Before he passed in 1993, at the ripe old age of 93, I was privileged to meet the great international quality guru, Dr. W. Edwards Deming at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Following his presentation,he wrote the following at the top of my paper that he signed:

"Keep on learning, study optimization of a system." 

Little did I know that 24 years later, I would be working on optimizing the most important "system" in the 200,000-year history of humanity. I am talking about our food choices in the 21st century and how they impact the ecosystem that sustains us.

If I described to Dr. Deming the predicament in which we find ourselves today, he would sum up our problem with three words: "Leadership, Leadership and Leadership." He would say that because he believed that Leadership regarding any project is more important than everything else combined--and I agree.

During the past four weeks, since my last newsletter, I have posted seven new articles--and six of them were in the category of "Activism and Leadership". Here they are in chronological order:

Elon Musk, "green" energy and beyond...I have written about this man before and have confidence that he could accomplish almost anything he set out to do. I just wish he would set out to save our ecosystem.

Did you know we just added another 100 million? At the current rate of growth, our population will hit 12 billion in 2076. God help us if we don't get our food choices straightened out well before then.

My relentless drum-beat continues. Some complain that I write about the same thing over and over and over again. And I will keep doing that until enough leaders start to listen.

My letter to a U. S. Senator. Subject: Food Choices One of those leaders who is a friend of mine that I have known for over 40 years. He is now a U.S. Senator.

Bill Gates is way off base on MEAT! It's a real tragedy when one of the most influential people in the world is so terribly misguided on such a crucial topic. To conclude that "with a little moderation and more innovation, I do believe the world can meet its need for meat" is shockingly irresponsible.

Do your children know what we're doing to our oceans?This blog contains a 12-minute video about that topic; one that you don't want to miss. Please share it with all of the leaders that you know.

Finally, as an engineer, senior business executive and corporate headhunter, I describe below what I believe to be the most important process in the history of humanity. And I do it on one piece of paper. We should all do whatever we can that best leverages our background and all of our strengths. The project described below achieves that goal for me.

Making complex things simple.In my study of industrial engineering in college, I was taught the importance of making complex things simple. And that's what I have tried to do here--cramming the simple solution to the most critical problem in the history of the world onto one piece of paper. I call it my  One-Page Recipe for Saving our Ecosystem .

Sincerely, J. Morris (Jim) Hicks

My favorite time of day at our mountainside condo in Vermont--early morning on the first fairway.