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Urgently Needed!
"Lifestyle" as Medicine for the Planet
SOS #288 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (7-17 -24)
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My entire career has prepared me for this moment.
I was recently asked to speak on the topic of "Lifestyle as Medicine for the Planet." Thanks to that request, I have taken the time to analyze my professional background since I chose to major in Industrial and Systems Engineering in college over a half-century ago.
In a nutshell, my professional career has been all about improving processes and saving money for my employers and my clients. Toward the end of that career, I literally stumbled upon the greatest process improvement opportunity in the history of humanity.
Here's the title slide for my upcoming talk. Let me know if you would like for me to share this story with your group -- either in person or via Zoom.
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As for the "sickness" of our planet, what kind of medicine does it need to fully recover? | |
By the middle of my sophomore year at Auburn University, I had decided that Industrial Engineering was the curriculum for me. It was all about improving processes and making all "systems" more efficient.
And that choice of curriculum came with a huge bonus: almost 24 total months (alternating quarters) of working in the Mechanical Engineering department of Southern Railway in Washington, DC, and Atlanta, Georgia.
| After graduating from Auburn in 1968, I attended Officer Candidate School at Yorktown, Virginia, and in January of 1969, I was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Coast Guard. | |
As for the "overseas" stint during Vietnam referenced above, I was assigned to Base Honolulu, where one of my collateral duties was overseeing the various retail operations at that base on Sand Island, in the middle of Honolulu Harbor. And that was where I first put my "process improvement" skills to work.
Shortly after leaving the Coast Guard, I joined a management consulting company, Kurt Salmon Associates, that was later acquired by Accenture. I spent nine years there and racked up a host of process-improvement projects as mentioned here.
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A few years later, while as Executive Vice President of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, I encountered a host of process improvement opportunities throughout that large corporation.
It was during that era that I worked with Bill Conway, the founder of Conway Quality and an ardent promoter of the process improvement work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming.
While working at Polo, I had the distinct pleasure of attending one of Deming's final seminars in Washington, DC, in May of 1990. After his lecture that day at George Washington University, I got in line to ask Dr. Deming to autograph a one-page document that I had created at Polo.
It was entitled "The Deming Process at Polo." Dr. Deming, at the age of 90, would not sign it until he read every single word. Then he wrote carefully and slowly at the top right corner:
Keep on learning. Study optimization of a system.
W. Edwards Deming
|  | After I got home, I framed that one-pager above. It still enjoys a prime spot in my closet/dressing room. I see it every day. | |
Phase Three of my career began in 1999. After growing weary and frustrated working for other people, I launched my own executive search firm in Atlanta in 1999, with partners in Chicago, Dallas and New York.
The cool thing about owning the firm was that I was completely free to pursue any kind of topic that might present itself.
| From 1999 to mid 2001, we were off to a great start. Then came the 9-11 tragedy. It was during the aftermath of that tragedy that I was lucky to encounter the greatest process improvement opportunity EVER. Here's that story... | |
While we were trying to figure out a way to stay afloat in the aftermath of 9-11, I stumbled upon a life-changing opportunity -- one that resulted in the launch of Phase Four of my career.
It is a career phase that will not end until I perish. This slide summarizes what happened:
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As the final bullet above states, the "Get a Life" seminars never happened, but the knowledge I gained during that transition changed my life forever.
Fortunately, that period instilled a passion in me for spending the rest of my life working on the most important process-improvement opportunity in the history of humanity: the process of shepherding humanity back to the natural way of eating for our species.
Here is a summary of Phase Four:
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After publishing my first book in 2011, I had been thinking about the definition of a way of eating that promotes optimal health in humans while -- at the same time -- promotes optimal health for the ecosystem that keeps us alive.
So, how do I describe the "optimal" way of eating? Enter the two-minute, self scoring, 12-question, multiple choice survey featured below.
| Appearing below in the next two slides is everything that appears on that one page survey. It will be easier to read if you click this link: The 2019 Version of the 4Leaf Survey. | By answering 12 multiple choice questions, our little survey enables us to estimate fairly accurately the percentage of one's daily food calories that are derived from whole, plant-based foods. | What about validation? This unsolicited input from Dr. T. Colin Campbell is good enough for me. This survey has now been administered millions of times around the world. |  | |
As for validation -- far less than one percent have complained about its accuracy. Those complaints came from plant-based physicians who were skeptical since they only scored at the 3Leaf level on our survey.
Bear in mind that the 3Leaf level falls within the estimated 3% of all humans who are deriving more than 60% of their diets from whole, plant-based foods. Nevertheless, to address those complaints, we made it a little easier for them to score at the 4Leaf level in the 2019 revision of the 4Leaf Survey.
Visit 4leafprogram.com where you will find vast amounts of information regarding our 4Leaf Survey, now available in ten languages.
The Remainder of this SOS Memo focuses on the crucial necessity of all of humanity shifting to plant-based eating.
Here are two "ambitious initiatives" for getting that done. Just visit hpjmh.com to find the links to those initiatives.
|  |  | Because very few people are ever fully aware of what the human species should be eating. Here's one common problem that we still hear about all the time. | To be sure, rapid downsizing of the global animal agriculture industry is no easy task. Here are ten reasons why: | These final five factors focus on the widespread ignorance in the world -- along with the politics involved. | The ten issues above are all very serious -- and they are all extremely difficult to overcome. | Before I end this SOS Memo, I want to tell you about my experience with VP Joe Biden -- eight years ago. It was not a joyful time for me OR for Dr. T. Colin Campbell. | |
This photo of that HUGE, poster-sized letter of my letter to VP Biden was taken earlier this month in my kitchen. As it is impossible to read, here are a few key paragraphs: | |
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The Bottom Line
As for Joe Biden, there is no politician alive who would have acted any differently. None of them would ever be elected again if they took a stand against the wildly popular, Standard American Diet -- the SAD!
