And the solution is right under your nose---it's the FOOD!

Dear President Obama,

Congratulations on winning your second term. I concluded long ago that it would take a second-term president to make any serious headway in replacing our toxic western diet with one that actually promotes health.

If you'd tried to do that in your first term, you would've never been elected for a second term. But if you don't do it now, our only chance for any kind of serious leadership from 1600 Pennsylvania avenue is about eight years away---from the next president who may win a second term.

Why is that? It's because there is simply too much money and special interests riding on maintaining the status quo. But, you're an honest man who doesn't have to worry anymore about those special interests who wish to keep our healthcare, food and pharmaceutical industries just the way they are.

It is inevitable that all of those industries will change dramatically in the next fifty or sixty years, but with strong leadership from the White House, significant progress could be made in less than ten years. Not only can we save $2 trillion on heath care, but we can show the world how to curb global warming, end world hunger, reduce our carbon footprint and end the needless suffering of billions of food animals per week.

Everyone applauds the work that Michelle has been doing with her vegetable garden, Walmart and the school lunch programs. But she is coming up way short when it comes to telling everyone EXACTLY what they should be eating to accomplish the goals outlined in the previous paragraph.

Your good friend, former President Clinton, knows all about what we should be eating, but apparently he's not yet connected the dots when it comes to all of the other global issues that are driven by our food choices. Click here to continue reading...

Blogging daily at hpjmh.com...from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

No doubt there have been countless Indian veg musicians for centuries, but it's not easy for me to find individual names before Ravi Shankar became famous in the west. If any Indians reading this can help then do get in touch.

Meanwhile our trail begins with European classical music in the 19th century, and the first name that comes up is the inevitably controversial Richard Wagner. Before anyone hits the comments button, please read the article about him on ivu.org - just click on his name from the page linked below. It shows that he was never vegetarian himself, but a lot of other musicians were because he said they should be... Whatever conclusions you come to, we can't just ignore him in this historical survey.

On the website I've tried to look at the connections between all these people - who knew who, and how they influenced each other. Later classical composers and musicians were influenced towards veg*ism by Theosophy and eastern religions, along with all the usual reasons we have today. (photo right is American composer Philip Glass)

The second section deals with Jazz musicians - Texas in 1949 seems an unlikely place for a long-haired African-American vegetarian, but that's where Ornette Coleman came in, age 19. Many more 'modern' jazz veg*ns soon followed, reaching a peak in the 1960s, after which it gets increasingly difficult to separate all the musical genres, with a lot of fusions going on. (photo left: Ornette Coleman)

The third group is blues, country, rock, pop etc. - we can trace veg*ism among those musicians back to 1940s USA as well, but most of the early veg rock musicians were in England. Very soon there were huge numbers of them on both sides of the Atlantic. The biggest problem with this group is their inconsistency, many were veg*n at some point but didn't always stick to it for long. (photo right: George Harrison)

This is meant to be a historical survey, it doesn't deal much with current pop/rock stars as they come and go much too frequently - you can find plenty of those in the VegSource 'celebs' section. If anyone can add anything please use the comments below.

To read all the details go to: www.ivu.org/history/music.html

More about one musician:

Cecil Sharp - veg folk hero

One of the biggest problems in researching vegetarian history is that biographies are too often written by meat-eaters.

Probably the worst example in recent years was the movie 'Gandhi' which won 8 Oscars in 1983 - in the entire 3 hour epic was there was not even the slightest hint of Gandhi's vegetarianism. Despite him stating many times that his reverence for *all* life was of central importance in everything he did.

Hollywood has never been noted for historical accuracy, but that was rather extreme.

Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) is not as famous as Gandhi of course, but still suffered the same treatment. The original biography, written by his friend of 22 years in 1933, just about managed to mention his vegetarianism twice. The revised edition, re-written by his former assistant in 1967, left out one of those - making it look like his vegetarianism was merely an inconvenient necessity for his health. The comment that was deleted stated quite clearly that he was 'vegetarian by conviction' - which makes far more sense when we see what else he was involved in.

So who was Cecil Sharp? If you've ever heard folk music on either side of the Atlantic, then you'll have heard the results of his work. In the early years of the 20th century he travelled through many villages and small communities, in both England and the American Appalachian mountains, collecting traditional folk songs and dances, just in time before they died out. (the sign below right is in Hot Springs, North Carolina)

The tunes he collected initially inspired many classical composers to write pieces based on them. But they also inspired a generation of folk singers, culminating in the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the folk boom of the 1960s. Without Cecil Sharp that might never have happened, and today the English Folk Dance and Song Society is still based at Cecil Sharp House in London.

Sharp was probably vegetarian from his university days, and remained 'vegetarian by conviction' until he died. The earliest influence probably came from Richard Wagner's promotion of veg*ism, and Sharp later gave two of his children the middle names of Tristan and Isolde - from one of Wagner's operas.

Then he became friends with George Bernard Shaw, probably the most famous vegetarian of the day, and he was also close to other vegetarian musicians like Percy Grainger and Gustav Holst. Sharp was involved with Theosophy, the Fabian Society and many other pro-veg oranizations - it was clearly a central part of his life and influenced everything he did. Not that you would get any idea of that from reading the biography.

Below (l-r): George Bernard Shaw (Irish dramatist), Percy Grainger (Australian composer), Gustav Holst (British, Swedish parents, composer) - all vegetarian, living in London and personal friends of Cecil Sharp.

For a much more detailed account of Cecil Sharp's vegetarianism see the newly expanded page at: www.ivu.org/people/music/sharp.html

IVU on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalVegUnion

Better talk about Todd Akin now; cause he's gonna be old news soon.

Republican Congressman Todd Akin is getting a lot of heat these days---for apparently stating how he really felt about the abortion issue. The problem was that he said it on national television, where he and all other politicians (regardless of party) are supposed to stick to their well-crafted, often-phony, script of talking points.

Since then, he has spent the rest of the week on his "apology tour" for his gaffe---which is anther word for telling the truth in public.

Of course, the comedians always have a heyday whenever this happens. And with Hurricane Isaac taking dead aim on the site of the Republican National Convention next week, they've all joined in the fun.  On Letterman Wednesday night, they reported that the approaching hurricane is no cause for alarm for the convention. That's because, according to Representative Todd Akin,

"Florida rarely suffers damage from a legitimate hurricane."

As for leadership. What's the state of our leadership in this country? Not that great and not likely to get much better. That's because our process doesn't attract true leaders.

At a recent dinner party, somehow the discussion got around to politics---despite the best efforts of the hostess to keep the conversation on less controversial topics. Unfortunately, one of my friends felt victimized as she was the only one among the after-dinner lingerers who was supporting a certain candidate for President.

While walking down the street toward our respective homes, she told me how uncomfortable she was and that she really didn't like to argue. Since I had been relatively silent during her "roasting," she wanted to know what I thought. I told her that I was a registered Independent and that I made my decision based on my assessment of each candidate's readiness, leadership skills, and integrity. Ultimately, I usually choose the  candidate with whom I would place the most trust. I voted Republican in 2004 and Democrat in 2008.

I added that unfortunately none of the candidates are talking about any of the truly major issues---in my opinion. Things like world hunger, global warming, the obvious answer to our health care fiasco or my favorite topic of late---the long-term sustainability of the human race.

As I told her, forget saving the planet, it's the human race that's in trouble. My friend was delighted with my assessment and said that she would sleep better because of my sharing it with her.

I went home that night thinking more on the topic of the evening. Presidential candidates always argue about the same short term issues that affect the most Americans: gas prices, health care reform, unemployment, social security, unpopular wars, and abortion. And that brings up poor old Representative Akin. As far as trust goes, I'll just say that I wouldn't trust him very far---and leave it at that.

For me, I'm trying to stay on point. As for the presidential candidates, I'm not revealing my choice today---mainly because I try to keep politics out of my blog. Shortly after I started this blog 566 days ago, I heard from a reader in the UK, saying that my daily blog was like a "relentless drumbeat." I took it as a compliment and have been beating that same drum ever since.

And as long as I am alive, my drumbeat message will continue to be about promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth. And there is no doubt in my mind that a whole foods, plant-based diet for humans is a huge part of that process.

It works for our health, for the environment, for our ability to feed a projected 9 or 10 billion people by 2050, for fossil fuel conservation and for the two billion innocent animals that we torture and kill every single week for our dinner tables. It could also lower our cost of healthcare in the United States by around two trillion dollars.

You show me a candidate with that kind of message and he or she will get my vote. Unfortunately, my candidate wouldn't get elected because that platform would not interest the short-term thinking masses whose support he/she must have to win. So where is the leadership that we need going to come from? It must come from people like you and me---people who are not afraid to take a stand. It's starts by being the change you want to see in this world (Gandhi).

Meanwhile, life goes on in the wacky world of American politics. One ridiculous, relatively insignificant firestorm after another.  Yesterday, I heard the latest on the Mr. Akin story:

Akin apologized again in multiple television interviews on Wednesday for his earlier comments, but said he intended to remain in the race to be able to promote his staunch anti-abortion beliefs and to respect the wishes of Missouri voters.

"The people of Missouri chose me, and I don't believe it's right for party bosses to decide to override those voters," Akin said. "It makes me uncomfortable to think that the party bosses are going to dictate who runs, as opposed to the election process."

Blah, Blah, Blah!

• A source article. Akin still defiant, but leaves door open to quitting Senate race
• I would vote for a guy like this. A helluva rant for plant-based eating—from Australia
• A related blog. The “obvious” answer to health care is becoming more obvious.
• Related blog. UNSUSTAINABILITY — The elephant in the room
• Related blog. A tiny few eating a perfect diet? — or truly changing the world?
• Related blog. What does it take to change the world? Maybe less than you think.

By the time our elected officials get it right about what we should be eating, you'll probably be long gone. But you don't have to wait for the politicians of the world. You can take charge of your health now.

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit---from Amazon.com

• The movie that's changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The "big picture" about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall's new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five 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

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

Blogging daily at hpjmh.com...from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation