When all else fails, follow the money!
Leveraging the Power of Capitalism to
Fight Climate Change!
SOS #192 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (1-10-23)
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In a Zoom presentation to the Somerset County of New Jersey Library System last night, I talked a great deal about leveraging the power of food to promote human health.
I also talked about how our animal-based food choices affect climate change -- and shared with the audience how large corporations like Walmart -- while taking steps to improve their own bottom line, could, at the same time, be playing a key role in the rapid downsizing of the leading driver of climate change.
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Let's take Walmart for example. How can they discreetly take steps to improve the physical health of their employees?
A little background. For the past seven years, we have been trying to engage one or more large employers in a project to provide financial incentives for all employees to start making food choices that will improve their own health while saving money for themselves AND for their employer.
They can get that done by simply choosing more plant-based foods and less foods that are products of the animal agriculture industry that comprises the leading driver of climate change.
How much money could Walmart save? Billions. Let's see what would happen if just 10% of their employees started choosing to eat mostly plant-based foods. Here is the key slide from last night's presentation.
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Exactly what is that ARCH system mentioned above? It is an acronym for "automatically reducing the cost of healthcare."
Described below, it is a simple and powerful tool that leverages the dietary assessment capability of our two-minute 4Leaf Survey.
In a nutshell, we know that when people start choosing to eat more whole, plant-based foods, the cost of their healthcare begins to plummet for themselves AND for their employer, who picks up a hefty share of those costs.
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My conclusion after studying this topic for 20 years
We must leverage the power of capitalism
To Fight Climate Change!
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Since we don't have time to change our global economic system, we must figure out a way to leverage capitalism (warts and all) thoughout the world.
A few years later, we leveraged the simple power of that survey to create a "profit-improvement system" that we call ARCH. From the ARCH by 4Leaf page on our website:
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ARCH, an acronym for Automatically Reducing the Cost of Healthcare, is an automated system that can educate, motivate, track and report employee progress. It is aimed at influencing members of any organization to improve their health by incorporating more whole, plant-based foods into their dietary routines.
- We know that when people eat more whole plants, their health improves, they get sick less often, they suffer less from chronic disease and they need fewer medications, screenings and procedures. The net result is that their own cost of healthcare goes down sharply.
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Sadly, ARCH has never been implemented anywhere. It exists only in my mind and in the documents referenced herein. For the past ten years, we have been trying (without success) to engage CEOs of various large employers: Xerox, Staples, Apple and a few others. I wrote this piece about the process in March of 2017.
One close call. Seven or eight years ago, my son Jason and I were close to a deal at Staples, where he was working at the time. After a few meetings with the #2 guy there; that senior officer suddenly left the company.
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Now we're running out time!
After trying to get the attention of the CEO at scores of large corporations for the last seven years, we now want to try somewhat of a "stealth" approach with a large corporation in my own neighborhood.
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Last week, I had an idea for making the ARCH dream happen. While walking around the neighborhood where my new “writing studio” is located in New London, CT, I noticed the engineering campus of the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, pictured here. |
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As an industrial engineer myself, during my walk that day, I decided that I would apply for some kind of part-time role there.
I am envisioning that role as somewhat of a stealth approach for getting inside the corporation -- where I might be able to help them sharply lower one of their largest cost categories of doing business: their cost of healthcare for over 100,000 employees.
As a first step, I sent an unsolicited letter to an email address that I found on their website. Perhaps my letter will make it to the right folks. If it doesn’t, I will try another approach.
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In addition to the process described below, I would eventually offer to sell a large share of the 4LEAF intellectual property to General Dynamics.
Pictured here is the Louisiana, the 18th and last of the Ohio class of ballistic missile submarines in the U.S. Navy. The first commanding officer of that fabulous vessel is a good friend of mine.
While saving hundreds of millions of dollars on healthcare themselves, General Dynamics could profit even further by licensing the powerful ARCH intellectual property to other large corporations which seek to slash their cost of healthcare.
