Perennial lack of clarity and the never-ending bombardment of confusion

That’s my definition of the NEWS and just about every other form of human activity. And that’s why we never solve our most serious problems, because all of our attention is focused elsewhere.

Remembering Pareto. In college, I studied Industrial Engineering and the most powerful thing that I learned was this:

When examining ANY system or problem, the identification of the “vital few” is of paramount importance. For there is always a “vital few” twenty percent of the items that will account for a disproportionately large portion of the total. And that is where you must focus your attention. — The J. Morris Hicks definition of Pareto’s Law, better known as the 80-20 rule.

“The single most important thing we do is deciding what to eat.” — J. Morris Hicks

So what are the vital few when it comes to human health, environmental health and sustainability? Conveniently, for all concerned, the vital few in this case is ONE—what we choose to eat. And it drives practically everything:

1. It determines how the entire planet is used—most of its land and water.
2. It is the single most important thing when it comes to human health.
3. It is the primary driver of every environmental problem that we have today.
4. “Getting it right” is crucial to the sustainability of our ecosystem, our civilization and the longterm survival of our species.

“We’re eating the wrong food!” That was my conclusion in 2003 after researching the optimal diet for humans for six months. So why are our mainstream scientists, physicians, government officials, medical schools and schools of nutrition not teaching every human the complete truth about the single most important thing that we do? The short answer is money. There is more money to be made by keeping the public confused and sick. Two recent examples:

The Ice Bucket Challenge. The only way you would not know about this phenomenon is if you were in a coma for the past few weeks. God bless them for raising awareness and funding for this worthy cause—but let’s take a look as some facts and put things in perspective.

According to the ALS website, some 30,000 Americans have ALS. That is less than 1/100th of one percent of our population. Further, 93% of those who have it are caucasian. So that means that more than 99.99% of the US population do NOT have it and almost ZERO African Americans have it.

Laura dumps ice on W

I don’t mean to criticize anyone’s favorite cause, including ALS. However, I would prefer to channel MY charitable dollars AND my time to working on issues that affect EVERY single human—including the 30,000 in the USA who have ALS.

What affects ALL humans? I’m talking about sustainability of our ecosystem, and ultimately, our future as a species. We simply must learn to live in harmony with nature—and that will be impossible as long as we continue to consume lots of meat, dairy, eggs & fish. We’ll also NEVER eliminate chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes until we start eating the natural diet for our species.

One thing I like about the Ice Bucket Challenge is that it illustrates how quickly information can be spread around the world. I would just like to see us focus most of our energy on saving the entire human race instead of just 1/100th of one percent of the American population. — J. Morris Hicks

What do we know about e-cigarettes? Not much. That’s what a medical doctor said on the CBS morning show today. “We don’t yet know enough about the effects of E-cigarettes on the user and those near the user.” But far more importantly…

We (our mainstream experts) also don’t know enough about the longterm effects of eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish three meals a day. Our “experts” are clueless regarding how that diet-style affects our health, our ecosystem and our longterm survival as a species

The Bottom Line. The innocent public throughout the world deserve to hear the complete truth about what we must do to preserve our ecosystem and our civilization for those who follow us.

But NONE of our mainstream leaders are telling us!

Ending on a quote from General Patton. “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” Ditto for sustainability. — J. Morris Hicks

• Source of ALS data. Who Gets ALS? – The ALS Association.
• They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned…Most humans think that life has never been better on this planet. Reminds me of Easter Island. 4-19-14.
• My blog of 1-25-14. NOTHING is more important than SUSTAINABILITY!
• My blog of 2-26-14. We’re never going to solve our biggest problem until a few powerful leaders make it their #1 priority. “Living in Harmony with Nature” by Ted Turner
• My blog of 8-2-11. The old 80-20 rule when it comes to sustainabilityMy blog of 4-9-12.
•  The daunting task of moving the world to plant-based. Could anything be more difficult? Yes! If the entire world was already eating plant-based, moving in the other direction would be much more difficult.

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

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.

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