rigged system must be pretty darn good! Nothing about large scale farming is sustainable and as far as Im concerned this is just about the most toxic area of the USA I have ever seen.

Besides the crops and the chemicals spread on them daily we also passed by several feed lots and stock buildings. There is no windows to these buildings, just socked in steel and putrid smell of cow manure, sending methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Majority of the cattle is kept indoors, not out on pasture, which is essentially a natural feed to their digestive system, unlike corn.

Other than observing this mad agriculture system we are feeling incredibly lucky to have our off grid fridge and kitchen area in our van in this toxic food environment. We have just pulled off the road and prepared our own food, of course it takes a little bit of work and organizing but after eating, we feel good, alive and that it worth the time and effort to nourish.