And Season’s Greetings to all who don’t celebrate Christmas!

My son and his family cutting their own Christmas tree last year.

2013 has been a very big year for me. After eleven years of study, I have now shifted my primary interest to sustainability and away from the physical health of humans. I suddenly realized that if we humans don’t address our urgent sustainability issues soon, it won’t really matter how healthy we are if Mother Nature is no longer able to keep us alive.

Don’t get me wrong; I am still enjoying a powerful, health-promoting 4Leaf kind of lifestyle and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. It’s just that my primary message is now about what we must do to sustain our civilization and our species longterm. So, during 2013, I have repackaged myself as a sustainability guy for two reasons:

1. It’s much more important that we survive as a species longterm than that we are healthy now.
2. I think that more people are receptive to a sustainability message; particularly when all the science supports the unprecedented planetary emergency described by Dr. Stephen Emmott in his 2013 book, TEN BILLION.

This has been one of my favorite Christmas pictures for years now—one of my own photos of my home in Stonington for the past nine years. I am now living in Stamford, CT.

As a sustainability guy, that’s where most of my public presentations are now focused. I have also signed a contract with an environmental speakers agency. My agent (Paul Zemitzsch) is the founder of Explore Green in St. Louis, MO. Click here to view my page on his site. For more information on my public speaking, visit my Speaking page by clicking here.

So as 2013 draws to a close, I am now primarily recommending that people read three books by three different authors, all of whom I met with in person during the past few months. They are Dr. Stephen Emmott, Lester Brown and Richard Oppenlander. You can read about all three of these books at: Three books every world leader must read NOW!!! And within that blog, there are convenient Amazon links to each of them.

Ending on a very THANKFUL note. 2013 has indeed been a very big year for me. I have expanded my horizons, narrowed my focus and have forged some extraordinary new relationships. By virtue of all of the above, we’re now in a position to develop and launch a well-funded massive global initiative (in 2014) aimed at changing the eating habits of the two billion most affluent humans.

Most of them live in just five areas of the world and are consuming over 70% of the world’s meat. Those areas are: China, Europe, USA, Russia and Brazil. We’ve concluded that if we can get the top two billion people moving in the right direction that the other five billion will follow.

I should note that there are many things that we humans should and must do eventually to preserve Mother Nature’s longterm ability to sustain us. The problem is that many of those actions will take decades, if not centuries, to make much of an impact.

Will be our best year ever.

And with the urgency of climate change and water shortages already happening, it turns out that changing what the world eats is by far the most powerful AND the most expedient when compared to all of the other possible initiatives. You can read about that topic in some of the blogs below.

Scroll down for my favorite Christmas photo of all time. Taken four years ago by my friend Doug Mola of Stonington, CT.

For your convenience, I have provided a few of my recent blogs that focus on the theme of this Christmas Eve message.

• Eating for health or sustainability? Why not BOTH?
• DIRE news re climate change CAN be a good thing…
• Getting philanthropy RIGHT requires SYSTEMIC fixes.
• The CERTAINTY of global warming and water scarcity…
• James Cameron—on “Walking the Walk”

From Wadawanuck Square in Stonington, CT (by Doug Mola)

Handy 5-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.
• Dr. Campbell’s new book: WHOLE, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

Why should we be eating mostly plants? The “big picture” in 4 minutes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, visit our 4Leaf page and also enjoy some great recipes from Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation