Michael Pollan’s also presents himself as someone credible and honest with the use of ethos. He backs up his arguments with evidence from other credible authors. For example, he quotes Wendell Berry, who is also a writer and farmer, saying “You begin to see what growing even a little of your own food is, as Wendell Berry pointed out 30 years ago, one of those solutions that instead of begetting a new set of problems…actually beget other solutions” This is evidence that backs up his reasoning as to we should plant a garden and make environmental changes in our…
Not only this, but “the farmers profit margin dropped from 35% in the 1950 's to about 9% today.” (Mckibben, 54) This means that “to generate the same income as it did in 1950, a farm today would need to be roughly four times as large.” (Mckibben, 55) As a result of this perpetual growth and centralization, problems like “huge sewage lagoons, miserable animals, vulnerability to sabotage and food-born illness”(mckibben, 61) have become commonplace. Not only this, but “we are running out of the two basic ingredients we need to grow food on an industrial scale: oil and water.” (Mckibben, 62) The situation has become so dire that “we are now facing a near simultaneous depletion of the underground aquifers which have been responsible for the unsustainable, artificial inflation of food production.” At this point of realization, Mckibben begins indulging the reader in a large number of facts that promote a more localized form of farming as the solution to a seemingly endless number of issues. Initially the point is raised that “sustainable agriculture leads to a 93% increase in per-hectare food production.” (Mckibben, 68) The next idea raised is that, “since World War 1, it has been cheaper to use…
Rich-poor, lucky-unlucky, and fair-unfair are the problems of human society at any time due to the fact of imperfections in the world. Armstrong Williams, a political commentator and an author of the book “Reawakening Virtue” emphasized that “We are not equivalent, there are certain fact that are unavoidable.” Some are born with many good opportunities to achieve success; some are born with talent, but some are born with disabilities, lack of chances to obtain achievement (Williams).…
On January 22, 2001 George F. Will wrote a political article for News weekly called, “Let Us…? No, Give It A Rest.” In this article Will discusses the history of the Inaugural address and how they reflect the changes our country has made throughout the many years and presidential parties. He identifies numerous differences or changes in the sentence structure and the number of words used, topics discussed, and even the tone that is used by the President’s. He points out first the 43rd president, George W. Bush. The second sentence of his inaugural speech contained 87 words.…
Pollan talks about most of the organic food we consume today is produced from the so-called “industrial organic” farms, which belong firmly to the industrial food chain rather than the ideal organic food chain. First, the reality of “organic food” chain is largely inaccurately reported.…
We have choices to make when purchasing food; when we buy chicken do we get organic or not? These choices do impact us globally; hence “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Our environment is important and it’s also the nesting ground for our food source. We as the people should make sure our actions and decisions gear toward protecting the world we live in. When purchasing our food I do believe that the best would be organic. It supplies our animals with the healthiest appetite to provide the best produce to us. Farmers markets are the best way to support your town or community and making sure you also are getting healthy food for you family. Everything plays apart with something else and making sure we do our part would be making sure we are the healthiest we can…
In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the character Gene Forrester is proved to be filled with fears and insecurities that climax into the destruction of a perfect person. Gene first presented his friendship with Finny to be that of a perfect relationship, but soon it was proved Gene held jealousy against Finny. In order to have Finny seem less perfect gene had to convince himself Finny was out to get him and sabotage his life. Gene makes many leaps and bounds during the story and finally comes to the realization that Finny was a perfect person and a true friend who could never do anything to harm another human being either mentally or physically. As Gene begins to realize the perfect person Finny was born to be, he begins to regret all of his actions to destroy Finny's perfect character.…
"Jim Crow" laws are imposed legally enforced racism by imposing segregation from streetcars, trains, schools, public buildings, parks, and cemeteries.…
