If everyone switched to 100% plant-based overnight?

After reading my 4th of July post about INDEPENDENCE from our grossly unsustainable lifestyle, a reader writes with this question.

Hi Jim, I was talking to a friend about your work and she asked, “Wouldn’t the economy fall apart and create major havoc if on a large scale people switched quickly to a plant-based diet?” Do you have any writing to answer this concern? Best to you. -Denise.

We humans must learn to live IN the Earth as a part of nature—not ON the Earth and trying to control nature. These kinds of human activities are not sustainable.

I wrote back. Hi Denise, Your friend’s question is a common one. And yes, the economy would collapse if EVERYONE switched to plant-based overnight. But that will never happen. 

Even with a MASSIVE global awareness campaign, the change will take 5 or 10 years at best, not 5 or 10 days. And the world markets will have no trouble responding and reinventing themselves. Markets will always deliver what consumers are demanding. And, like smoking, some people will never change until it becomes a capital offense to produce animal-based foods, a law that will someday become a reality.

Sure, jobs will be lost, but jobs will also be gained and the savings in healthcare can be applied to the estimated $18 trillion needed to finance a twenty-year project to replace fossil fuels with renewables. And that effort will certainly create millions of new jobs.

Giving Mother Nature a hand…

And then there’s the new industry of reforesting those billions of acres of land that were cleared to raise livestock and/or grow feed for them. 

All of the above will be a beautiful thing to witness—and I hope to be spending my golden years doing just that. It will be great fun to hear about the steady improvements in all the environmental indicators as well as the news about the plummeting cost of healthcare along with the fairly rapid end of world hunger.

As Charles Eisenstein says in his book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible—will gradually start to become a reality in our lifetimes. I am reading his book now and have found it to be very enjoyable and thought-provoking. He talks about the need for the human species to learn how to live IN the Earth, as a part of nature, instead of living ON the Earth and trying to control nature.  Be well, Jim

A special thanks to my friend Marlin in Germany who told me about this book.

I have not quite finished reading this book yet, but have read enough to recommend it. He doesn’t single out our food choices but says that virtually ALL human activities are contributing to climate change and ALL of the other environmental disasters we are witnessing. Click here to purchase on Amazon. I have it on my iPhone Kindle reader and plan to finish it later today at the beach.

One hour later. Still haven’t finished the book, but found this passage from the chapter entitled REALITY. After talking about the despair that all activists eventually experience, he talks about the way that realistic vision can become a reality. It’s been said that if we can conceive a solution, then it can happen. Although I feel despair at times, I continue to believe in a real vision for the future of humanity. Eisenstein writes:

Charles Eisenstein

The first step in creating change, then, is to receive a vision that feels true. The second step is to heal the wounds and doubts that that vision illuminates. Without doing that, we will be conflicted, simultaneously enacting both the new story and the old one that accompanies the wounds. The third step is to bow into service to that which wants to be born. This process is not linear. Usually, the vision comes more and more into focus as we heal the doubts that obscure it; that, in turn, allows us to enter more deeply into its service.

Deeper service, in turn, brings up new dimensions of the vision along with deeper wounds. The path of service is a path of self-realization. When we are in service to something that is real, when we speak of it our words have power. Others can feel its reality too. That is why some people have the seemingly magical ability to speak things into existence. When they say such-and-such is going to happen, everyone believes it is going to happen, even if its happening depends on everyone believing it will happen.

Recent blogs on this topic:

• Happy 4th of July! Let’s make this one memorable as we declare INDEPENDENCE from an unsustainable lifestyle.
• Reduce Livestock. Reforest the Land. Sequester GHG.
• “Living in Harmony with Nature” by Ted Turner
• SUSTAINABILITY. Our generation’s responsibility.
• NOTHING is more important than SUSTAINABILITY!
• Are humans the “infestation” of planet Earth?
• “Infestation” IS the best word—if it gets your attention

The following five books and one DVD can be purchased on Amazon for a grand total of less than $60—and will enable you to understand the overwhelming challenges we face—along with the single most-powerful solution of all.

Six-Pack from Hicks—for health, hope & harmony on planet Earth

1. Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
2. A life changer for millions, including James Cameron. Forks Over Knives DVD 
3. An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell; the primary book that influenced Bill Clinton to adopt a whole food, plant-based diet.
4. What have we done to our planet? Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown
5. A horrifying wake-up call for leaders. TEN BILLION by Dr. Stephen Emmott
6. Food choices are the primary cause of our environmental problems, yet our world leaders, scientists & experts are Comfortably Unaware, by Richard Oppenlander.

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 2 or 3 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

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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.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member since 2012; click banner for more info: