The World Changing Power of Plant-Based Nutrition by Jim Hicks Withouth a doubt, one of the most important issues facing our world today is right in front of us…it is the food at the end of our fork. Not only does the food we eat affect our health, our collective dietary choices have global repercussions. Beginning with health, here are seven reasons to switch to a plant-based diet: 1. Health Benefits. Based on a plethora of scientific data, most cases of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer can be prevented through the consumption of a whole foods, plant-based diet. And contrary to popular belief, many cases of advanced disease can be reversed through this diet. There are now many clinicians who practice this kind of nutritional therapy and routinely cure people with ailments as serious as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 2. Costs of Health Care. U.S. health care spending in 2008 reached $2.4 trillion and is projected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2016. Medicaid spending is expected to more than double over the next 10 years, threatening our government with bankruptcy. And auto companies pay more for health benefits per car than they pay for the steel used to make the car. We are in trouble, yet the solution is simple - an estimated 80% of the cost of health care would simply go away if people ate the right foods. 3. Epidemics. Swine Flu is the latest reminder of one of our most urgent threats. Factory farming of pigs, cows, chickens and other animals has created the most effective `petri dish' imaginable for the evolution of super bugs with the potential to jump from animals to humans. Large numbers of animals crammed into small spaces, heavy use of antibiotics to reduce the spread of infections between these animals, and interactions between animals and factory farm workers is a recipe for disaster. 4. The Environment. Consider these two facts: (1) the U.N. concluded in 2006 that the raising of livestock causes 30% more global warming than all of transportation combined; (2) the amount of fresh water required to produce 10 pounds of steak is enough to meet the water needs of an average family of four for a year. Reducing global warming and saving the water supply ... just two of the many environmental advantages of a whole foods, plant-based diet. 5. Energy Consumption. A detailed 1978 study sponsored by the Department of Interior and Commerce revealed that the value of raw materials consumed to produce food from livestock is greater than the value of all oil, gas and coal consumed in this country. In contrast, plant agriculture is a model of efficiency, using less than 5% of the raw materials used in the production of beef. 6. World Hunger. In the 1980's, the Institute for Food & Development Policy reported that 40,000 children starve to death every day on this planet. Consider that the world's cattle alone, not to mention pigs and chickens, consume a quantity equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people (NY Times 1974). On the same amount of land required to feed 100 people the Standard American Diet, 2,000 people can be fed a nutritious, health-promoting, plant-based diet. 7. Factory Farming. While almost everyone claims to love animals, few seem to worry about the deplorable treatment of animals in our factory farms. In the U.S. alone, we slaughter 10 billion animals per year for our dinner tables, a slaughter that serves no purpose other than the satisfaction of traditional taste preferences for meat and fat. In summary, there may not be another issue so intertwined with the most serious problems facing humanity than the way we feed ourselves. The goal of Harmony Earth is to help launch a grass-roots revolution in health care by promoting a societal shift to a diet of whole, plant-based foods. The solution is simple…it's the food we eat.