He’s a writer, speaker and consultant who spends his days promoting “health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.” And, now, he’s writing for The Food Channel. Welcome guest correspondent J. Morris Hicks.
After a career in business as a management consultant and senior corporate executive, Jim Hicks became curious about the “optimal diet” for humans in 2002. Having always been a “big picture” guy in business, he began a study of what we eat from a global perspective—discovering many startling issues and opportunities along the way. Leveraging his expertise in making complex things simple, he documented his findings in his powerful book, Healthy Eating, Healthy World, published by BenBella Books in October of 2011.
In his business career, he had lengthy stints as a management consultant (Kurt Salmon Associates and Conway Quality), serving such clients as Holiday Inns, Sears, and ITT. In 1981, he moved from consulting to line management and held senior executive positions with a number of fashion companies, such as Ralph Lauren in New York before launching his own executive search firm in Atlanta in 1999—The Ansley Consulting Group, a firm that is still active today.
Executive recruiter by day, Jim spent his spare time learning all about food since 2002. After studying plant-based nutrition, reading hundreds of books and getting to know many of the top physicians in the field, he began to document his findings and conclusions on his Harmony Earth website in 2006. Then, after writing his book in 2010, he launched his blog site at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com in February of 2011. With a tagline of promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth, He published over 330 consecutive daily blogs during the first eleven months.
His interests in plant-based nutrition go far beyond human health; he is equally as passionate about the impact of our rich Western diet on our environment, our supply of fossil fuels, world hunger and the widespread suffering of billions of factory-farm animals. He is now leveraging his business skills as he works to improve all of those facets of our world.
Throughout his career, he has always focused on improving processes—whether in hotels, industry or retail; always looking for the best bang for the buck in terms of improvement potential. In 2003, he discovered what he referred to as the single largest process improvement opportunity in the history of the world. The implications of shifting to a plant-based feeding model for humans are enormous—and J. Morris Hicks plans to spend the rest of his life improving that model. Now a speaker, blogger and consultant in this exciting field, here is a brief summary of the background that led to his new career—and the passion of his life.
- Childhood in Mississippi & Tennessee (even some dairy farm experience)
- BS Industrial Engineering, 1968, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
- MBA, Business Administration, 1971, The University of Hawaii
- Officer, United States Coast Guard, 1969-1971 (Based in Honolulu)
- Management Consultant and Corporate Executive (1971-1999)
- Executive Recruiter (1999 to Present)
- Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition, 2009, T. Colin Campbell Foundation and Cornell University.
You’ll find his articles in our News & Opinion section.
