I begin today with a special greeting: Happy Birthday to my beautiful and wonderful daughter Diana, who was named after the Roman Goddess of the Moon. That's because she was born during a rare total eclipse of the full moon in Atlanta in 1979. She still lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and two adorable daughters. They, and my other grandchildren, are the primary inspiration for what I do.

Named after the location of our first HQ office in the Ansley Park section of Atlanta, with this tagline: Delivering value well beyond executive search.

During the first few years, business was great for our new firm -- as we established offices in Chicago, New York, Dallas and Memphis. Then after 9-11-2001, there was absolutely no business. Companies everywhere were overcome with fear.

It was obvious to all of us in the firm that we needed to figure out a way to generate revenue. After a few brainstorming sessions, we came up with the idea of conducting one-day seminars in Atlanta several times a month -- a location where over half the USA population could fly in for a day trip via the world's busiest airport.

Since we were in the executive search business, we decided to focus on all the unemployed executives along with other executives who were simply unhappy or unfulfilled in their current roles.

The seminar idea popped into my head after I spoke to a group of Georgia Tech Alumni who were looking for their next career opportunity. My talk on the Georgia Tech campus that night was entitled:

Listed below are those seven secrets that I shared with a few hundred job-seeking alumni at that dinner on the Tech campus.

The written response that I received from dozens of those out-of-work Tech grads was amazing. Their responses convinced us that the "Get a Life" theme for those one-day seminars was a winner. I still think that those seminars would have been great, but what I ended up doing instead was more rewarding.

Here's why those seminars didn't happen. In preparation for conducting them, each of us in the ACG took one of the seven topics listed above and started doing a little research.

I chose to focus on the second one in the list above: Get Serious About Health. I began my research by going back to Harvey and Marilyn Diamond who had written the first health book that I had read about fifteen years earlier. It was entitled "Fit for Life" and had helped me greatly.

So, in the early days of online shopping, I went to Amazon and found that people who liked Fit For Life, also bought several other books. I then googled the "optimal diet for humans" and began reading everything I could find on that topic from A to Z (Adkins to Zone).

Between January and May of 2003, I read some thirty books and had concluded that the optimal diet for human health was best summarized by Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell: The closer we get to eating a diet of whole, plant-based foods, the better off we will be.

Then came the bombshell. Over Memorial Day weekend in 2003, I read two more books that changed my life forever. Those two are pictured below on this slide that I use in my public talks.

As for that blinding flash of the obvious, In these two books, I learned all about the environmental impacts of eating animal-based foods and suddenly realized that, on a per calorie basis, it takes at least ten times as much land, water and energy to produce animal-based foods as compared to plant based.

And I also learned that animal-based foods comprised, by far, the leading driver of climate change. At the end of that weekend, I shouted out loud to myself:

That revelation took place over nineteen years ago and it has consumed most of my thinking and my work ever since. When you stumble across the most important topic in the history of humanity, you can't just walk away from it; particularly, if no one in authority seems to be aware of terrible repercussions of humans everywhere eating the wrong foods.

So, I did not walk away from it. I embraced it and made it my business to get to know all of the players in the field of sustainable eating -- a delicious way of eating that promotes health for ourselves and for our planet. People like T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, John Robbins, Howard Lyman, John McDougall, Neal Barnard, Joel Fuhrman, Sailesh Rao, Robert Goodland, Jeff Anhang, Gerard Bisshop, James Cameron and many others.

A few of them are pictured below in one of the slides from my public talks, including Dr. Dean Ornish who helped President Bill Clinton learn how to reverse many food-driven diseases that were plaguing him at the time.

Sadly, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and no other well-known elected officials have ever spoken out loudly about the horrible environmental impacts of billions of people eating animal based foods. Why haven't they? Because it would not be good for their popularity.

Importantly, I am 99.9% certain that we will not be able to stop climate change or even slow it a little bit -- unless we begin walking quickly (preferably running swiftly) away from eating animal-based foods. It's the only major game-changer that can be executed quickly, easily and inexpensively by individual citizens all over the globe.

But that is simply not happening! No one in authority -- anywhere -- is even talking about it. Why not? Partly because of ignorance, but primarily because it would not be good for business and it would not be good for their own popularity or for their positions of prominence on the world stage.

For example, Al Gore knows the truth about food choices but is too selfish to admit it -- knowing that such an admission would end his gig as one of "the world's favorite environmentalists," right up there with Sir David Attenborough.

One more anecdote on this topic. During the year that I discovered the healing, health promoting powers of whole, plant-based eating, my doctor told me that it was about time for me to start taking a statin drug for the rest of my life. But, I had already noticed that my body had started taking care of business on its own, thanks to my rapid dietary change.

So, I opted not to take the drug -- and now, over 20 years later, I am still drug free. I also quit having annual physicals since realizing that I knew more about truly promoting health than MDs learn in med school. But, alas, I actually had a physical exam this year. United Healthcare (free via Medicare) sent a physician to my home in Vermont to conduct my first ever house-call physical. The physician was amazed at my overall health, saying that all of my numbers were perfect.

Don't get me wrong. I still go to doctors when needed -- like the time five years ago when I almost died from a pulmonary embolism. You can read that story here. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn told me afterwards that my superior diet had saved my life.

Latest update to my one-page bio summary. During my road trip out West with my son, Jason, and oldest grandson, Collin, last week, I sat in the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon (pictured here) and updated the summary that I have provided below for your convenience.

The one-pager that follows summarizes all of the above in just a few short paragraphs and announces my full-time availability to work on this topic -- anytime and anywhere.

I was fortunate enough to literally stumble upon many world changing truths. It is now my responsibility to share those truths at the highest possible levels for the rest of my life.

Everything in this one-page document articulates what I now believe to be my major definite purpose in life. Read it. Share it. Invite me to speak for FREE to your group via Zoom.

He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University and an MBA from the University of Hawaii, a degree he earned while serving as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu. In 2009, he earned a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, where he served on the board of directors for six years.

His long-term vision began emerging in three books that he has authored since 2011. The first was Healthy Eating, Healthy World which was followed in 2015 by the 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health that he co-authored with a medical doctor. Then, in 2020, he published OUTCRY, Urgent Alarms from Our Planet and What We Can Do About Them.

Since then, Jim’s work has primarily been aimed at waking up the leaders of the world to the fact that animal agriculture is the leading driver of climate change – and that it is the only driver than can easily be disabled by individual citizens who simply begin choosing plant-based foods that promote both physical and environmental health. In that ongoing effort, he has posted over 1400 health and sustainability articles at hpjmh.com

Tragically, as of 2022, the truth about animal agriculture is hardly ever mentioned by world leaders or by the global media – both of which have zero incentive to promote a dietary shift that would, at first, be unpopular – and not good for business in general. As a result, J. Morris Hicks continues to search for a handful of powerful visionary leaders who have the courage to just do what’s right, and in so doing, they will be jump-starting the global process of promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

The main problem, as I see it, is that there are very few people in the developed world who want to learn about the dirty little secrets behind their favorite foods. They like the way their mothers taught them to eat and they do not want to change. It's as simple as that.

During our 3700 mile roadtrip last week, I was reminded of just what a challenge it is to find true, health-promoting and planet-saving foods in the vast majority of eating establishments in the USA. Exasperated with the menu at one place in Oregon, I finally asked for an order of French fries and a sliced tomato.

Where does all of this leave us? Sadly, many big-picture thinkers are predicting a total collapse of our civilization well before the end of this century and a growing number are predicting a collapse prior to 2030. What will it take to wake us up to the obvious?

Here's a link to a scary new, one hour video by a "big picture" scientist who relies totally on the peer-reviewed journal literature but fails to recognize the supreme importance of humanity moving rapidly to 100% plant-based eating. In fact, he scoffs at the idea and is predicting that our civilization will collapse in less than ten years and that almost all humans will perish due to a lack of habitat necessary to keep us alive.

I have been writing and speaking about this topic for almost two decades and am deeply saddened by the fact that absolutely NO ONE in authority, ANYWHERE, is even talking about the most important situation in the history of humanity: Our rapid demise as a species and what we can do about it.

If more people choose to read our two FREE books below, the more free Zoom calls I will book -- and the more people will be able to hear this all-important message about what we can all do to maximize our chances for survival as a species.

Scroll on down for lots of powerful videos on many related topics, beginning with these FREE books:

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.

A few weeks ago, we began giving this book away free of charge. Just click on this OUTCRY image and start reading.

We decided to start giving it away because, as Jeremy Rifkin said early in this recent 15-minute video that was moderated by Kate Winslet, "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.

Here is another book that we recently began offering FREE to the world public: the 4Leaf Guide that I published with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.

It is #174 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.

Don't have time to watch the entire Honolulu video? Click here to view all 60 slides in that talk

jmorrishicks@me.com 

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

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.

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.

Also on Netflix, Kip and Keegan teamed up again in 2017 to produce What the Health, which is also on Netflix. It runs 92 minutes and may be the best documentary ever that focuses on the health reasons for choosing to eat plant-based. Click here to watch the short trailer. You can also watch the full movie for free on Vimeo.

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.

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.

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 free at waterbear.com

This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.

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.

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.

You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 

Want to see earlier SOS Memos? Click here

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