J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy.

Simple? YES! —– Easy? NO!

J. Morris Hicks speaking to the sixth graders in New London, CT in April of 2013.

In April of 2013, I came up with the Food Math 101 concept while preparing to speak to a 6th grade class in New London, CT. It was part of an effort to present powerful, irrefutable evidence supporting a plant-based diet—in addition to our own health benefits that come with it.

Recently, I have been speaking about the fact that we’re the ONLY species out of millions who can’t figure out what we should be eating. To me, it’s a blinding flash of the obvious—even without considering the health benefits.

In fact, even if the typical western (meat-based) diet were the absolute healthiest way for humans to eat, it wouldn’t really matter—because it is grossly unsustainable for much longer. Even 3rd graders seem to have no trouble understanding most of the information in Food Math 101. It is imperative that we eventually stop eating animals altogether for our longterm survival as a species. Right now, the enormous health benefits of doing it sooner rather than later—is just a HUGE bonus.

To me, it all boils down to the global depletion of three finite resources needed to produce our food. Land, water and energy; with the first two being the most precious and most crucial to our survival. Most of the data in this blog can be found in the “Hicks Six-Pack” provided below.

In my research of many books and articles by the likes of Dr. Pimentel, Emmott, Oppenlander, Lester Brown and others, I choose not to use specific numbers like 12,000 gallons of water for a pound of beef—because every researcher comes up with slightly different numbers and it gets confusing for the reader.

Therefore, I prefer to use conservative ranges that are not only powerful, but also easy to remember AND easier to defend. You will see those kinds of ranges below.

Most of us are focused on relatively trivial news stories but pay zero attention to the far more important issue: the almost certain collapse of our civilization before the end of the century. We hear NOTHING about the stories in RED on this list—things that have happened in just 19 days.

Food Math 101. The numbers behind our typical western diet of meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish three meals a day—are simply not adding up. Here is a list of points that I would make to any group of all ages—beginning at age 12.

Twelve points for 12-year olds

1. On average, meat, dairy, and egg calories require over ten times as much land, ten times as much water AND ten times as much energy—as do plant-based calories.

2. How much arable farmland do we have? Roughly 8 billion acres which equals about six billion football fields?

3. How many football fields does it take to feed one person the typical western diet? TWO.

4. How many people eating a plant-based diet could be fed with that same amount of land? FOURTEEN.

Two football fields can feed ONE person the typical western diet OR FOURTEEN people a plant-based diet.

5. So with a total of six billion football fields, we could theoretically feed 42 billion people a plant-based diet—or only 3 billion people the typical western diet. In the latter case, the remaining 4 billion people would all starve to death.

6. Today, according to FAO records, 72% of all beef, pork and chicken is consumed by just five regions of the world: China, Europe, USA, Brazil and Russia. To support their incredibly wasteful habits, these five are robbing land and water from the rest of the worlds humans and from the rest of the world’s millions of species of creatures. All of this is driving a rate of species extinction that is more than 1,000 times the normal rate.

7. Only about two billion humans (out of 7.1 B total) are currently eating the typical western diet, but many more are moving in that direction everyday. According to my own extrapolation of the FAO numbers—for every person in the USA or Europe that is moving toward a plant-based diet, there are ten people in the developing world who are beginning to eat more meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish.

8. It gets worse. Every single day, the world’s population surges by another 230,000 people and every single year, we lose an area the size of South Carolina to erosion. At the same time, Dr. Emmott predicts that the world must produce more food in the next 40 years than the grand total of all food that has been produced during the past 10,000 years.

9. Even worse, in order to make room for more cattle, since 1970, we’ve destroyed over 20 million acres of our precious rainforest every year. That’s a total of approximately one billion acres of rainforest (the lungs of the Earth)—gone forever. How much land is that? An area about the size of ALL farmland in the entire United States. (Census of Agriculture, 2007)

10. What about water? Over 70% of the world’s finite supply of fresh water is used for agriculture, with over 70% of that number dedicated to growing animal-based foods for those two billion wealthiest people.

Over half the fresh water being used throughout the world could be saved by a simple shift to a plant-based diet for all humans.

11. Today, over one billion people are thirsty and that number is growing everyday. A huge part of the problem is our dependence on underground aquifers that are being pumped dry all over the world—to provide water for livestock to drink and to grow their food.

As Lester Brown points out in “Full Planet, Empty Plates,” we’re currently draining aquifers in 18 countries, where over half the world’s population resides. After taking billions of years to fully charge those aquifers, we’re wiping them out in less than 200 years. When they are gone—they are gone forever and crops can no longer be grown on the land above them.