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By the way, the cost of healthcare is a really big deal for most corporations who employ lots of people. Here's how Warren Buffett once described the situation at General Motors:
GM is a health and benefits company with an auto company attached. In fact, it spends more on healthcare than steel, just as Starbucks spends more on healthcare than coffee beans.
With committed leadership from top management, including the CEO, we believe that it is possible to reduce almost any organization's cost of healthcare by 40% or more. But it won't happen without a sincere buy-in from senior leadership.
For the record, with an estimated total cost of healthcare of $1.5 Billion, here's what can happen at General Dynamics. When less than 20% of their employees shift to plant-based eating, the corporation could save an estimated $150 million per year on healthcare.
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The Bottom Line
My recent letter to Electric Boat states my case:
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December 30, 2022
The Corporate Engineering Team
Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics
New London, CT
Dear Madam or Sir,
This will be the most unusual request for an interview & staff position you have ever received. Also, this is the first time I have ever sent any such proposal to any corporation.
I am writing to request a part-time role with Electric Boat in New London, where I will soon be spending much of my time. I walked by your EB engineering offices this morning at sunrise.
My proposal. This engineer would like to be assigned to a part-time staff position as an employee at EB. After reviewing my one-page bio summary and my latest Background CV — let’s arrange for an in-person interview to discuss ideas for how EB (and all of General Dynamics) might be able to improve profitability by over one hundred million dollars a year.
My initial staff position there will give me a chance to personally experience the corporate culture at EB while getting to know many of the executives and other team members.
At the moment, I am a full-time writer, speaker and licensor of several health-promotion tools that I designed.
In the interest of promoting health for humans AND for Earth's ecosystem that keeps us alive — I have been offering our 2015 book (4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health) and our 2020 book (OUTCRY) for free to the international public since August of 2022. You can find links to both books at my home page: hpjmh.com
During our initial interview, I will answer your questions about how we might best leverage my process-improvement career to help General Dynamics lower its annual corporate cost of healthcare by hundreds of millions of dollars. If you want a preview of that process, check out this executive summary that outlines what I have in mind.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely and Happy New Year!
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
JM Hicks
PS: As you can soon figure out from my Background CV, I am 77 years old, in perfect health, take zero medications and have a BMI of slightly over 20. I practice what I preach in my first book that was published in 2011: Healthy Eating, Healthy World
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In closing, an invitation
to a select group of my readers
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Are you among that rare group of humans who are taking climate change and sustainability seriously? If so, I would love to collaborate with you. Contact me: jmorrishicks@me.com.
Here are handy links to my five most-recent SOS Memos (in chronological order) on this same theme. It's always the same theme...as long as our children's futures are in peril.
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Do you want to do your part to help people get healthy...while slowing, stopping or even reversing climate change at the same time? Then, share this SOS Memo and the free books below with everyone you know.
Also, scroll on down to the Big Picture Documents and Video Section where you will find links to a plethora of references regarding the validity and the urgency of the information contained herein.
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FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health. Our planet. Our future as a species.
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Here is the first book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I published with Stuart Scott in 2020. Just click below for individual links to every chapter. |
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To our knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of "outcries" from the natural world, along with consensus conclusions of nine big picture scientists regarding our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future, using today’s technology.
"the most important info in all of humanity
is going undiscussed."
We're talking about the crucial information regarding how we can possibly slow or stop climate change within a few years.
Want to help relieve the desperate situation in which we find ourselves, read OUTCRY as soon as you can and send it to everyone you know. Just click on the book cover above.
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Here is the 2nd book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I wrote with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.
Using the Power of Food
to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet
This compact book is still highly relevant, focusing on helping people take charge of their health and reverse chronic disease by urgently shifting to a whole-food, plant-based way of eating.
A fringe benefit of their efforts is the steady downsizing of the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture. Merely suggesting that the masses cut back on their meat, dairy, egg and fish consumption will accomplish very little.
We want everyone to completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diet. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood.
For your children and grandchildren, just do it!
Please share today's timely SOS with everyone.
Click the image below to hear my recent (May 2022)
45-minute talk regarding much of what has been covered in my recent SOS Memos.
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Finally, please contact me about arranging a FREE "live" Zoom talk for your group. They will get a lot more out of my talk if they have read our two FREE books in advance of my talk.
Sincerely, J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
PS: Scroll on down for more "big picture" information that is mainly in the form of powerful videos, most of which are free.
For a concise summary of "big picture" information about our situation, take a look at the landing page of my primary website that I recently updated. Just click hpjmh.com
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What about the "preservation" of civilization? |
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To clarify, we're not trying to preserve civilization as we know it. Because what we have now is extremely wasteful, harmful and grossly unsustainable. It's an incredibly reckless way of living that is now threatening our very existence as a species.
We're talking about replacing it with an entirely new, ultra-green civilization of the future -- and we do our best to paint a picture of that envisioned way of sustainable living in OUTCRY. For what one Ohio State professor emeritus of history had to say about that book on Amazon, click here.
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As for making our stand on the only planet in the universe capable of keeping us alive, this "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture" Documents & Video Section
Chronological timeline of climate change research
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Also in 2022. A conversation with our creator after a 50,000 year absence.
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Five World-Changing Films
That People Everywhere Must See
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Film #1 in 2014
In 2014, Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn produced their first documentary film Cowspiracy. Executive producer is Leonardo DiCaprio, it runs 90 minutes and has been on Netflix since 2015. In 2020, I met Kip and Keegan in Sedona where I was honored to be able to speak at the same conference with them and other great leaders in this movement like Dr. Sailesh Rao and Dr. Michael Greger.
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Film #3 in 2021
In 2021, Kip Anderson teamed up with British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, to produce Seaspiracy, an 89-minute film that vividly and alarmingly reveals what is at stake when it comes to the crucial importance of our oceans to our future as a species. Most people have no idea regarding the environmental horrors of commercial fishing -- a disgusting industry that kills dolphins by the thousands and tosses them back into the ocean. It runs 90 minutes on Netflix. Click here to view the trailer.
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Film #4 in 2021
As our situation becomes more desperate, the documentary films become more terrifying. As alluded to earlier, we are literally Eating Our Way to Extinction, a process that is vividly covered in this 2021 film (81 minutes). Narrated and produced by Kate Winslet, you can watch this great film on Amazon Prime or on YouTube for $3.99. The great ocean scientist and former head of NOAA, Dr. Sylvia Earle lends powerful credibility to such a crucial topic.
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Film #5 in 2022
This new film (89 minutes) features a young activist who travels around his country, New Zealand in an effort to find out the truth about the horrors of the dairy industry in his native land.
The film uncovers alarming information about the environmental and health impacts of the industry -- leading up to the discovery that we are on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history. This new film is now available for $2.99 on Vimeo.
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Grasping the "Big Picture"
These 2 films will help in understanding
our unprecedented dilemma.
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This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
He brilliantly describes the grossly unsustainable way of living that has brought us to the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. Since I met him in London in 2013, he has become much more serious about the need to abolish the practice of eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish at almost every meal.
Just click on the hourglass image. Dr. Emmott delivers a very compelling message from the stage of a theater in London. This 2013 film is still relevant and will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture."
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Finally, this half-hour video was published in November of 2021. It was produced by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and our survival as a species.
As do practically all researchers, Dowd focuses entirely on the problem; not the solution. I prefer to focus on both.
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What else can you do?
Probably a lot more than you think
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Start with the new documentary (Film #4) mentioned earlier -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix. Watch it often with your friends and family.
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Share this SOS Memo widely: Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities by J. Morris Hicks.
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Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
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Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
- Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.
- As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
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I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested this book that there would be a more robust conversation around the world regarding our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world.
To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.
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The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018. |
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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