People are often at odds to choose between food like organic verses inorganic food or products. And what is the difference and is one actually better for you or is just there to makes it easier for you to justify eating it If you think one is not using the industrial food chain. After reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma", my own personal opinion about the food industry and that many Americans don’t know how or how our food is even processed and grown or raised or how it gets to the grocery store. An example I love is my mom is a kindergarten teacher and she was doing a lesson on food and where our food comes from and the kids new that food comes from a grocery store and that was it. They had no clue that they food they eat had to be grown somewhere else and then brought to the store for them to buy. The next question was who like chicken nuggets and they all raise their hands and then she asked what is a chicken nugget and none of them could answer her. When my mom said they come chickens all they kids were grossed out and said they don’t eat chickens. This just shows today that kids aren’t being told how their food gets to their plate and I feel that this is a very important concept for people to know not just kids. Going along with that people don’t know how food affects out bodies and after reading this book it makes you think about what you eat a lot…
The article called Genetically Modified Foods, has a style that is use to grab an audience emotion while still putting some facts. Right away in the first paragraph you will find ethos. Per Pinstrup-Anderson plays a key role in the article, he is the H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell University. Giving Per Pinstrup-Anderson a creditability, and having the audience attention. This is the only time in the article when ethos is being used to help their argument.…
The most emphatic support comes early in her essay in paragraph 2, where she highlights the seemingly unethical methods of marketing and strategy that the organic companies use in attempt to convey their belief that organic foods must be healthier than naturally grown ones. She goes on to mentioning Warren Leon and Caroline Smith Dewaal’s book Is Our Food Safe?, where they suggest that people purchase organic foods in effort to help the environment and that there is not any statistical data to back their claim that organic foods are healthier. The author then cites an “interesting poll” done by ABC News, in which they concluded that people think organic food is healthier because it contains less pesticide residue. She then says that there has never been a connection between the nutritional value of organic food and the residue that is found on them. Weinacker then describes a phone interview done with an agricultural county extension agent by the name of Joseph Williamson, and how he believes that since organic crops grow slower they contain more nutrients than conventional foods. He also says that they are riper than…
Robert Kenner’s documentary, Food Inc., gives insight into operations in the food industry. The documentary depicts the people’s desire for money, with resultant implications characterized by mass production through varying approaches. Indeed, Kenner seeks to sensitize the society on the manner in which animals are exposed to inhumane conditions, severe health conditions that result from mass production in the food industry, and unmoral circumstances under which farmers operate. Whereas various flaws are depicted in the movie, it remains important in relation to societal operations and development. This positional essay provides a critique of Robert…
Promoting the use of diverse seed types enhances food security and promotes the preservation of traditional cultural practices and ideals. Big agriculture has created seeds that are detrimental to seed diversity. Eventually organic seeds will become extinct due to the fact that the marketing and financial backing maintained by GMO corporations will overpower all other types of natural farming. In his statement, local farmer, author Eric Herm pleads “We need to become more self-sufficient and not dependent on multinational corporations. We need to become stewards of the earth instead of miners; localize food production and grow what we can in each region” (Roseboro). This quote verifies the need for naturally, organic farming for reasons of natural and generational purposes. Seed heirlooms are incredibly important and essential for seed diversity of agriculture. Agriculture customs, techniques, and seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation are being threatened by genetic crop growers and will eventually take over the entire agricultural industry unless something is done about…
Organic food companies, such as Limagrain, don’t use herbicides or pestacides on their crops and instead turn to genetically modifying their crops. A representative of the company, Bill Angus, claims that the reason for this is to grow as much grain as possible with minimum waste. Angus says that GM crops are an easy and fast way to support the growing population and if the world doesn’t change then the world would starve. While this is true, the…
To understand this illusion that the government creates, the definition of organic must be addressed. According to Robert Paarlberg, the author of Food Politics, “organic foods are produced without any human-made (i.e., synthetic) fertilizers or pesticides” instead “organic farmers use composted animal manure and plant cover crops they can later turn into soil” (Paarlberg, 139). This definition suggests that organic farming is not necessarily free of toxic chemicals, but that the chemicals used on organic farms are natural chemicals, or in other words, chemicals that appear in nature. Another definition of organic food is that it is “produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations” (Preface, 1). Most people who grow or buy organic products link it to being green and environmentally friendly. If organic farmers…