The great riddle

Look around the world and back over time and you will see the great riddle of three communities.

Poor communities

We see poor communities with a poor food system, lack of hygiene and medical support where people die before their natural life from infectious diseases.

Rich communities

We see rich communities with a sophisticated food system, good hygiene and medical support and where people die before their natural life from non-infectious or chronic diseases.

The blue zones

We see the blue zones where people live to a ripe old age, well into their nineties or hundreds and are fit and healthy.

What is it about these blues zones that people live not just long lives but long and healthy lives?

You have got to admit it is a puzzle.

We all need to eat

I can tell you the answer but before I do there is something I must warn you about.

I was a toddler in WW2 I was used as child labour to help grow food in this terrible war where starvation was used as a weapon of war. I am a bit obsessed with having a healthy food system.

No drongo

I am no drongo, I wrote a simulation of hot plastics flowing into a cold mould which involves solving coupled non-linear partial differential equations. I set up a company Moldlfow from my back bedroom which became the leading exporter of technical software from Australia – a multi-million dollar international company and I was recognised by the Institute of Engineers as one of Australia’s leading innovators.

But I was still obsessed with having a viable and sustainable food system, I could see that the ability to sustainably produce healthy food was going to be the critical issue for the future of humanity – everybody has to eat and all people should have access to healthy food.

Thirty years of slog and experimentation

So thirty years ago I sold my company and used the money for speculative research, the sort of high-risk research that no self-respecting research funder would support. I took the view that it was my money and if I wanted to blow it on something I thought important then I should and could do it. Who else would?

Challenging the current paradigms

What did I find? Many of the ideas that we accept as gospel are flawed. For example, the current epidemic of non-infectious or chronic diseases is caused because we are little piggies and stuff ourselves. Not true!

No instant gratification

We live in a world of instant gratification but you can’t cram thirty years of experimentation and thinking into a three-word slogan like ‘eat less exercise more’.

The E-book that may save us

This web is an E-book if you want to know why people in the blue zones live such a long and healthy life, or want to avoid having your leg chopped off from diabetes, you will need to spend a bit of time and having your existing views on food challenged and that may not be a pleasant experience.

I won’t say it will save the world, that has survived for over four billion years and will be spinning around the sun for another few billion years – but it may just save us from the looming food crisis.