The X Factor

Some of you who know me personally know that math and I don't play well together, so I asked a friend at work to help me with an equation. I wanted to show that the quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink determines our quality of life. She came up with this:

(X)quality of (air+food+water)=(X)quality of life.

But what is the X factor? The X factor, I believe, is something that is determined by the amount of toxins in the environment. Unfortunately, this "something" is not always in our direct control.

For example, we cannot control the amount of toxic emissions caused by some manufacturing plants. We cannot control the pesticides sprayed on our produce or the hormones fed to the animals we consume. We cannot control what is being dumped into our water supply. I am not saying that we are not trying. We have been talking for decades about the pollution of our world, and there are a lot of anti-this and anti-that groups, so why isn't it getting any better?

Mother Teresa said: "I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me." Maybe we need to change to a more positive method to effect a positive change.

As consumers, we actually have the power to change the world. That power is Purchasing Power. We can use our purchasing power to have more control over the toxins in our personal environments simply by changing the kinds of purchases we make. Nothing will make manufacturers change their products or production methods faster than the bottom line.

Using our purchasing power, we can take control of our X Factor. We can take control of the air we breath, the food we eat, and the water we drink. We can control the quality of our life.