My 'aha' moment came when, in high school, my teacher suggested I study the role of marketing on cigarette consumption for my year-long research. Throughout that project, I learn about the integration of agriculture, marketing/consumption culture, policies, human health/healthcare, and socio-economic divides. My research extended into food ag and how marketing tactics shifted to accommodate changing consumer preferences (in the same year that skim milk became popular, the government supported marketing to increase the sale of cheese - made from the excess milk fat). What I learned over the course of that year left me in disbelief. Systems we had empowered through money and legislative/lobbying power were perpetuating cultures of consumption (and inadequacy). Principals of supply and demand were manipulated to exhibit the have and have nots at the expense of human and environmental health. My goal thereafter has been to understand, redefine, and redesign/breakdown these depleting systems.