Wherever you go, there you are: An experiment in getting ethical food in the middle of nowhere!

This blog post will document my effort to maintain our high maintenance, "clean" "conscious," "ethical," healthy eating regime while in the middle of nowhere U.S.A.. Without getting too specific (for the sake of privacy-- what privacy? it's 2011. good point.), I'll just say that my husband and I will be traveling to an unincorporated town in Wisconsin, that's at least four hours from any city that has a Whole Foods. So, in order to put my money where my mouth is, I'm conducting my biggest experiment yet! I'm not going off this nutritional plan; somehow, some way, I'm sustaining it. Even if I have to eat snow and forage for twigs in the forest. The Null Hypothesis of this experiment posits that "it is not possible to sustain a hippie, clean eating, slow food, Non-GMO, ethical diet in the middle of Walmart's middle America without access to a city." My goal as this experiment's Principal Investigator, is to prove that the null hypothesis is bullshit wrong.

I will be updating this blog as the experiment progresses over the next week. It begins in Los Angeles, as I prepare for travels a few days in advance. I think ahead. Hmmm... are there any local farms? There must be. What about CSA programs? Where will I get raw milk? It's dairy land, there must be raw milk somewhere! In my afternoon research, I have found only 4 farms listed and a couple others off the beaten path that sell raw milk. It's dairy land; this is a seriously controversial issue (it's not hippie dairy land California, after all.). Will I drive 6 hrs for milk? I might, just to prove a point that the consumer always has the power. I can't find meat yet. Then I try a search at the very helpful, grass fed site, EatWild and I find a bunch of great farms, but still many hours away. I'll have to research that when I'm actually there and can get a sense of the conditions. In the meantime, I'll support online sellers, to sustain us for the first day or two.

To begin: I have ordered a box of grass finished and pastured meat from U.S. Wellness Meats. I was concerned about shipping issues to this very rural area, where at times overnight shipments have been delayed by days. So I put an e-mail into U.S. Wellness and here's the first exchange I've had in my experiment:

Hi There,

We are ordering this so we have access to high quality meat while we are traveling in Wisconsin. We are hoping to receive this shipment by Friday, Feb 25. If this is not possible, please let us know. We may be willing to pay an increased Fed-Ex charge if that's something you offer.

Thank you for providing great meat products!

Julie
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Hi Julie,

Thank you for the patronage.

Your order should land in Wisconsin on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.

No extra Fed Ex charges required.

Sincerely,

John Wood

founding member

"Our animals eat right so you can too!
U.S Wellness Meats
204 E. Lafayette Street
P.O. Box 9
Monticello, MO 63457
URL: www.uswellnessmeats.com
Toll Free: (877) 383-0051
Direct: (573) 767-9060
Fax: (573) 767-5475
YouTube: http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Page.bok?template=video.html

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Thanks so much John! It means a lot to me and my family that we have access to such great quality meat!

Julie

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Hi Julie,

Your welcome and thank you for the kind words.

John

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Well that's a pleasant start to my experiment. Next, I order an organic sampler box from Diamond Organics. Not quite as pleasant. The produce looks gorgeous and they have some quality pasteurized, but non-homogenized milk products. Though not on the "best" list by Weston Price Foundation, they qualify as "good," so that's good enough for this experiment. No trip to a dairy farm will be necessary this phase. The reason it's not so pleasant however: the shipping cost. Yikes! If I wanna be deeply ethical and "green," I'd drop this idea. Shipping distance is about 2,500 miles (talk about not local) and they only ship overnight because the products are perishable. Not only is there airplane fuel involved, the shipping fee was the same cost of the order. Great idea Jules, overnight ship a heavy box of potatoes. I'm exaggerating (only slightly). That said, we will be receiving two boxes of organic, slow food. I'm looking forward to being there for their arrival. Big bunches of Organic Kale right there in Walmart country. Before I bad mouth Walmart too much, they are negotiating changing their model to include more of what I've been talking about. So if you can't drop your first born's tutition on shipping organic to your midwestern home, please have the courtesy to vote for the health of your people, by buying whatever organics they have at Walmart.

Until my next update, here's an *uplifting* video for you and a link to an informative blog about buying organic online if you live truly in the middle of nowhere, go here: http://hubpages.com/hub/--Buy-Organic-Online. Yes, I fall asleep studying this and that's why I've started having dreams about cows.