A drive straight north from New Haven, CT (my hometown) to the shore of Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT (the location of a conference where I was a speaker) on a beautiful August day is sheer joy, given the natural beauty that embraces one travelling north, even if one is not “on a mission.” But alas, I am always on a mission: to engage the health care “sector” in the national movement to reinvent our food system (the subject of my speech at the conference), and to promote New England Farmers Union as an important actor in creating solutions to the food system crisis we face. So, the drive was a bonus and the experience of being a participant and a speaker at the conference was… a gift. I learned that: