Much of Missouri is a relatively free state. Tons of homesteader types and freedom loving people in rural Missouri.

I love the biodiversity of the Ozarks. I lived in Indiana before and had an experience of living in a toxic mold environment. I became somewhat sensitive even to soybean and corn mono crops presumably because of the mold they carry. Also I wanted to live in a place that had less cultivated monocropping and chemical contamination.

Most of the Ozarks is relatively undisturbed by the plow or pesticides thanks largely to the rocky soil and the terrain. I chose it also in part over the West because I like to be able to grow things, and the drought and water rights issues of the West are something I just didn't want to deal with.

There are places in the north that would otherwise be attractive, but I don't like the short winter days or the harsh winters.

For a long time, we lived in a place where we were very limited as to what we could grow for ourselves. During that time I had a long-term severe health breakdown that no one could seem to find answers to. When we moved from that place, I determined that I wanted to grow a good part of our own food and practice homesteading as a lifestyle.

Also I have been interested in alternative gardening since I was a teenager. I grew up in rural Indiana, we always had our own garden, hunted some etc.