12. Energy and global warming. If running out of land and water is not enough to convince you that “we’re eating the wrong food,” then let’s take a quick look at energy and global warming. According to World Bank scientists Goodland and Anhang, our global demand for animal-based foods is responsible for at least 51% of all human-induced global warming—more than ALL other causes combined.

The Bottom Line. As the world runs out of food and water, our human civilization will eventually collapse. Emmott and Brown agree that, unless radical changes are made, that collapse will occur well before the end of this century. The good news is that there is a powerful solution, right under our noses. It’s what we put in our mouths three meals a day. It’s the FOOD!

The ONLY viable pathway to the longterm sustainability of our civilization is the widespread adoption of a whole food, plant-based diet. — J. Morris Hicks

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. — John Muir

Want to become an activist and help save our civilization? Here’s the Activism Kit that I gave to a group of Holy Cross college students on March 19, 2014. Notice #6? I am serious, once you know enough about the horrible impacts of our typical western way or eating, how could you possibly NOT become an activist? All of the suggested books and videos shown here are also in my Six-Pack from Hicks just beneath this slide.

A few earlier links for your convenience:

• The blog following my Holy Cross presentation that included all the above slides.
• 2- minute VIDEO in My April, 2013, blog about my presentation to the 6th graders.
• NOTHING is more important than sustainability.

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:

The inspiration behind this blog was a request by Victoria Moran (Main Street Vegan) to write an article about how I became plant-based and what changes I had noticed in my life. See my note beneath her picture at the end of this blog, where you may also listen to our radio discussion from March 12, 2014. Here’s my article:

Former Ralph Laruen executive’s shift to plant-based eating leads to new career as author, speaker, blogger, consultant and activist.

In the autumn of 2002, I became curious about the optimal diet for humans. No medical issues. Not fat. Just curious.

So I began with a search for the author of a health book that I’d read a dozen years earlier. When I found his new book, Amazon suggested three others for me to consider. One thing led to another and by mid 2003—after reading 30 or 40 books—I had concluded that a whole food, plant-based diet was the optimal diet for human health.

From 1987 to 1994, I didn’t learn much about diet, health or sustainability from Ralph, but I did learn a lot about vision, integrity and leadership.

Then, I read two more books that focused on how our food choices affect the environment, world hunger, and the suffering of animals. Suddenly, I had what I called my “blinding flash of the obvious” saying loudly to myself, “Oh my God, we’re eating the wrong food!”

How about making a living with my new knowledge? Having learned that most chronic disease could be easily prevented or even reversed with an optimal diet, I decided to leverage my consulting and executive background to assist large corporations in lowering their out-of-control cost of healthcare. Although that particular business idea has yet to bear much fruit, many other things have.

During the past ten years, I have made it my business to get to know the leaders of the plant-based movement. And, when I published my book in 2011, all three experts who influenced Bill Clinton to go “plant-based” in 2010—provided endorsements: T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish. Also, in 2012, I had the honor of being invited to join the board of directors of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

There’s more. Since starting a blog in February of 2011, I have posted well over 800 articles—all still here at hpjmh.com. And as the book and blog picked up steam, I began to get paid speaking engagements and have had opportunities to meet with powerful world leaders like James Cameron, Ted Turner and Biz Stone. When well-known leaders start making enough noise, more people will learn what we must do to preserve Mother Nature’s ability to sustain us as a species. What could be more important than that?

Last but not least, in early 2014, I was part of a small group that launched The Plantrician Project — a not-for-profit with a powerful mission: to educate, equip and empower medical practitioners to embrace true “health reform.”

That means actually promoting health instead of just managing disease—bringing back the ancient wisdom of Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” (plantrician.org debuts in April, 2014.)

Bottom Line. My new way of eating has exceeded my wildest dreams. I have found my major definite purpose in life, launched a brand new career and have never been happier.

Bonus Time. I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t sick or fat before changing my diet, but maybe I was sicker than I thought. Within a year of shifting to the WFPB diet, I lost about twenty pounds, got sick less often, began to sleep much better and noticed an improvement in my performance in the bedroom — to name just a few.

Victoria Moran of Main Street Vegan

Thank You Main Street Vegan. Part of this article may someday appear in a new book that Victoria is currently writing. She made this request after I had appeared on her weekly radio show on March 12, 2014. Click here if you’d like to listen (slightly less than one hour in total).

For more details about background, career, Ralph Lauren, etc., click here: From Polo to Plant Food — My Story

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.

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