In the writing Declare your independence by Joel Salatin, he explains the ins and
outs of nutritional value in america's food supply. In the last several decades and maybe
even close to a century, the purity of americas dietary habits have taken a significant
dive in authenticity. Some have began to wonder what is happening to the health of
americans, and even peoples physical stature and well being. The constant evolution of
additives and fillers added to food and drinks have began to take a toll on our bodies
and way of life as a whole. Salatin stated, 'its time to opt out and simply start eating
better .' (187).

The use of logos in Salatin's writing , is a mixture of different reasoning and the
use of an inductive argument. There are a mixture of rhetorical ,dialectical , scientifical ,
and false proofs. Salatin is trying to bring everyone to the understanding that all of the
food we eat in everyday life , has lost the tag as natural and earned its classification
as garbage. The food we eat is not natural nor healthy. As the food has become worse,
the health of individuals has taken a toll as well. America has experienced a rise in
obesity as well, and that can go hand and hand with the change in food .

People have become more concerned with what is quick and easy, and lost
focus on what is healthy. Saltin said that 'if you took away everything with an ingredient
foreign to our three trillion intestinal microflora, the shelves would be bare indeed. '
(187).

This writing is not to convince everyone to become a health freak, or to only eat
natural foods and nothing else. Salatin is trying to make people realize what they are
putting into their bodies, and realize what these things are doing to to people as they
ingest them. Not only are these things completely unhealthy for people of older ages,
but they are certainly not going to benefit the development of children and teenagers.

Not only does Salatin make it apparent that industrialized foods are somewhat
dangerous, he makes a point to acknowledge a few potential issues with natural food
supply. Salatin stated 'How can we be sure that food produced on local farms without
centralized inspection and processing is really safe to eat?' (188). Directly after he then
stated 'Here, the facts are opposite to what many people assume.' (188).

If this is an issue, how can we be sure what is the safest things to eat, and what
are the things we should really avoid. In this essay, Salatin works off of his situated
ethos in a way that he seems to be speaking how he lives his everyday life. Salatin
seems extremely educated on this topic, and it seems he is the type of person to
strongly support the organic lifestyle. He seems to hold a strong bias towards the things
he is writing about. He is not only informing people on this topic, and trying to persuade
people to transition to the organic life , but he is fully living it and using personal insight
as backup along with factual information, and assorted types of proofs.

Salatin makes a great point in his writing when he said ' All these staples that our
great grandparents relished and grew healthy on have banished from today's
supermarket.' (188). All of the things that were harvested, naturally grown and were a
strong way of life for many years have quickly vanished in todays life. Where have they
gone? Salatin later stated 'They've been replaced by an array of pseudo foods that did
not exist a century ago.' (188).

Salatin does a good job with establishing a strong situated ethos by taking a few
steps. He first establishes a strong introduction, and establishes a good base of
knowledge and tries to earn the trust of his readers. He brings readers into believe he
knows exactly what he is writing about and makes it seem as if it is the way he strives to
live.

He begins his essay with alot of information and a lot of scientific information to
backup what he is saying. I believe Salatin takes the approach he does in order to
establish a sense of trust between him and his readers. Once his readers believe what
he is saying, and trust his information they may feel obligated to be persuaded by his
argument. Trust is everything when it comes to persuading an audience, and that is
exactly what he did.

Salatin also wanted people to really think deeply about what he is writing. Since
this topic is relevant to everyone, he can easily draw attention to everyone by stating
harmful information, and even pointing out the downsides of todays nutrition.
Joel Salatin is a farmer and he obviously has a strong predisposition towards this
topic so he is even more inclined to speak on this topic. If people are aware of his
background as they are reading his writing, they may gain the sense of trust even
easier.

As Salatin makes several points about the nutritional value in todays food,and
the ingredients that have been lost over the last several years I believe that immediately
drew close attention from people and gained interest in what he was trying to say.
When he stated all of the scientific information, scientific proofs and other assorted
proofs and inductive reasoning it was to inform but also establish his situated ethos but
to implement the use of pathos.

Salatin wanted to be able to feed off of his audiences emotion and responses to
what he was writing. He did everything in a sequential order. He wrote a significant
amount of information and structured his writing to be able to manipulate his audience.
Salatin wants his audience to feel concerned, and to feel like they are directly involved
with what he is saying. Without the readers developing interest and feeling some type of
emotion, his writing will not do its justice.

The overall structure of this essay was to convince readers to agree with what he
was saying, and to inform people of the current issues in todays society. The use of
ethos, logos, and pathos was all to inform and persuade his audience. The use of
proofs, inductive reasoning and other strategies to draw in his audience were all in a
way to manipulate the readers in which he was writing to.

Salatin did a great job with this essay by providing a great amount of info and
using ethos, pathos and logos. He used inductive reasoning and I personally believe his
writing served its purpose in every aspect.

