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And a friendly stop at a truck wash along highway 88 on way to Kansas. $40 for a wash and wax!! Decided on a name for the Coachman Leprechaun/Ford Transit van. The Little Irish Van office will be called “LIV”.  Had a nice visit with my friend and colleague Jerry and his family at JNJ Company in Kansas. Jerry assists packing operations with sanitation procedures throughout the U.S. and offers local horse farmers good agriculture practice education. He is the pastor of a local church and farms hay with his father.
Driving from Kansas to Eastern Colorado has a beauty all its own. Big sky’s, expansive prairies and large expressive church’s in each small town. This modest Elderberry winery caught my attention as it reminded me of stories my father told about gathering elderberries in the Eastern Sierras with his uncle to make wine. Shared it with friends along the way...it was quite good!
Arrived at Facility #4 on a Sunday evening. AgEmpowered office setup and ready to go when staff arrived Monday morning.  This cold storage and transportation facility complies to Sanitary Transportation, Good Manufacturing Practices, among other Federal, State and County requirements. A generational operation, the ground you see in the above picture was a part of the families onion growing farm. The current generation has expanded the business to wholesale and transportation operations. It is always a pleasure to work here with the dedicated staff. This visit we are fine tuning the food safety program to comply with a new building expansion and conducting staff trainings on revised procedures.
 Driving thru Denver I noticed the sign on the right side of this famous stadium...If I was better at editing pictures, I would add AG in front of EMPOWER FIELD!  Working on the road is most enjoyable when AgEmpowered office has a lovely view and is different each day or two. Here it is in Manitou Springs, a lovely historical town. Tomorrow a hike in the Garden of the Gods after a few hours working on food safety documents.
Stopped by to visit with another friend and colleague, Matt and his family after hiking. Matt represents a food safety auditing software, RizePoint (https://rizepoint.com/). A great time discussing the future of electronic food safety in the age of FDAs "New Era of Smarter Food Safety". (https://www.fda.gov/food/new-era-smarter-food-safety). Headed for Farm #5...California bound, interstate 70 is closed thru Aspen due to a fire...so its highway 50 this trip to meet up with 70 (sorry about the bug splat on the windshield).
Just could not resist another side trip to Zion National Park!
 Worth the time to slow down and visit our National Parks! Of course I pick the hottest day in recorded history to travel across the Nevada desert :( and the smoke! See you in California!
  Overnight stop in a State preserve. Took a long walk alone the Rock River and reflected on this journey. Exactly how I envisioned I would spend this part of my career...helping family farms in all parts of the country! Time to visit Farm #3 after a good nights rest in a quite park. Can’t say I missed the train from the last farm stay, but did miss the sound of the tractors starting up in the morning heading out to harvest the potato fields.  Driving in to Angelic Organics to assist them to fine tuning the farms food safety plan. Angelic Organics is a Community Supported Agriculture farm, growing vegetables and herbs. Check out their website at www.angelicOrganics.com. You will find a fantastic documentary film about the trials and tribulations of Farmer Johns plight to save his family farm. This is exactly why I do what I do. Fight on John Peterson!
Shrine of the Virgin Mary at the Camino y Esperanza. A retreat for Marriage and Family. Many fieldworkers come to pray in the evening.  A beautiful Illinois sunset over the farm  AgEmpowered office on the farm. AMAZING!   Food safety management system ✅  The Farm ✅  The Harvest Crew ✅  The Storage and Distribution ✅  And the HACCP ✅ A BIG SHOUT OUT TO CCI FOR THEIR EXCELLENT SERVICE, EASY SCHEDULING AND SEASONED AUDITORS.  HEAVYCONNECT DASHBOARD AND APP ALLOWED THIS AUDIT PROCESS TO PROCEED WITHOUT A HITCH! GAVE AUDITOR PERMISSION TO SEE REQUESTED DOCUMENTS BEFORE AUDIT DAY. All OTHER DOCUMENTS, REPORTS, RESOURCES AND MORE AVAILABLE FOR AUDIT DAY ORGANIZED AND QUICK TO FIND WITH A CLICK OR SEARCH TAB.  GREAT WORK FARM TEAM!
 Hay and grain crops to feed the large livestock industry here in Utah.  Beautiful big skies in Wyoming and more hay crops and cattle.  The state of corn and soy beans and more corn and more soy beans. Very windy today. Stayed in a wonderful RV camp surrounded by corn and cattle.  I bet you can tell the difference between the GMO corn in the heirloom corn. I found this demonstration in Iowa.  Made it to Illinois and ready to empower Farm number two in their quest to strengthen Food safety and comply to the added requirements of their customers.  Can you identify this crop?
 Weighed my RV on my way out of Farm number one. To my surprise I am 1000 pounds under the GVW! I will have to stop at a farmstand and load up on some yummy local grown produce.
Somewhere Oregon (to keep it confidential like a good consult does 😊). Some beautiful farm pictures and a happy AgEmpowered customer.
Each time I travel I am always amazed at the amount of agriculture land we cultivate in the United States. And I am appreciating it even more now that I am driving through it rather than flying over it. Here is a snippet of my travels this week on my way to my first farm visit. Can you identify the crops?  SALINAS VALLEY, CA  CENTRAL VALLEY, CA  KLAMATH VALLEY, CA  GRASS VALLEY, OR
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