The Rule of Three and the Right to Life

What is the 'Rule of Three' and why is it important?

This is a simple, yet complex, rule.  A person is very likely facing death if deprived of three minutes of air, three days of water or thirty days of food.  While there may be incidents of people who have survived, in spite of this rule, few choose to test its validity.

This rule should remind people how dependent they are upon these basic elements and how vulnerable they are should these elements be used as weapons of control.  In developing countries, the reminder is often more acute and often experienced daily. In developed countries, such as the USA, it is often less obvious and, therefore, more ominous.

While humans draw lines on maps claiming territory, water and air do not obeyed such boarders. Even human attempts at controlling food proves challenging. An example is how genetically modified crops, created from seeds made in laboratories to withstand toxic pesticides, have created super-weeds. Through natures process of cross-pollination in the fields, the new super-weeds, impervious to pesticides, become destructive and have proven how man and nature war to control natural life. Most often nature wins.

Since the dawn of civilization, powerful entities used air, water and food, as weapons of control. For example, when damns withhold a river, it withholds water from life downstream, which can create a killing drought or life taking floods.  An example is the mighty Mississippi River. It fights for its freedom over damns and locks on one end and levies around the sunken city of New Orleans, at the other end, often wreaking mayhem in its path. Many other rivers flood because of industrial farming techniques. Monoculture crops, such as corn and soybeans, planted in rows, create trenches that siphon rainwater swiftly into rivers, instead of allowing it to seep into the soil to replenish subterranean aquifers. The result is devastating episodes of flooding in cities along the rivers of the plains and depletion of aquifers from where many cities draw their drinking water.

Environmentalists, fighting against the air and water polluters, coal and oil, are scoffed at as idealists in the face of a perceived need for energy. Yet, with all the energy coal and oil can produce, without a sustaining breath of clean air or pure drinking water, under the Rule of Three, life ends or is diminished by illness from pollution and expires slowly.

Food is the third component of the Rule of Three. If you wonder how food controls and is controlled, let us examine the apple.

Few people have experienced the sweet, strawberry flavor of a Chenanago Strawberry Apple. Most people do not know that they have been around since 1850, when grafting produced this jewel of Chenango County, New York. It cannot survive the rough handling of industrial processing so today, it is found only in private orchards. Until recently, the old Granny Smith (1868, Australia) apple suffered a similar state of affairs. However, once it was discovered that the Granny Smith would withstand green picking and processing, it was introduced as a 'new' apple and added to the boring group of Delicious, Macintosh and a limited few others sold from the mass-food industrial assembly line. When people no longer realize the multitude of choices they could have, their desires have been controlled. In the case of apples, the control is for the convenience of an industry focused on profiting from a fruit that withstands hard handling, packaging, and distribution methods. The result is that most apple lovers do not even know what they are missing.

Farmer's Markets, trending to press for a return to non-industrial food, offer an eye opening experience for adventurous eaters. They offer choices from orange, yellow, white and even purple carrots to sweet and juicy tomatoes in every size, shape, color and level of sweetness or acidity imaginable.  People who are aware of the diversity of food available, conscientious eaters, want the industrialized food system to serve people "what they desire" instead of creating their desire, through advertising and controlled availability.

Once one understands the importance and the power of these three elements, it becomes apparent that the most important activity for humankind is assuring the availability of free clean air, water and a diversified supply of clean, healthy, food for all.  It is important that governments, through agencies such as in the USA, the USDA, EPA, and FDA, to implement rules and programs to create a fair business environment for independent farmers, rather than just catering to multinational agriculture and chemical corporations.   Consumers must continue to demand honest and level competitive food production and delivery systems that protect the environment through sustainable production methods and be willing to pay for the true cost of real food.  Government money paid (subsidies) to industrialized farming operations to saturate the markets with unhealthy but cheap food is doing harm to the eater and the environment.

Protecting the air and water involves resisting use of energy forms that cause contamination.  Of particular importance is finding alternatives for coal fired electric plants and gasoline powered and oil dependent machines.  Often these industries create pockets of poor and disadvantaged communities surrounding them and condemning them to drinking contaminated water and breathing polluted air. The people are unable to protect their neighborhoods from having the industries move in, or the industries offer low income housing which, after years of manufacturing and contamination, become health risks as well. Lacking the wherewithal to fight for their rights to clean air and water, these communities become entrapped as the powerful companies subvert local, state and federal agencies to relax or avoid regulation. The cycle must be broken to protect the air and water.

Individuals must take responsibility for their actions, too. Flushing medications, using toxic chemicals around their homes, which ultimately contaminate the water system, are irresponsible acts.  Every breath, drink and bite should be a reminder of the thin and fragile the line between life and end of life can be and how important the Rule of Three is to all of humanity.

Every person, young or old, must protect his or her right to access clean air, clean water and a clean and a diverse variety of healthy food. It is a matter of the right to life.