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Essay / Rhetorical Analysis of "Why You Can't Sit Down to Eat Without Making a Statement"
Table of ContentsThesisLogosPathosEthosThesisScott Canon addresses these questions throughout the essay to show how complex and confusing our food choices have become ethically, and how conflicting they are. we are about to make these choices. The closest thing to a thesis statement is this sentence: "In the global village of 21st century food production, what you eat makes a political statement." » Originally published in the Seattle Times in 2005, Canon's message remains relevant today: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The audience for this article will likely be both those who are already interested in contemporary food issues and those who are not but are intrigued by the title, which may seem exaggerated to the uninitiated. Given that Seattle is a fairly progressive area, readers of this newspaper will likely be sympathetic to the idea that we should do what we can to combat climate change and promote social justice with our consumers' dollars. Since Canon strives to cover both sides of the many food controversies it mentions, it's likely that this will also attract more conservative readers.LogosGo beyond price to determine what food actually costs in terms of human rights violations. and environmental damage, Canon builds a strong appeal for Logos by modeling how well-meaning consumers make decisions based on limited information. For example, Canon cites granola as a food that most believe to be healthy, but then reveals a little-known fact: Most of the oats in this country are imported - new, more heavily subsidized, short-season soy varieties, have wiped out oats from acres in the country. the upper Midwest. So if this granola isn't certified organic, its oats were likely grown in countries with less stringent labor standards and are more likely to contain traces of pesticides banned in the United States. Covering issues as complex as the impacts of imported farmed shrimp and the surprisingly progressive McDonald's, Canon provides numerous examples of how difficult it is for consumers to see the full impact of certain foods and what that means to continue these practices. Canon also uses numerous statistics to enhance the appeal of its logos, although some of its quotes are very brief or absent. For example, he says: “Government research shows that in 1930, Americans spent an average of 21.2 percent of their household income on food. Today, that proportion is 6.1 percent – the lowest in the world,” but he doesn't cite an actual study. On the other hand, Canon makes an effort to cite relevant experts on both sides of any controversy, and it includes enough about them to suggest where their loyalties (and thus their biases) might lie. For example, he cites Dennis Avery, cited as director of the Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI), to point out that "'We haven't given high-yield agriculture enough credit for its high yield,'" but he notes that he is the author of Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastic and that his CGFI is "backed by agribusiness". Conversely, Canon also cites Ben Lilliston, a member of the "Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a group that considers itself the champion of..