In the beginning of the essay A Healthy Constitution, the author Alice Waters clearly defines some of the issues she will be addressing in her essay, first through the description of a particular shot in the critically acclaimed film Super Size Me she found moving. This film is about the various negative effects that can result from the consumption of processed and fast food. The shot Waters described depicts a hallway in a Virginia middle school filled with students, many of whom were visibly overweight. Waters points out an obvious potential association between the unhealthy, processed food served by the school's cafeteria and the overweight kids seen in the film. The issues presented in the beginning of the essay include the educational and health related problems seen in schools today such as the prevalence of overweight children, disciplinary issues, and lackluster student performance. These various educational and health related problems seen in schools, coupled with the potential for improved nutrition and food quality offered in schools to address these problems, is presented as context to the larger argument Waters makes for edible education programs. 

The troubling scenario at the Virginia middle school is a perfect example of some of the issues Waters is responding to in her essay - the negative implications of serving processed food high in sugar, fat, and sodium for the health and overall wellbeing of children in schools in the United States. The author suggests that there is clear-cut evidence that simply offering healthier food in schools has potential benefits beyond simply better health and nutrition for children. According to Waters, at a high school in Wisconsin parents, teachers, and administrators found that by offering fresh, local, and healthier alternatives in their cafeteria, they also solved serious educational problems. These included significantly less recorded disciplinary problems, improved student performance in the classroom, and greater student satisfaction. However, although Waters does make a point that improving the nutrition of school lunches, which is accomplished in the edible education program, can have a variety of health and school related benefits, I read the overall situation the author responds to as a call for a modification of civil liberties through the use of edible education in the classroom. 

Waters makes it clear that the real value of edible education lies in its ability to prepare students for the responsibilities of citizenship and connect students to each other, the community, and the land. Edible education ties classroom instruction into a program where students are given the responsibility to grow and prepare their own food, in addition to learning about where the food they eat comes from and how it makes its way to the consumer. In describing the impact of edible education on students, Waters draws on her own personal experiences as an educator and proponent of edible education to make an appeal to the various stakeholders associated with this issue that edible education will build democracy in the classroom by preparing students to be responsible, esteemed citizens in the future, doing much more than merely improving nutrition in schools. This is accomplished through a description of the values of sharing, responsibility, and stewardship Waters sees children learn in the program at her institution, and quotations from children which support this notion. A quote from Thomas Jefferson, also included, does an effective job of driving the point that, "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens". 

The audience Waters is attempting to influence through the act of rhetorical discourse includes teachers, administrators, parents, students, local farmers, lawmakers, and others involved in educational reform. These are the people capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change. Obviously the course of action presented by the author requires that schools make significant changes in their curriculum and invest in the resources necessary to bring about edible education programs. This involves not only the teachers in the classroom, but also administrators and parents of students who would need to be on-board with the program to begin with and would expect identical learning outcomes in the classroom. This brings up a potential constraint in the argument, how the incorporation of edible education in schools would impact curriculum and student learning. Additionally, edible education in public schools would require allotment of funding by lawmakers to schools undertaking the program to ensure students are not forced to pay to be able to participate in the program. This brings up an important constraint of the author's argument, where exactly the money needed for investment in this kind of program would come from. In an educational system as financially constrained as the United States', finding funding for this kind of idea would undoubtedly be difficult. Local farmers would be influenced by the program due to their involvement in the production of the "fresh, locally grown, and healthier" ingredients required for edible education. 

In conclusion, Waters herself is an educator invested in the idea of inspiring food activists to undertake edible education programs through a foundation she helped create. Her standing is that edible education can be used to foster important values central to citizenship through the incorporation of edible education programs she supports. It is clear, given Waters' background as an educator and her devotion to facilitating the implementation of edible education programs by other educators, that she is passionate about giving readers of her essay a means not only to fix a whole host of problems existent our educational system through edible education, but most importantly a means to drive a modification of civil liberties in American society for the greater good. Through instilling the values of shared responsibility and cooperation in students in our educational system, in a way that incorporates growth and learning, edible education is presented as a "delicious revolution" that will lead to an ultimately better, more caring society.