For the record, this is the first time I have summarized all of this crucial information in one place. Finally, as a career process improvement consultant, it all boils down to this crucial conclusion:
I am near certain that there is only one action that can possibly buy us enough time to downsize the world's animal agriculture industry by at least 50% before 2030.
That one action is urgently promoting a process that convinces hundreds of millions of people to start choosing plant-based foods over animal-based foods. Four reasons:
- For their health
- For their bank account
- For the biosphere that keeps us alive
- For the billions of innocent children in the world...
Here is a link to this Ambitious Initiative:
Game Plan 2024 for Reversing Climate Change
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I will end today with these two key points regarding the singular importance of an urgent, global shift toward plant-based eating:
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ONE: We know from two alarming peer-reviewed studies, that animal agriculture is, by far, the leading driver of climate change -- and that it is larger than all other drivers combined. You can find links to those peer-reviewed studies in this Appendix that appears below all of my SOS Memos.
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TWO: It is also the only driver of climate change that is driven purely by individual food choices three times a day. It's real simple: It's simply what we choose to eat! We don't need permission from any government to start making the right choice. So, let's just do it already!
I recently began closing each of my SOS Memos with two initiatives that, if implemented, would comprise the best possible chance for guaranteeing a pleasant life for all of the children of the world. These two initiatives also appear at the top of my landing page at hpjmh.com.
For your convenience, here are links to both initiatives:
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Initiative #1
Game Plan 2024 for
Reversing Climate Change
This initiative is all about waking up the sane and responsible wing of the global news media to the need for non-stop reporting of the greatest crisis in the history of humanity. In order to get that done, we are striving to leverage the knowledge, fame and influence of Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, arguably the most influential city in the world.
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Initiative #2
How Corporate Wellness at Amazon
can Promote Sustainability
This initiative is all about a long-envisioned consulting project that has not happened -- YET. As a systems engineer and a former process improvement consultant, I began trying to sign our very first corporate client over fifteen years ago.
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Regarding the above initiatives, the first one could happen more rapidly -- just as soon as we convince Mayor Adams to make it happen. Please check out these two initiatives and contact me if you would like to discuss.
Sincerely, Jim
PS: Someone asked me recently why I repeat myself from week to week in these memos. It's because I'm trying to make sure that each message can be fully understood by all first-time SOS readers.
J. Morris Hicks — hpjmh.com
500 Bank Street, Suite 215
New London, CT 06320
jmorrishicks@me.com
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End of this SOS Memo
Scroll down for more information
on this most urgent topic.
But first, please take the time to watch this FREE, 35-minute video. Then share it widely. At the one-minute mark, a scientist at the University of Oxford sums up our situation succinctly:
"If we don't address what we eat, we simply won't make it."
Essential Facts version:Eating Our Way to Extinction
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Next Up: The China Study documentary. Just before publishing the John Mackey SOS Memo on 6-11-24, I watched the excellent video below -- a 30-year-old documentary that illustrates the failures of our institutions to tell the global public the complete truth about our FOOD.
Shamefully, for many decades, Cornell, other schools of nutrition and hundreds of governments have withheld the TRUTH about our food choices from the public.
Had they shared that truth long ago, we may very well NOT be facing runaway climate change today. Click the image below to watch this 55-minute China Study video documentary.
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How can YOU make a difference?
1st: Become a healthy vegan -- making sure that over 80% of your calories are derived from whole, plant-based foods. As such, you will be doing your part in dismantling the leading driver of climate change: global animal agriculture. As a personal bonus, you will get healthier, eliminate most prescription drugs, lose weight and save money at the same time.
2nd: Start "walking the talk" of sustainable living. Let your actions do the talking for your friends and family. My thoughts on that process are in this updated SOS Memo #200 from early 2023, when I moved into my delightful 443 square feet, about halfway between New York and Boston -- on the busiest passenger rail line in the USA.
3rd: Check out the FREE stuff in the appendix below and start sharing all of this info with your friends & family.
4th: Schedule a FREE Zoom call with me and your group. Contact me at jmorrishicks@me.com to arrange.
In the APPENDIX below, you can read about what we must do to understand much more about the climate dilemma in which we find ourselves -- along with what it will likely take to prevent a collapse of civilization.
This appendix can help you get that done:
Appendix to SOS Memos
(lots of data, FREE books, scientific reports, videos & more)
You can join my mailing list and find all previous
postings by visiting this SOS Memos page.
Again, my primary website is hpjmh.com -- featuring a powerful summary that appears on the landing page. Click the link below for my one-page bio summary:
J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy.
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Want to get started nurturing your own health
and the health of our planet?
Take our dietary survey at 4leafsurvey.com (2 min). With your answers to 12 multiple choice questions, the survey provides an estimate as to what percent of your daily calories are being derived from whole, plant-based foods.
Over 80% from whole plants = "4Leaf Level" of eating
(The average American or European gets less than 7%)
Click to learn all about this dietary assessment tool:
About the 4Leaf Survey
For much more about 4Leaf, visit 4leafprogram.com
Also: Link to the FREE e-copy of the The 4Leaf Guide
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