Do you remember Jerome Irving Rodale? Forty years ago he was a major publishing giant. He founded the Rodale Press, for one thing. He’s also considered the "founding father" of the organic food movement. That movement, started in the sixties, will be with us well into the next millennium. Rodale also started up the special interest magazine, "Organic Farming and Gardening." Get the picture?

This guy promoted things healthy and organic all through the sixties and into the first part of the seventies. I’m sure you saw his ads in magazines and on television. I’ll bet Jerome never had a double meat hamburger with mayo and mustard plus a large order of greasy French fries. But don’t get me started on junk food.

Back in January of 1971, Jerome Rodale appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, one of the early "thinking man’s" talk shows. As a guest on this late night, nationally-syndicated interview program, Jerome was touting the benefits of eating healthful organic foods.

I won’t ask if you remember seeing the show because I know you didn’t. Not because The Dick Cavett Show wasn’t aired in this part of the country, but because that particular show never aired at all - anywhere!

You see, while Mr. Rodale was taping the interview with Dick Cavett he made an offhanded comment: "I’m going to live to be 100 unless I’m run down by a sugar-crazed taxi driver."

Now, don’t get ahead of me. Jerome was not run down by a sugar-crazed taxi driver. I love taxi drivers. Many of them are healthy today because of Jerome Rodale’s organic food.

During that fateful night in January of 1972, while sitting on an easy chair next to Dick Cavett, the 72-year-old publishing giant suddenly stopped talking and dropped dead. He had a heart attack! Why didn’t some of us see this happen on national television? Because the network brass never aired the show!