In Joel Salatin's 'Declare Your Independence,' Salatin urges American's to opt
out of the tyrannical industrial food regime, and adopt a more healthy, and sustainable
future. Salatin makes a very successful argument. Throughout the essay, one can easily
identify where Salatin uses the rhetorical proofs'logos, pathos, and ethos'to convey
his argument effectively. Logos or means of persuasion by the use of reason is evident
throughout 'Declare Your Independence.' Ethos'the credibility or the character appeal
of the author'is used in many instances to make Salatin's argument more believable.
Salatin also uses pathos, or an emotional appeal, to make his argument more convincing.
The rhetorical proofs logos, ethos, and pathos, are all used in Joel Salatin's, 'Declare
Your Independence,' in order to make his argument more believable and effective.

Salatin uses many different aspects of logos to make his argument effective. To
start off, Salatin employs deductive reasoning'top down logic or going from a general
case to a specific occurrence. This type of reasoning is evident when Salatin says, 'how
can we be sure that food produced on local farms without centralized inspection and
processing is really safe to eat?' and then he follows up with a specific example to back
up his point''Milk born pathogens, for example, became a significant health problem
only during the narrow time between 1900, and 1930, before refrigeration but after
unprecedented urban expansion' (Salatin 189).

Salatin also employs many different types of reasoning in his argument. Salatin
uses scientific reasoning'reasoning backed up by facts'in many instances, including,
'If you took away everything with an ingredient foreign to our three trillion intestinal
microflora, the shelves would be barren indeed' (Salatin 187). Salatin says this fact to
prove that our industrial food system is eliminating things essential to being a healthy
human. Salatin also uses rhetorical reasoning to further his argument''In America I
have the freedom to own guns, speak, and assemble. But what good are those freedom if I
can't choose to eat what my body wants in order to have the energy to shoot preach and
worship' (Salatin 189)? This is incredibly effective because eating and the United States
Constitution is not something one would commonly associate together, but Salatin uses
what humans believe and associates the notion of freedom to his argument. Lastly,
Salatin uses dialectic reasoning'reasoning that is based in facts but cannot be proven'
to convince the reader. Evidence of this dialectic reasoning can be found when Salatin
says, 'Never has a culture spent more to remodel and techno-glitz our kitchens, but at the
same time been more lost as to where the kitchen is and what it's for' (Salatin 192).
Salatin pins present day American's lack of knowledge of basic cooking skills on
processed foods and says once we 'rediscover our kitchens and quit buying prepared
foods, it would fundamentally change the way our industrial food system worked.'

Salatin uses his background and knowledge of farming to enhance his argument,
although this enhancement is not totally achieved. Salatin's invented ethos actually helps
and hinders his argument. Salatin strays away from being stereotyped into a left wing
hippie'of who would normally be associated with bashing the industrial food industry--
by mentioning knowledge of the traditional family structure and the right to bear arms (a
very conservative ideal). This helps Salatin's argument because he could very easily be
blown off as a whistle-blowing hippie and have his argument ignored, but instead this
furthers his argument. In many parts of the essay, Salatin mention his PolyFace farm'
'How can you feed the world?' is the most common question people ask when they tour
PolyFace Farm'. (Salatin 188) Many people easily interpret the multitude of times he
mentions his farm as advertisement, which gives Salatin far less credibility. But at the
same time, when Salatin mentions his farm it makes him seem experienced and
knowledgeable about sustainable farming and actually enhances his ethos. Salatin sets up
his invented ethos to give sound educated, and to seem like an everyday American, so his
argument will not be blown off. Salatin also draws on his strong invented ethos. Salatin is
a third generation farmer'this gives him experience and knowledge in the field of
farming and makes his argument a lot more believable. Salatin uses both his invented
ethos and his situated ethos to increase his character in the view of the audience, and to
make his argument more believable.

Salatin appeals to many of the readers' emotions and utilizes enargeia to make his
argument successful. Salatin plays on many general emotions in his essay. To start off, he
tries to make the reader feel sympathetic towards the pigs by describing their treatment
by the industrial food system, 'By contrasts, today's industrial food system views pigs as
merely inanimate piles of protoplasmic molecular structure to be manipulated with
whatever cleverness the egocentric human mind can conceive' (Salatin 190). This play
on sympathy is extremely effective because nobody wants to see a pig or any animal be
viewed lower than dirt. Salatin also makes the reader feel disgusted''The industrial pig
growers are even trying to find the stress gene so it can be taken out of the pig's DNA.
That way pigs can be abused but won't be stressed about it. Then they can be crammed in
even tighter quarters without cannibalizing and getting sick' (Salatin 190). The disgust
that Salatin makes the reader feel is also extremely effective'it will make every reader
think twice before grabbing a piece of bacon at breakfast. The last emotion Salatin plays
on is hope, Salatin exposes the horrors of the industrial food system and makes the reader
even feel guilty for participating in it. He then he gives his audience hope with how
simple it is to just 'opt out' of the system'The most powerful force you and I can exert
on the system is to opt out. Just declare that we will not participate' (Salatin 192). Salatin
even uses past examples of slavery and women's suffrage to prove that his opt out
strategy works''Resistance movements form the antislavery movement to women's
suffrage to sustainable agriculture always have and always will begin with opt-out
resistance to the status quo. And seldom does an issue present itself with such a daily'in
fact, thrice daily'opportunity to opt out' (Salatin 192). These emotions that Salatin
plays on are incredibly effective, it makes the reader want to throw up every time he/her
eats pork, and also it makes them just want to blatantly opt out of the tyrannical regime
that holds all American's down.

As much as Salatin plays on emotions in his argument, he also utilizes enargeia to
make his audience care about his topic. Salatin makes the reader care about his argument
because he shows how much control the industrial food regime has over everyday
Americans''The only reason the framers of the American Constitution and Bill of
Rights did not guarantee freedom of food choice was that they couldn't envision a day
when neighbor-to-neighbor commerce would be criminalized . . . when the bureaucratic-
industrial food fraternity would subsidize corn syrup and create a nation of diabetes
sufferers, but deny my neighbor a pound of sausage for Thanksgiving hog killin''
(Salatin 189). Americans have never liked being held down, especially by an over-
bearing oppressive regime, and this notion makes the reader care and even lures them to
his side of the issue. Another way Salatin utilizes enargiea is by making us care about the
topic in the way he cares about it. Salatin associates one's lack of choice in food as a
denial of basic American rights''A reasonable person, looking at the lack of choice we
now suffer, would as for a Food Emancipation Proclamation. Food has been enslaved by
so-called inspectors that deem the most local, indigenous, heritage-based, and traditional
foods unsafe and make them illegal' (Salatin 189). If one looks at his argument as a
denial of basic human rights, then he/she is easily won over, because the American spirit
does not tolerate oppressive regimes that deny rights. Salatin's association of food to a
lack of freedom makes every American care about his argument and makes it
substantially more effective.

To conclude, Joel Salatin puts forward a strong case for opting out of the
tyrannical food regime and adopting a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle for the
future. Salatin utilize logos in his argument, to create logically strong reasoning. He also
draws on his situated and invented ethos to make the reader trust what he has to say more.
Lastly, Salatin uses emotions and enargiea to make the reader care about his topic, and to
make it more convincing. Salatin uses the rhetorical proofs'logos, pathos, and ethos'to
create a very strong argument, that makes any reader take up arms against the industrial
food fraternity that deny American's their basic rights.

